Tuesday, November 30, 2004

Funny Ad

Got something to lighten up your mood. If you can afford to transfer about 5 MB of an MPEG video, then check out this commercial. A few moles lost in underground tunnels searching for the right path to a rave party. The end is hilarious.

Monday, November 29, 2004

Resting Brains

I'm not dead. I'm just on mental vacations. Too much work, too much of everything, I just didn't have the energy for blogging. I'm not sure you're interested in lamenting over corrupt databases because server rebooted in the middle of a heavy database fill, cursing the winter weather, or annoying blabbering about how I'm exhausted.
I've been talked into signing up with MSN Messenger, so I did it today. In the process I had to verify my e-mail address. Or, better said, MSN had to verify it. So I received an e-mail with the "Welcome to Microsoft .NET Passport!" subject. Okay, but there was nothing about confirming this is the correct e-mail address, just a load of instructions on how to become a M$ certified life-form. After a while I was annoyed there was still "e-mail address not verified" label beside my nickname, so I repeated the verification procedure, but nothing. Eh, I decided to just forget about it. And now, while I was checking if anything interesting fell into the spam area of my e-mail inbox, it was just it: the link with which to verify my e-mail address. Argh.

Friday, November 19, 2004

Combining Orders at Amazon

Suddenly, Crossing the Rubicon became available at Amazon.co.uk. It was actually published in September, then briefly appeared at Amazon, got some reviews, and was shortly thereafter labeled as not yet published with all the comments/reviews removed. Then the American elections happenned and now it's available again. A bit odd, but whatever. The author has something more to say about it. What was interesting to me was the fact, that the UK Amazon had the book listed as a hard-to-get item, and you had to pay an additional surcharge, and the availability was 1-2 weeks, when the US Amazon had it as not yet released.
Since the book looks quite interesting to me and is in high demand, I ordered it. Since I already had one order at Amazon waiting to be dispatched, I combined the two orders. The original order had one hard-to-get item with the availability of 4-6 weeks. After I combined them, the dispatch estimate didn't stay at the end of November, it got moved on to the end of December. So much on combining orders.

Monday, November 15, 2004

The Most Annoying Stupidity

Slashdot is having a poll on biggest work annoyance. I'm having a hard time deciding between stupid customers and stupid co-workers. I think I'll sleep over this.
I like this quote: Stupidity accomplishes things that the most brilliant evil genius cannot even conceive of.
Hey, want to know a stupid thing that happened today? I got an e-mail at 6:11 am telling me to log in to some computer and see what could be wrong. An application running there would break if you wanted to see what's on stock. But it worked, if you ran the exactly same application on some other computer. I logged in ummm... somewhere at 9:45 am (I didn't even wake up until 7-and-something) and the first thing I checked was which database it was connected to. Yes, it was connected to some old backup that was used for testing a long time ago. They failed to check this simple thing in all days since Friday. They were issuing hand-written bills instead. I won't even tell you what they've tried. Heck, I even don't fully know it. I even don't want to. But... I just checked it, it was the first thing I checked, and I found the mistake. Now. Am I über-smart, or is everyone else just stupid?
Why was their first assumption that the application had a bug? An inconsistent one at that, since it worked flawlessly on other computers. Why did they reinstall almost everything and didn't even check the friggin' configuration? Even after it was obvious the application was correctly (re)installed and set up? What's wrong with those people? And most important: who and why changed the database connection?

Sunday, November 14, 2004

Shamen

re:evolution

If the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed.

Human history represents such a radical break with the natural systems of biological organization that preceded it, that it must be the response to a kind of attractor, or dwell point that lies ahead in the temporal dimension. Persistently western religions have integrated into their theologies the notion of a kind of end of the world, and I think that a lot of psychedelic experimentation sort of confirms this intuition, I mean, it isn't going to happen according to any of the scenarios of orthodox religion, but the basic intuition, that the universe seeks closure in a kind of omega point of transcendance, is confirmed, it's almost as though this object in hyperspace, glittering in hyperspace, throws off reflections of itself, which actually ricochet into the past, illuminating this mystic, inspiring that saint or visionary, and that out of these fragmentary glimpses of eternity we can build a kind of map, of not only the past of the universe, and the evolutionary egression into novelty, but a kind of map of the future, this is what shamanism is always been about, a shaman is someone who has been to the end, it's someone who knows how the world really works, and knowing how the world really works means to have risen outside, above, beyond the dimensions of ordinary space, time, and casuistry, and actually seen the wiring under the board, stepped outside the confines of learned culture and learned and embedded language, into the domain of what Wittgenstein called "the unspeakable", the transcendental presense of the other, which can be absanctioned, in various ways, to yield systems of knowledge which can be brought back into ordinary social space for the good of the community, so in the context of ninety percent of human culture, the shaman has been the agent of evolution, because the shaman learns the techniques to go between ordinary reality and the domain of the ideas, this higher dimensional continuum that is somehow parallel to us, available to us, and yet ordinarily occluded by cultural convention out of fear of the mystery I believe, and what shamans are, I believe, are people who have been able to de-condition themselves from the community's instinctual distrust of the mystery, and to go into it, to go into this bewildering higher dimension, and gain knowledge, recover the jewel lost at the beginning of time, to save souls, cure, commune with the ancestors and so forth and so on. Shamanism is not a religion, it's a set of techniques, and the principal technique is the use of psychedelic plants. What psychedelics do is they dissolve boundaries, and in the presence of dissolved boundaries, one cannot continue to close one's eyes to the ruination of the earth, the poisoning of the seas, and the consequences of two thousand years of unchallenged dominator culture, based on monotheism, hatred of nature, suppression of the female, and so forth and so on. So, what shamans have to do is act as exemplars, by making this cosmic journey to the domain of the Gaian ideas, and then bringing them back in the form of art to the struggle to save the world. The planet has a kind of intelligence, that it can actually open a channel of communication with an individual human being. The message that nature sends is, transform your language through a synergy between electronic culture and the psychedelic imagination, a synergy between dance and idea, a synergy between understanding and intuition, and dissolve the boundaries that your culture has sanctioned between you, to become part of this Gaian supermind, I mean I think it's fairly profound, it's fairly apocalyptic. History is ending. I mean, we are to be the generation that witnesses the revelation of the purpose of the cosmos. History is the shock wave of the eschaton. History is the shock wave of eschatology, and what this means for those of us who will live through this transition into hyperspace, is that we will be privileged to see the greatest release of compressed change probably since the birth of the universe. The twentieth century is the shudder that announces the approaching cataracts of time over which our species and the destiny of this planet is about to be swept.

If the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed.

The emphasis in house music and rave culture on physiologically compatible rhythms and this sort of thing is really the rediscovery of the art of natural magic with sound, that sound, properly understood, especially percussive sound, can actually change neurological states, and large groups of people getting together in the presence of this kind of music are creating a telepathic community of bonding that hopefully will be strong enough that it can carry the vision out into the mainstream of society. I think that the youth culture that is emerging in the nineties is an end of the millenium culture that is actually summing up Western civilization and pointing us in an entirely different direction, that we're going to arrive in the third millenium, in the middle of an archaic revival, which will mean a revival of these physiologically empowering rhythm signatures, a new art, a new social vision, a new relationship to nature, to feminism, to ego. All of these things are taking hold, and not a moment too soon.


A cool piece. The Shamen Vocal Mix (also found on The Shamen Collection) has a great psychedelic varying ambient backbeat.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Living Under a Rock

I've just been notified that xmas is nearing. Whow. I need xmas cards! But not ordinary xmas cards. I want cards that people can tell I've given them. I want cards that portray me in my rightful image. And ground people down to Earth. Forcibly. With no exit. That's ME! And you can't do anything about it. Ha! I want the card packs from Despair!
Okay, so I proceed to checkout with a couple of packs and then... I can't choose Slovenia in the shipping address form! Gaaah! So much for Frustration. They don't even have Frustration cards! Anyway, I've already flamed them. I wonder if they'll bother to respond at all.
But they are not alone in this; I can't order any T-shirts from ThinkGeek either. Who cares about ThinkGeek anyway, I can't even order T-shirts from TShirt Hell! All I was able to order for now are 5 CDs from One Little Indian Shop and a few books and CDs from Amazon.co.uk. Figures. They're in Europe! Not in those stinky USA.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Evil?

Davin tells me I became evil somewhere around two weekends ago, when I was trying not to get electrocuted in my mom's house. Hm. I guess I always get a bit evil when I let assertiveness take hold of me.
Well, to that I have only one thing to say: be thankful I don't let it have a free reign over me! You don't want me omnipotent, I'm very certain of that. ;)
But anyway, it's more of a way of communication than anything else. Remember. God is a comic playing to an audience that's afraid to laugh. This was a fortune cookie given to me by my computer when I logged in today.

Monday, November 08, 2004

Published

And now, time for me to gloat! There's a book out there that has my name on it! True, I'm only one of the authors. True, the book is in Slovene and thus not interesting to anyone but a handful of people. True, only some 1500 copies have been published. (I'm not sure about this number.)
But! My name is on the front page! Six names, one of them mine! Haaa! And a big ad for the company I work for, somewhere at the end of the book. :]
The translation of the title would be something like Non-Governmental How-To: a handbook for using information technology in non-governmental institutions. The chapter about Linux is written by me. With a sentence or two and a few hints from my boss. Don't worry boss, you're mentioned at the start of the chapter, too. ;]

Sunday, November 07, 2004

Zzzzz...

Did you know orange juice and Jägermeister mix rather well? Well, sufficiently well if you can't bear the thought of cleaning up your place in a sober state.
Nah, I was just so sleepy the whole day I didn't know what to think, so I didn't. Except, it didn't last for quite a long time, somewhere in the middle a thought appeared just by itself. It made me clean up the flat a bit. And I spiced it up with that juicy drink. Oh, anyone for some chocolate pudding? I made too much of it.
I even made a playlist in a dance style. Some of the titles: Real 2 Real: I Like to Move It, Stereo MCs: Connected, Apache Indian: Boom Shack-a-lack, Scatman John: Scatman, Run DMC vs. Jason Nevins: It's Like That. I also included Tanita Tikaram: Twist in My Sobriety. Great piece, although it somehow doesn't fit the previous selection. Well, it has a certain style. ;)
Did music help? Nah. I cleaned this place up, then kept on yawning until now. I think it would be a good idea to resume karate training. Due to health problems I haven't attended it for a month now.
Good night.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Sorry Everybody

Just to show you that (at least) half of the USA would still like to be one of your best neighbours and friends, they've decided to apologise, although they did everything they could.
Keep it up guys. You make the difference.

Fight or Falter

Results of The Election induced serious disorders with some people. Well, according to Michael Moore, you have 17 reasons not to slit your wrists.
As a shameful skeptic I predict in the next half a year dissatisfied people rustling with evidence Bush is short of insane, then Bush, just before anyone should scream "impeachment!", moving the focus away with an attack of, say, Syria (attack of Iran would ignite half a world and even the USA army has its threshold for stupidity), then a year of Syrian controversy, Bush voicing his dissatisfaction with Iranian policies of, oh, I don't know, nuclear energy, religion, state leadership, culture, whatever, Israel increasingly feeling threatened and carrying out covert operations in nearby countries, then some mad Iraqi, or perhaps an Iranian fanatic military sergeant, causing Israel to obliterate half of the middle east, USA in its last year under Bush joining Israel in its modern representation of a crusade, rendering half of the globe uninhabitable for a few thousands of years, and for the dessert: Bush in an electric chair. And afterwards, everyone listening to the silent night.
Anyway, lighten up now. It's far more probable you'll just see a lot of civil disobediance and probably even civil war if Bush doesn't get impeached before that. ;]

Thursday, November 04, 2004

Control

The world bombarding me with control. Every day seeing, hearing, or feeling a hint from a person wanting control. Every act having at least a subtle request for either the control retention or control gain over something. Boys wanting control, girls wanting control, Bush wanting control (I just had to mention this), parents wanting control, children wanting control. And then... Revenge!
You cannot take that which is not given. People don't like this.
You may take that which is given. People don't like this.
You may take a thing if you give something in return. People are at first perplexed over this (eg. children that haven't yet fully developed the concept of control), some disliking it, but most liking it. It gives them a feeling of control. Among other things. For example, of also being under control (by expectation, either of paying or being payed). And when control slips, you're already destroying someone else's control.
But what if you didn't have control? What if you don't want to control?
Having free will, being able to choose, doesn't necessitate control. Other than of your thoughts. People seem to think control gives them a certain freedom in their lives, they think it enables them to freely choose what they want to do at any time. But this is such a sad and lonely perspective. People seem to like the control over their own lives and will even exercise control over others if it needs to be, in order to retain unchanged certain views and properties of their lives. For example, it is understandable that you don't want to be mugged. But if it happens, you want the police to act immediately, you want the robber punished, and so on. It's not my focus on the act alone, I don't condone robbing, so don't think it's all the same to me if someone robs me. It's the feeling of control that I want to focus on. In the middle of that robbing, this feeling is lost. It is replaced by fear at first, anger when danger is gone, fury when control is regained, revenge when control is exercised, phobias and precautions when it is seen how control is fragile, sometimes even carelessness/oblivion when control is high. Do you like those feelings? They are inevitable when having/wanting control. You come under their control. Control controls you.
But of course, you are free to choose or not to choose control.
It is sad to see that some people obsessed with control crave for releasing it. The more control, the stronger the need to release it. It's not obvious. You have to see through their control-laden behaviour, feel them in a sense. You can't read people if control is one of your priorities.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

The Voting Procedure

The whole world is more or less interested in who will be the next president of the USA. Even more, the whole world favours one or the other candidate (the third being a mere joke) because the result of the elections will have an impact on the whole world, not just the USA. It's a bit disturbing that those claustrophobic, xenophobic, etc. (panphobic?) people get to have a bit of a say in my life. Whatever. Let them rot in peace. They're destined to. ;-) [Linked is a funny video of how the voting with Diebold machines might be like.]