Sunday, February 05, 2012
#
For my technically-minded friends, here are links and notes to the significant presentations and workshops I attended at CCC, December 2011. More
social aspects of the whole experience are in my other post .
Alternative networks
Just after the midnight between the Days 1 & 2 was the workshop on
Free Network Architectures , which for now means Mash Networks, GNUnet, and other forms of "darknet" (there's a good article about it
here. The best thing was to see all the people involved in these activities; main point was that these kind of networks require users that are not feeling like consumers, but users that are
participants, and
take responsibility for their own "node" in the network. Follow-up: two events were announced: Wireless BattleMash in Athens, in March, and "International Summit for Community Wireless Networks" in Barcelona in September. (links?). Theory:
Autonomous_Internet_Road_Map
The biggest "mainstream" talk on alternative networks was, of course, about Tor, by Jacob Apelbaum & Roger. They got a standing ovation, for saying things like "We have lived the entire course of human history without total surveillance state - we don't need one now". It was impressive, provocative & engaging. (
description&
video: "How governments have tried to block Tor").
Applied security
Next best thing was p2p-sec workshop, on securing BGP in decentralized way. There were 10 of us, some people from
TechInc, and some newcomers, from the Free Networks "movement". There was a momentum to continue cooperation, but now, after a month, I see that the progress is slow. In the meantime, the new IETF list was created: "therightkey".
Very important for me was also the talk by Peter Eckersley from EFF on
"
Sovereign Keys: A proposal for fixing attacks on CAs and DNSSEC"
description& the
video.
After his talk I tried to make him interested in applying his theoretical solution to BGP, and if I'm lucky he will :) (his suggestions are already discussed on "therightkey" anyway...)
I also went to "CAcert" workshop, since with RPKI we (NCC) will become a CA, so I asked the workshop leader to take part in the RIPE lists & other community efforts to make sure we do not repeat their already known mistakes.
Measurements
I did pay attention also to topics related to my actual job: measurements of Internet performance & data visualization. One of the relevant talks was from Ruben & Chris:
Choke Point Project. I have invited them to take part in RIPE community, we'll see what develops from that.
I also found very interesting
the NOC report by Will & Kai (also from the RIPE community & HXX community) (see
video. They showed the
Network Monitoring tool with a SUPER COOL Dashboard!! (
code from GitHub).
They also mentioned ring.nlnog.net; icinga, that uses IRC alarms; & via Sylvan I've met Stefan from
Tranalyzer project (flow based traffic analyzer).
Talks I've Missed but I wish I saw
Evgeny Morozov - Marriage from Hell ,
Building a Distributed Satellite Ground Station Network
And also: Social Swarm , Counterlobying EU institutions,
Your Disaster/Crisis/Revolution just got Pwned (Telecomix and Geeks without Bounds on Security and Crisis Response)
I wish I did not go to see Dan Kaminski , since he gave the same talk as on the summer CCC; however, his Net Neutrality Rooter (Nooter) is still interesting as a concept. Any "Running Code"?
For everything else that I've missed, here is a brilliant alternative overview:
reluctant blogger:
5 small articles, hilarious and very to the point,
by Dmytri Kleiner, Venture Communist from telekommunisten.net.
Selected quotes:
-
"You can not claim that you got your user's informed consent if you lie to them", Jakob (so poly! :)))
-
"We choose the world that we live in. We must reject "lawful interception" and surveillance ! " Jakob:
-
Poster/picture: "[Lolcat] I can has Freedom? TorProject.org"
-
"When we moved from infinitely terrible to infinitely terrible minus a little bit: that's progress", Wes Fabler (Hell Yeah, It is Rocket Science)
-
"Does Hacktivism Matter?" (Nothing Really Matress ;-) )
-
"Canadians are relatively mild", RedBeard in the talk about Dragnets
-
"We live in the world in which we make mistakes or misjudge the consequences... ", Cory Doctorow
-
I like to think that "we choose the world that we live in", and that events like CCC are contributing to this realization, and making it possible to add my bit to the building the world where I choose to live in.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
#
Freedom '90
George Michael
I won't let you down
I will not give you up
Gotta have some faith in the sound
It's the one good thing that I've got
I won't let you down
So please don't give me up
Because I would really, really love to stick around
Heaven knows I was just a young boy
Didn't know what I wanted to be
I was every little hungry schoolgirl's pride and joy
And I guess it was enough for me
To win the race? A prettier face!
Brand new clothes and a big fat place
On your rock and roll TV
But today the way I play the game is not the same
No way
Think I'm gonna get me some happy
I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I told you so
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone else I've got to be
Take back your picture in a frame
Take back your singing in the rain
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man
All we have to do now
Is take these lies and make them true somehow
All we have to see
Is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Heaven knows we sure had some fun boy
What a kick just a buddy and me
We had every big shot good-time band on the run boy
We were living in a fantasy
We won the race
Got out of the place
I went back home got a brand new face
For the boys on MTV
But today the way I play the game has got to change
Oh yeah
Now I'm gonna get myself happy
I think there's something you should know
I think it's time I stopped the show
There's something deep inside of me
There's someone I forgot to be
Take back your picture in a frame
Don't think that I'll be back again
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes do not make the man
All we have to do now
Is take these lies and make them true somehow
All we have to see
Is that I don't belong to you
And you don't belong to me
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Freedom
You've gotta give for what you take
Well it looks like the road to heaven
But it feels like the road to hell
When I knew which side my bread was buttered
I took the knife as well
Posing for another picture
Everybody's got to sell
But when you shake your ass
They notice fast
And some mistakes were built to last
That's what you get
I say that's what you get
That's what you get for changing your mind
And after all this time
I just hope you understand
Sometimes the clothes
Do not make the man
I'll hold on to my freedom
May not be what you want from me
Just the way it's got to be
Lose the face now
I've got to live
|
SAMA - Cacadou Look
Video
Usnama priblizavam se
ogledalu ja
otvaraju se vrata raju
ocekujem cudo
Jer lakse je ovako sam
slobodna
i najbolje sama
Jer lakse je ovako sam
slobodna
i najbolje sama
Zavjesa se dize
zapocinjem igru
pravila su jasna znam
usnama ih brisem ja
Jer lakse je ovako sam
slobodna
i najbolje sama
Jer lakse je ovako sam
slobodna
i najbolje sama
|
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
#
Suzan Vega got it slightly wrong... It's not only those spices (caramel & cinnamon) - for me, it's the ginger.
It's the sharpnes and the strenght of ginger, the smell and pervasiveness of its powerful taste, versatile usage - for spicing up the food, for making tea, ale, beer & other drinks, massage, hot compress, pickles... And then there are sweets: chocolate, fudge, cookies, syrup... Aaaah :)
But, apart from missing ginger, this song is right for everything else: sadness, desire, longing, beginnings, and endings.
Video on Youtube
"Caramel", Suzan Vega
It won't do
to dream of caramel,
to think of cinnamon
and long for you.
It won't do
to stir a deep desire,
to fan a hidden fire
that can never burn true.
I know your name,
I know your skin,
I know the way
these things begin;
But I don't know
how I would live with myself,
what I'd forgive of myself
if you don't go.
So goodbye,
sweet appetite,
no single bite
could satisfy...
I know your name,
I know your skin,
I know the way
these things begin;
But I don't know
what I would give of myself,
how I would live with myself
if you don't go.
It won't do
to dream of caramel,
to think of cinnamon
and long
for you.
At the
hackerspace
meeting tonight we/me came up with a new Dutch word:
tegenvallig. The meaning is
"unsuspectedly unfortunate", kind of opposite of "toevallig"
(coincidental or fortuitously or by chance). There is quite a bit of irony on trying to define Dutch words using English (thanks, Amran!), but there you go...
This is a pledge to my Dutch speaking friends and readers of the blog: please come up with some usage examples in sentences, so that the spiffy new word "tegenvallig" will find its place in the next version of the Dutch dictionary!
Again, there is a contradiction in the goal to make the word with double negative connotation popular. Life is about paradoxes of this kind.
Please add your examples in the comments here, or on Facebook, or on email, or on stone carving... Thank you!
An example you should not follow, because mixes English & Dutch again, is: "Life is full of surprises, some pleasant, some tegenvallig".
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
#
On 31st December I arrived back from Berlin, where I attended for the second time this year a CCC event: Chaos Computer Club hackers conference (first one being on the camping-site a.k.a. defunct East-German airport cum open-air museum, last summer). Altho I was on all (but one) summer events since '99, Dutch & German, this was my first time on the winter "congress": the timing between Xmas & New Year is almost always inconvenient, but this year it was well worth all the effort!
Getting there
Preparations started in September: I submitted two proposals for talks, together with CK; I had to make very good arrangements about children, since they were to be on school holidays, and there was Xmas to consider, which I was planning to spend in Madrid. And then booking the vacation days, looking for accommodation... In the meantime, my presentations/talks were refused, in-spite all the "connections" I've pulled, and in-spite all the hard work me and my co-author put into polishing our proposal! Regardless, I booked the flight, scheduled one day after coming back from Madrid, and returning to A'dam just in time for NYE, that I wanted to spend with my children.
The hunt for the entrance tickets was exciting and long, I only got mine "with a little help from my friend" Miguel from CCC.ch, but afterwards had one or two extra tickets offered, and distributed from friends-of-friends to my friends... (which ties nicely to the F2F economy topic! I love it!). The accommodation also worked out fine: after asking everyone I knew in Berlin, it was a friend from hackerspace A'dam who offered to share his room with me, which I was very happy to accept!
My goals for the congress were: to follow all the lectures, to meet all the people and to do some work on the side too! Well, that did not happen. What I did achieve in the end was to go to just a few lectures and workshops, talk a little bit to many people and a lot with a few, not get enough rest and have HUGE amounts of fun and new ideas! I did no work, except for collecting some contacts and case-studies about measurements applications -- but I did promote
Technologia Incognita, our new yet-to-be-open hackerspace in Amsterdam!
I will list all the technical details of technical talks in another post, and link it
here.
Highlights of talks with stress on social aspects
1) Absolutely first place goes to
"History of Plutocracy"
(
description,
video)
and the subsequent
workshop on Friend2friend economy,
and the "end of money". I was impressed with the topic, the summary of human civilization in 20 minutes, and the ideas on how to make the move to the better system and better world. Complete utopia - just the way I like it ;-) (one example is described in
"Dispossessed", a book by Ursula LeGuin that I adore). And of course, Robin is my new guru ;-)
The whole concept is based on the belief that human nature is more altruistic then greedy, and that we can build a new value system based on reputation, exchange of favors, community, "global village" due to all of us being connected via Internet, cooperation as opposed to competition, and that we all can describe our own currency and/or use "time" as one of the measurements of the value of the "favor". The computer-part of the system would have to be based on decentralization, openness, peer-to-peer architectures... Of course, there are many challenges, the least of them building technical system to support this idea! Still, if you are intrigued, join Robin and us on
altruists.org
2) Very interesting and relevant for me (as a Dutch-women) was a presentation by
Brenno de Winter, investigative journalist in IT, ICT, and technology in general, in Holland
(
description). He talked about his own hack of OV-chipcard (Dutch public transport system RFID card), revealing one-leak-a-day in October (LeakTober), and SSL fiasco: Diginotar, Gemnet, and consequences (go to 17' 30" on the
Video).
3) And, of course,
Cory Doctorow. Relevant, visionary, critical, well delivered, worth every minute of your time to watch it - or read it:
transcript,
blog post or
video.
Relaxation
There was a sauna in the hotel: very relaxing, even if it is quite a small one and only of the Nordic type. It was free for hotel guests, and that's how I started the Day 2 (and solved part of the problem of showering in the shared room with transparent bathroom doors ;-)
Food was excellent: we mostly ate Japanese and Vietnamese, apart from me having frequent surges of wurst-crave ;-) I tried the "bubble-tea" for the first time (thanks, A, for introducing me to it)! And of course, "monh-kuchen"... every day... and some to bring home...
We rounded up the whole experience by visiting
Liquidrom on the last day (with HfH & Tor crowd). It was very energising, relaxing, inspiring and exciting! Apart from regular saunas, steam rooms and outdoor hot tub, there was an amazing darkened dome with a warm swimming pool, with salty water and floating devices to help you ... float. AND underwater music!!! Surprising and sensual - for all the senses! Perfect ending for the perfect event!
Olivia
would have been 4 years old today. She would have been starting with school this week. Time flies. Time heals. But I still cry when I think of her in these moments: when I imagine that I would bring three kids to school this morning, and not two; when Alisa and Charlie make drawings of her and for her.
I am grateful for having Olivia in my life, in our lives: as a memory, as a presence, as a lesson, as a reminder:
life is short. Live it. Love it.
She taught me that death is part of life.
She taught me that pain is real, missing hurts, sadness exists - and they are all bearable. These feelings are here to deal with them, to go through them, and to get over them. Stronger. And able to enjoy again: life. Passionately! Love. Pleasures. Joys.
She taught me to be strong. When I get stuck, I think:
I have survived losing my baby, I can deal with anything! And I think:
what would that Vesna do, Vesna that made all those promises to live fully and love honestly and be brave...... And I still make mistakes, and I still need to re-learn the same lesson over and over again, but there is progress, there is happiness and bliss, there is ecstasy and peace. Sometimes ;-)
I am grateful to my loved ones, who helped me through these years: I am always with you, in love and in pain. Thank you for sharing, for tears and for laughs, for body and for soul. You are always in my heart. You know who you are.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
#
Kumare, Kumare, Kumaaaaareeee...
I just saw the most amazing documentary film ever (@
IDFA - thanks, Antony!) : Kumare (
www.kumaremovie.com)
It is a story about a guru who is trying to teach his followers that they do not need a guru. Paradox and contradiction - the basis of all the truth ;-) It is not a new idea, but the movie represents it in a original, powerful yet funny way. At the same time, it is controversial - how can he teach the truth through false methods - lies and deception? The irony of it makes it even more interesting.
The conclusions were: proven the initial premises that:
- people do need to follow $guru (messiah / teacher / master)
- people are gullible and naive
- people are also strong and resourceful and indeed have a guru within that they can rely on for personal development and even enlightenment
I saw the director, Vikram Gandhi. He was answering questions. He is way cool! I do want him to be my guru ;-)
And another funny fact: he calls his most popular meditation "Bluelight meditation" -- just like the fictional/educational LIR that we invented 6 years ago :)
Life imitates art
The story of false or authentic "guru" has been described in many many forms already, and is one of my favorite topics (since I am a Natural Born Groupie).
Most of my examples are books; but I will start this list with the movie it reminds me the most of:
Life of Brian:
BRIAN: I'm not the Messiah! Will you please listen? I am not the Messiah, do you understand?! Honestly!
GIRL: Only the true Messiah denies His divinity.
BRIAN: What?! Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right! I am the Messiah!
FOLLOWERS: He is! He is the Messiah!
BRIAN: Now, fuck off!
BRIAN: Look. You've got it all wrong. You don't need to follow me.
You don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for yourselves. You're all individuals!
FOLLOWERS: Yes, we're all individuals!
BRIAN: You're all different!
FOLLOWERS: Yes, we are all different!
DENNIS: I'm not.
ARTHUR: Shhhh.
FOLLOWERS: Shh. Shhhh. Shhh.
BRIAN: You've all got to work it out for yourselves!
FOLLOWERS: Yes! We've got to work it out for ourselves!
BRIAN: Exactly!
FOLLOWERS: Tell us more!
The books:
-
llusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah is a novel by Richard Bach.
One of my favorite books ever...
- "S.", by John Updike, a novel about Sarah Worth as she leaves her husband and suburban life behind to join her guru, a Hindu religious leader known as Arhat, at his Arizona-based ashram. And it so happens that the guru is a "fake".. for some definition of "fake", if there is a "real" guru in each one of us...
-
If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him! The pilgrimage of psychotherapy patients
- The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), written by Hanif Kureishi,
- Stripping the Gurus
Sex, Violence, Abuse and Enlightenment* by Geoffrey D. Falk
- And, of course, the basis of them all:
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
"experience is shown as the best way to approach understanding of reality and attain enlightenment"
Natural Born Groupie
I like this topic because I identify with this search for meaning in following another person, althou I may thank my strong constitution for not ending up in any real "cult" (yet). I do have a tendency to adore idols and follow examples: only in the last few months I have found two new (personal) "gurus" , and rekindled my follow-ship of three already established (let's not call them old) gurus. Luckily for me, they are all kind to their disciples, and do not try to brainwash me or abuse their power. They are maybe even not aware of having disciples ;-) Only unaware Messiah is the the true Messiah ;-)
(quote from the HHGTTG: "To
summarize
: it is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.")
A movie that illustrates the groupie phenomenon:
Almost Famous
And a real-life story of the corrupt guru, as heard from trusted friends from "Yoga in Daily Life", aka
Swamiji. A warning: he is
NOT as authentic and innocent as the Wikipedia article claims. There is a contraversy about him, which is not reflected in Wikipedia article. Yet another proof that it is healthy to maintain skepticism about the "truth" from any other source then *within*.
Conclusion: embrace the guru within! :)
(and go see the movie if you can; and read all the books mentioned above ;-)
Saturday, September 24, 2011
#
I love the phenomenon of a "spa"!
I feel at my best when I'm in the water, and the most perfect experience I had was in the "hot springs" near San Francisco: warm water coming out of the depth of Earth, at the edge of the Ocean, and the hot and cold waters mixing in the caves and on the rocks, accessible only during the hours of low tide...
But, in the absence of that, a "spa" is the closest approximation: a combination of heat and water, dry sauna and steam-room; thermal pools; water-massage jets and jakuzzies... then cooling down in the cold air, cold pool or snow, and then starting with the same process all over again...
It has health benefits, for sure, but the more important effects are on my mood and my emotions: I get all relaxed - but alert; melted - but energized; open and friendly, seeing good and positive sides of life, and in general very pleased with the world.
For 12 years I have been exploring spas in Amsterdam, and this is my selection. Luckily, there are still many "new" ones, that I am looking forward to discover!
(I will not list sport schools & hotels that have a sauna or a spa... there are many. Here is the portal about sauna's, also outside of the "city", with photos & reviews (in Dutch):
www.jouwsaunagids.nl
Modest places
saunafenomeen.nl, Eerste Schinkelstraat 14-16, 1075 TX, Amsterdam ,
020 6716780
In the first, honorable place is the ultimate hippie sauna, part of the whole counter-culture squat:
Sauna Fenomeen! Run down but with lot of character, small and creatively decorated, alternative in the best sense: organic teas & food, exotic smells and New-Age atmosphere... with a small courtyard outside.
But, they have been threatening / threatened to close for years now -- if they are still open , it is for a few more weeks only, and a
last chance to see!
wellness1926.nl/, Halmaheirastraat 28, Amsterdam 020 7749180
This is my last "find", a charming, small place in the Oost (East):
Wellness 1926. Very modestly equipped, yet complete with everything you need, and extras: cosy second floor for relaxing, in the living-room atmosphere, comfy & friendly. The outside yard looks out to the church next door ;-)
saunadacosta.nl,
da Costakade 200. Amsterdam 020-6125946.
Special kind of "spa" is a local "bath-house":
Sauna Da Costa. Very unpretentious, small, very basic, for the quick and almost spartan experience. I like the down-to-earth approach, no frills. I haven't been there for almost 10 years, thou, so maybe my memories are not so accurate any more.
Thermen ROMANA , Dorpsstraat 104 - 1182 JH Amstelveen, 020 - 643 80 88
The "classiest" of modest spas (although the interior is a bit cheesy, like in certain movies form the 80's ;-) ) - slightly bigger and with few things attached: restaurant, hair-dresses & beautician.. but still accessible and not intimidating:
Thermen Romana, in Amstelveen. Outstanding features: a swimming pool! - not very large, but other smaller spa's don't have it; and the
best infra-red cabin I have tried so far! It is really curing sore muscles & bone aches ;-)
Posh places
www.saunadeco.nl, 115 Herengracht, 020 623 8215
Sauna Deco is very central, and very pretty! It has a unique Art-Deco interior, and is very well maintained. It's a place for a special-occasion sauna visits :-)
zuveramsterdam.nl, Koenenkade 8 (Amsterdam Forest) , 020 301 07 10.
The newest, biggest, greatest of spas in Amsterdam:
Zuiver, in Amsterdamsebos. It has 20 different saunas/pools/baths, inside and outside swimming pool & jakuzzi, restaurant, all kinds of extras (scrubbing salt being my favorite ;-) ... The price is appropriate to all of that, too. But, it is worth it! Plan to stay the whole day, bring friends, and enjoy it together!
New places
I haven't ben to the other few places that I just found the links in the Internet -- if anyone has a recommendation (or not) abut them, please let me know:
- www.saunadekeizer.nl, Keizersgracht 124, Amsterdam 020 622 7504
- Ups - gay sauna, only for men: www.thermos.nl
- Sento (in Marnixbad), www.sento.nl, Marnixplein 1, 020 330 1444
In conclusion: spa experience is one of the most enjoyable things I like in this world. I am lucky to live in the city where they know how to appreciate a good sauna or a spa (which mostly means: naturistic).
Monday, August 15, 2011
#
I am just back from
CCC, where I got reminded of the cyber-libertarianism... And I bought a book, "Barefoot in Cyberspace". There's a quote there I find extremely relevant for me nowadays:
The youth caucus proposed taking the money to build another conference centre
that could be run more sustainably. [...] But when the youth caucus submitted
their proposal to the Grindstone Co-op adults, it was met with a cold scepticism
Cory finds hard to bear even now.
“Grindstone had been started by Quakers who ran everything on a consensus basis,” says Cory,
“But you can’t incorporate a consensus organisation. The by-laws had to have a basis
for overcoming deadlocks. And so we had one – it was a majority vote of shares – but
we had never really used it before.” It was this system that was used to decide the issue,
and the youth caucus lost out. “It just flew in the face of the history of consensus,” Cory laments.
Although the youth wing received some of the grant money, which kept them going
for a few more years, they eventually petered out. Cory is less than circumspect.
“We might have petered out anyway but that was a real kind of angry activist split
in my life where I felt like these people, who had said to us: ‘Our mission is
to turn you into our successors and we recognise that young people have the capacity
to do anything in the world,’ had then said: ‘Actually, that was just bullshit.
Young people can’t really do anything, you know. Young people are just kids.
You guys are just kids.’”
http://barefootintocyberspace.com/book/hypertext/
Sunday, December 19, 2010
#
There is a new data-analysis toy called
Google Books Ngram Viewer. "When you enter 2 or 3 phrases, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books over the selected years."
I played with it, and compared mentions of IPv4 and IPv6. Surprisingly (?!), phrase IPv6 is mentioned more!!
Conclusions? People talk about IPv6, since it needs pushing and promoting; people take IPv4 for granted, since it is already everywhere, but underlying and therefore not noticed.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
#
While reading the one of the "legal thriller" books during vacation, I came across the mention of
IPv6!! It was listed as one of the features of the "smartphone" that the main character was using... ("Ankyo 850 PC Pocket Smartphone" with "IPv4 and IPv6 dual stack support"). And it was published in 2005!
The book is
"The Broker" by John Grisham.
Here is the picture of the pages, with the IPv6 highlighted...
So, I guess this is the proof that IPv6 as a technology is already deployed... oh, wait, did I mention that this is a work of fiction? ;-)
Stay tuned...
Sunday, August 08, 2010
#
((*) A tribute to Alesandro Baricco))
This year I am making a collection of the seas I was swimming in (& lakes & rivers), and one ocean.
In April I swam in the Mediterranean Sea, in
Barcelona.
In Man & June I swam in the Nieuwe Meer, a river-lake in Amsterdam.
In July I swam in the Atlantic Ocean near Portugal, and in the Baltic Sea near Copenhagen - both for the first time in my life! (photos are forthcoming)
In August - tomorrow (as they say, insha'Allah) - I will be swimming in the Adriatic Sea near Pula, in Croatia.
Missing from my collection are the closest ones: North Sea and river Amstel. I am hoping to collect their waters on my skin in September.
Thank you, all the people who went to the beaches and seas and ocean with me! Let these waters always bring us together!
Saturday, May 01, 2010
#
God, they choose such good music for House (M.D.)! Season 5 ended with "As Tears Go By" -- amazing! And least week we watched the first episode of the Season 6. Apart from being one of the most powerful episodes ever, it also stated and ended with this song: Radiohead,
"No Surprises". Wow... A right song for me -- I hardly like unexpected, unplanned things. No Uncertainties. Unfortunately, reality teaches me the opposite every time... Thank you.
A heart that's full up like a landfill,
a job that slowly kills you,
bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired-unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life, a handshake
of carbon monoxide,
with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silence, silence.
This is my final fit,
my final
bellyache
with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises please.
Such a pretty house
and such a pretty garden.
No alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises, please.
Monday, April 12, 2010
#
I just got back from Barcelona -- what a vacation! I did go there to work, but I was able to stay the weekend and see friends, get burned by the surprisingly strong Sun, skate along the beach -- and swim in the sea!
Oh, it was wonderful: cold water that chilled but invigorated me, the waves that made me feel lighter then I am, sparking light on the send glued to my skin... and all the other nude hippies on the
Mar Bella beach :)
On Friday, 2nd April me and Angel went to the concert of New Cool Collective (NCC!) in Paradiso.
They are a true "big band" -- there were at least 20 people on the stage at any time! Most of them blowing: trumpets, saxophones, trombones... And
wild percussions! It was wonderful! I danced myself crazy!
New Cool Collective
On 1st of April we went to the Book Chicago improvisation comedy show:
Upgrade or Die!,
about communication technology. Very appropriate for the (RIPE) NCC company outing ;-)
Friday, March 26, 2010
#
Video: Black Eyed Peas
Shut up
Just shut up
Shut up [3x]
Shut it up, just shut up
Shut up
Just shut up
Shut up [3x]
Shut it up, just shut up
[Chorus]
We try to take it slow
But we're still losing control
And we try to make it work
But it still ends up the worst
And I'm craaazzzy
For trying to be your laaadddy
I think I'm going crazy
Girl, me and you were just fine (you know)
We wine and dine
Did them things that couples do when in love (you know)
Walks on the beach and stuff (you know)
Things that lovers say and do
I love you boo, I love you too
I miss you a lot, I miss you even more
That's why I flew you out
When we was on tour
But then something got out of hand
You start yelling when I'm with my friends
Even though I had legitimate reasons (bull shit)
You know I have to make them dividends (bull shit)
How could you trust our private lives girl
That's why you don't believe my lies
And quick to say
[Chorus]
Why does emotion gotta move so fast
Love is progress if you could make it last
Why is it that you just lose control
Every time you agree on taking it slow
So why does it got to be so damn tough
'cause fools in lust could never get enough of love
Showing him the love that you be giving
Changing up your living
For a loving transition
Girl its a mission trying to get you to listen
Few mad at each other has become our tradition
You yell, I yell, everybody yells
Got neighbors across the street saying
“Who the hell?!?”
Who the hell?
What the hell's going down?
Too much of the bickering
Kill it with the sound and
[Chorus]
Girl our love is dying
Why did you stop trying
I never been a quitah
But I do deserve betta
Believe me I will do bad
Let's forget the past
And let's start this new plan
Why? 'cause it's the same old routine
And then next week I hear them scream
Girl I know you're tired of the things they say
You're damn right
'cause I heard them lame dame excuses just yesterday
That was a different thing
No it ain't
That was a different thing
No it ain't
That was a different thing
It was the same damn thing
Same ass excuses
Boy you're useless
Woooaaahhh!!!
[Chorus]
Stop the talking baby
Or I start walking baby [repeat]
Is that all there is [repeat till fade]