I meditated for the first time today, in a Buddhist temple in South Korea. Being non-spiritual, I didn't expect much - actually, I expected it to be boring. However, I got an unexpected treat, a show for free, courtesy of mild hallucinations. I googled a bit to see if this is a common thing, but the results were wildly spiritual-enlightened-mumbo-jumbo, which couldn't have been the case here. Being a very fanciful and vivid dreamer, I'd think it was something more down that alley.
We did two sessions, a 20 minute one and a 30 minute one. The first one was richer for me, as I could just concentrate on the floor patterns, without any distractions. In that session, the floor patterns first started weaving to the sound of the rain before turning into shapes. The first shape was a demonic-kind of face, that was in turn eaten by a huge flame. After some more dancing patterns, I got one more scene of a mouse nibbling on a wooden horse, that in turn morphed into a mouse winding up a human-like shape (a nutcracker soldier kind of thing). That's when our session ended. My eyes were a bit misaligned after that, as all the people had two mouths and four eyes, which was amazing as well.
After a breakfast and a break, we did a second session. This time, I wanted to concentrate on the rain drops outside the meditation room. First thing that I noticed is that it's a lot harder to form patterns in an environment that is already dancing, but worse still was having a constantly moving person in my sight. When I managed to zone that out, I first saw regular pattern flows, forming infinity symbols and triskels. Eventually came the first scene: two guys doing some martial-arts fighting with long sticks. When they were done, the puddles and raindrops in them became intensively 3D and were gaining more and more height. Then the signal turned to noise for a long while, before turning into an epic ship fight, with sails, cannons and explosions. While concentrated on the scene, a gust of wind moved the trees in the background, which made it look like the mountain was about to get up and walk away. It also resembled a waking dragon a little bit, so I moved my eyes to concentrate on that, which broke the flow. After that it became uncomfortable sitting on the floor, so that was essentially the end of my trip.
It was an interesting experience - being fully rested and awake, yet dreaming with the eyes open and not even remotely feeling like falling asleep. I'll have to try to recreate the experience back home.
NOT Printing a wall-sized map (an alternative)
Published on , in Ranting
Prologue
As you know, I like to travel. And as most of avid travellers out there, I like keeping a nice log of the places I've been. Everybody and their dog has some sort of a digital map with flags, which is convenient, easily updatable but for me — very impersonal. Back in 2011., when most of my ventures were bound to Europe, I just went and bought the biggest paper map of Europe I could find, printed loads of tiny flags and stuck them onto the map. The end result was both simple and beautiful:
Good ol' times
However satisfying at the time, that map was not a long-term solution as it became insufficient that very same year, when I went to Finland and realised that most of it is not on this map I bought. At that point, I started considering getting a big, high resolution map of the world, but such a thing was not available in Serbia and I parked the idea until it became more of an issue.
Several months later, I moved to Amsterdam. While decorating my rental apartment, I was constantly thinking about where could I place the bigger brother of the map that I left home, but it didn't seem to fit. Then I started travelling outside Europe a lot, which made it clear that I would need a really big map for which there was no room in that apartment. Fast forward three years: I bought a bigger apartment and after all the decorating I was left with one relatively big and empty wall, in the so-called study.
The problem
Even though I expected otherwise, high resolution paper maps of the world are not easy to find. The maps I could find online were either too small, too childish or with too much accent on features I was not interested in. I just wanted as plain as possible political map with as many cities as possible, which would be around 2.2m wide. Apparently, that's too much to ask for. Then, I ran into a fantastic article by Dominik Schwarz on how to print a map that would satisfy most of my needs. Eagerly, I followed his advice on creating a huge, detailed print file and while my computer was busy stitching it, I started exploring printing and plastering alternatives in Netherlands (thinking it would be a bit of a hassle getting everything shipped from Germany). Then I realised one important thing: my wall is almost 1m shorter than Dominik's. Opening the huge map file in Photoshop and adjusting its print size to the available wall size revealed that the city names are no longer readable. It also revealed one other problem: if I were to place the map where I intended to, I would have to re-wire the light switch, because it would have to be behind the map. Since I was already in sour grapes mode, I added one more problem: I don't really like Mercator projection used by Google. The whole "Greenland looks as big as Africa" is not really my thing.
The solution
Then I started re-evaluating: what exactly is important to me and how can I achieve it. I wanted a political map with not too much text that would hold "flags" of places I've been to and fit the specific wall-size. When you remove the text, it becomes a lot easier. Namely, I should recognise the countries I've been to; while for the "overview-type" map I care more about the distribution of the "flags" than about the precise representation of the each one. That revealed another point: high-resolution was not mandatory either. So, how do you achieve a "low resolution" on something 2.2m wide? Using a sharpie.
Look, Ma, I'm using the ironing board!
Even though in this photo you can see a huge bunch of sharpies, in the end I only needed 3: a black 1mm "CD/DVD marker" for land outlines, a black 0.4mm "fineliner" for country borders and a red 0.4mm "fineliner" for cities. The map that I decided to use as a guideline is actually of a fairly high resolution — way higher than 1920x1080 deliverable by the projector — but even though I originally wanted to split the wall in 3x3 segments in order to get a virtual 5760x3240 resolution, I realised that I don't have the means to position the projector in such a way to cover all of those quadrants, so I settled with the low resolution and... it's Good Enough™:
The finished product
It took a couple of hours to finish (a lot less than I expected) and it cost €1.4 (I borrowed the projector from my workplace). For that price, I'm ok that some country borders are a bit approximated. Yes, it's not the best map ever made but it fulfils all of my criteria with the added bonus that it's as personal as it gets.
Final words
I thought there would be more red dots
In case you decide to do this with your wall, I would say: just go for it. It's easy, fast and margin for error is very minimal. Also, I've been reading all kinds of posts about the "science" of wall-tracing (where should you put the projector, how should you distort the image, etc.) and, personally, I call bull. As you can see from one of the previous photos, the projector was in a sub-optimal position, but I managed not to block the light and easily trace the borders. Speaking of which, I absolutely love the thickness contrast between the land borders and the country borders — and I think you would too — but maybe you'd want to re-consider the thickness (and maybe even colour) of the city marker as the red dots are very subtle. For me, it works, as it's not too distracting and it takes a bit of "exploration" to see where I went, but if you want it to be more in-your-face, I'd go for a thicker marker.
Finally, if you have your own take on putting a big map on your wall, I'd like to know how it went, so do drop me a line!
On the mirror's edge
Published on , in Ranting
Deep down. Dark reflection, no sound. I'm sitting on a ledge, staring into the deep. Mirror image is so sharp and inviting. To my left is a 4-storey building, under water. In front of me are some boats and occasional cyclists. I check the roof ornaments again, staring into the deep. I realise how this moment is wasted on me, as the mist draws over the mirror, arbitrarily. I'm hoping for a wave, but nothing disrupts this razor-sharp image.
I intend to come here again, sober, happy and with a camera. I intend to steal this moment, wishing I could do it without thinking of you, even though I want to share it with you.
I pull back, trying not to succumb.
Het Scheepvaartmuseum and NEMO
Published on , in Ranting, Netherlands
This Sunday I did something I wanted to do for years - visit Het Scheepvaartmuseum and NEMO.
Het Scheepvaartmuseum has been on my list since the first time I was in Netherlands, but at that time it was under re-construction (as it was my second time around). Over the time, my interest only grew, thanks to a relatively recent discovery of my weird fascination with all things maritime, which has manifested itself through visits to a number of harbour-cities and their maritime museums. Het Scheepvaartmuseum might not be as rich as Hamburg's Altonaer Museum, but the installations are fairly interesting for a quick couple of hours' browse. The replica of East-Indian Amsterdam might not be as fun as the replica of her Scandinavian counterpart Götheborg, but she's still a mighty fine vessel. Overall, you can't go wrong if you're interested in the sea.
On the other hand, NEMO was a complete disappointment.
I did know that it was kids-oriented, which is why I was weary of it in the times past. But in 2010 I visited Universeum, another kids-oriented science/nature museum, and was completely stunned by things it offered. Expecting something alike, I was very eager to get to NEMO. Unfortunately, I realised it was nothing but a fancy kids' playground, with very little left to be imagined for the adults.
I hate to say it, but the most interesting part for me was getting out on the roof terrace. The view from there is amazing, and I was lucky to get some sunshine. Still, that is something you can do without even getting into the museum.
Bottom line - Het Scheepvaartmuseum: Good; NEMO: Bad.
Panoramas!
Published on , in Ranting
As you have probably noticed, I have next to no time to fiddle with my own website further than adding new galleries or updating data in either sites or skills sections (not to mention that I have blogged barely twice in last two years).
Well, uni's over, work has kicked in and all the free time has gone into travelling and sorting out photos (which is taking way more time than it used to ever since I found out about HDR and more recently have gone dSLR).
Anyway, last couple of days I've been playing with both new and old panoramas I've taken over time and have decided to publish all of them here, as an additional gallery in photos.
How to gain weight and increase your carbon footprint
Published on , in Ranting
Take a really big project to work on from home.
Try to have as short deadline as possible, so you'd work all of your woken hours.
Take a parallel project as well, with slightly longer deadline.
Optimise your workspace: make the same room your office, dining room and bedroom. Optimal room size shouldn't be over 6m2. If possible, try to pick a room within the shortest walking distance to the toilet.
Work explicitly during the night, and sleep throughout the day.
Order all of your food on-line. Order more than necessary in order to receive free shipping. Desserts are optional.
On extreme occasions prepare your own food, but only if it requires just microwaving something or putting something to boil. Please note that this method both produces less non-recycable junk and counts as a workout, so you should think it through.
Drink approx. 2l of soft drinks daily, opt for most sugary-carbonated ones.
Make your biweekly shower the most physically demanding action.
Repeat for as long as required.
Upon completion, take a moment to admire the amount of plastic and styrofoam in your trash, as well as your new plump line.
Birthdays, like they used to be
Published on , in Ranting, Madness
Do you remember the time before Facebook, when birthdays were special?
Y'know, when only your closest friends took the trouble of either writing down or memorising the date, then going to even more trouble to think of a witty SMS, cute greeting card or similar and finally sending 'em seconds after midnight to be the first to congratulate you?
Childish as it may be, it did make me feel special, and it went on for over 20 years.
Then, last year, I opened the damn fagbook account and ended up with about 150 wall posts for my birthday, almost all of them generic, and some starting even hours before the actual date (even though the sender was in the same city as me, spare the time-zone).
Did that make my birthday special? No, it made it quite the opposite - it made me feel like the village whore.
So, this year, I went on to conduct an experiment. In hope not to see a Facebook birthday greeting ever again, I decided ti deactivate my account the night before my birthday, and reactivate it at some point the day after my birthday. Alas, I failed in my initial intention as I received a generic greeting about noon of the day before, under excuse "better not to forget". Jumping Jesus, WTF? I'm not blaming this person in particular, it's the whole current "culture", but the basic idea of birthday greetings IS to remember the SPECIFIC date. It's not "happy birth-period-thingy", now, is it? However, that urged me to deactivate account sooner (even though that meant a bit more boring day at the hospital, but all in the good name of science!).
So, people would now have to try and remember how did they send me greetings for all those years prior to last one, and so far - they're failing. It's 2AM, I haven't recieved a single SMS, my email inbox is slowly filling with auto-generated greetings from all the forums and major sites I'm on, and the ONLY human-sent greeting so far is from a cousin.
Ha.
I'm not saying "experiment over, that's that" - but the first stage is rather clear - so far I'd be on at least 50 wall posts, instead I'm on 1.
Morning came with a lousy start - first 4 greetings were from family members (which was never the case), but soon enough, my friends realised that it's definitively not a glitch, and that I'm not on Facebook any more, so SMSes started arriving. Interestingly enough, the first one was from a friend in Slovenia, whom I do hold close and dear, but didn't really expect her to be the first!
The day went on as I hoped it would - which is exactly like all those pre-fagbook years: with actual phone calls (notably more than last year!) and witty SMSes. For me, that's "mission accomplished", and I'll be sticking to the recipe for years to come!
Incompatible
Published on , in Ranting
While everyone else is asleep, I'm awake. When they get up for work, I go to bed. I don't believe in mornings, and sleep through them. I can sleep ridiculously little, but only if I start from 6AM - if it were to end at 6AM I'd be sleep depraved.
I haven't been using Windows for almost 5 years now, yet I'm your support contact when it fails on you.
I'm a tech-geek, but I'd rather talk about music, beer or lifestyle in general.
I absolutely love music, yet I'm a music-nazi. My taste is mismatched to everyone else's, and I'm gonna randomly hate something that should match to my taste, or love something completely berserk.
I'll recommend you some rather obscure TV series, but will fail to hear about your latest and greatest TV hit.
You'll comment on how my taste in movies is crap, yet I'll have hard time being serious while watching bollocks you recommend to me. It seems like everything I prefer is "badly acted", yet everything I watch with you is badly written for starters.
I'll have no clue about what's in the news (since I've turned telly off several years ago, and I'm not touching it), yet I'll happen to grab the very piece of news you didn't yet hear about.
I'm blind to cultural trends, and I'll occasionally hook up to one years (or even decades) after it goes out, not even realising that I did.
I wear geek shirts to concerts, music-related shirts to lectures and shirts that scream 'informal' to work.
I'm a gourmet who's giving out tasty recipes while on a boring diet, feeling less uncomfortable than you are. I'm up for crazy food, yet I don't like quite a number of elementary stuff.
I'll complain about your smoking, yet will buy you fags if I'm popping to the shops already.
People compliment on my American accent, which I'd prefer to lose.
I'm picking up British culture, even though my heart and future are in Ireland.
I still enjoy studying, even though I graduated.
I spent a lot of time working through high school and uni, yet I'm putting down job offers now when I should be taking them. World is in "economic crisis", yet I'm being offered good job positions more than ever?!
I never drink and drive, yet I'd let select drunk people drive me home.
I'm in love with you while you're with someone, yet I'm completely blind when you're picking me up.
My dream travel destinations don't include beaches of exotic islands - they're a bit more on the extreme, and way more personal than that.
...and that's why you love me.
Instead of sleeping, I'm arguing with people I don't know
Published on , in Ranting
I received one of those "ever so cute" mails which bombards us with a great number of supposedly interesting/funny questions one is supposed to admire/laugh to, which are, basically, ignorance wrapped in big colourful font.
So, half-asleep I went on a Don Quixotian quest of correcting someone on the internet:
Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are getting weak?
a) You can't know whether it's about batteries or a faulty contact if you don't try harder
b) Consequence of remotes being a mixture of mechanic and electric bits - if there are moving parts, they are the interface the human sees (and uses), thus the impression that mechanic bit is faulty. If the said remote were a flat touch sensitive gizmo (with no buttons), pushing harder wouldn't seem natural thing to try.
Why do banks charge a fee on "insufficient funds" when they know there is not enough?
Because they will take that money from you at some point in future - whether when you top up your account or get to court.
Yes, they're greedy bastards, but you agreed to their policies once you initially signed the contract.
Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Empiricism is a big part of how we perceive the world around us and/or form our opinions.
While the second information is a simply checkable fact, the first is a theorem that can be proved and disproved with a lot of complicated formulas.
Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?
Even though this question isn't precise enough (glue does stick to the outer side of the bottle, thus the labels) the reply (for implied inner side) is, again, simple - glue needs air to dry, and it reacts with air slowly enough to enable you to open the bottle for a short period of time without the whole lot inside drying up.
Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?
Needles are sterilised in production, and are mass-produced for all medical purposes.
Using non-sterilised needles would require collecting previously used needles which is not only a pointless but a dangerous task.
Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?
Because some men just can't grow beards?
Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?
Trying to be objective, I'd say: because every story has its flaws, and writers often use ill-fitting elements from real life in imaginary environments. The most common example would be the dogfight scenes from (early) Star Wars where superior futuristic aircraft fly like WW2 planes in combat.
On the other hand, Superman fans would probably give you a deeper response, based on the universe Superman lives in.
Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
Because they need to fly to their suicide destination first, and that flight requires all the precaution as any other flight.
Whose idea was it to put an "S" in the word "lisp"?
Dictionary says the following: "ORIGIN Old English wlispian (recorded in āwlyspian), from wlisp(adjective) ‘lisping,’ of imitative origin; compare with Dutch lispen and German lispeln."
If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?
Evolution doesn't necessary mean that one species replaces the other.
Humans and apes live in different environments and thus humans adapted to be more efficient in the environment they inhabit (e.g. "on ground" vs "in trees").
Why is it that no matter what colour bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?
Bubbles are, actually, transparent.
The said "white" is scattered reflected light from many surfaces that bubbles create.
Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?
Yes, there is.
Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?
When you have a fairly full fridge, there's a high chance you didn't see all of its contents in a first glance (i.e. you'd have to have moved a pan or a carton of milk to see something "hidden" behind). But even supposing that you saw everything in (and haven't forgotten anything you saw), you'd open the fridge again to try to think up a different potential meal (which is, generally, easier when you look at the ingredients rather than remembering what's actually there).
Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?
Because they can't be bothered to do it properly?
Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?
This is just a misassumption.
Some plastic bags won't open from the first tried ends, while some will - at worst there's a 50-50 chance.
How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?
They usually get in alive and get burnt on the light bulbs.
When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, "It's all right?" Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, "That hurt, you stupid idiot?"
It's a matter of being polite - if someone was polite enough to apologise in the first place, the properly polite thing is to accept that apology.
Also, the person who has done the said deed didn't do it intentionally.
Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?
Yet another ill-constructed assumption which infers that the said concept happens every time, which is often simply not true due to times which lack things to be knocked over (not mentioning other variants).
But, supposing that something got knocked over anyway - it's because we concentrate on the falling object "too much" and react impulsively, thus not being completely aware of our all-around movement which then renders us more "clumsy" than usual.
In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?
I, for one, try to keep my house at about the same temperature in all the seasons.
How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?
Women in jokes are usually more background-portrayed (blonde, mother-in-law, ...), while men tend to be more generic (Irishman, Scotsman, Frenchman). This probably has something to do with the whole said genre of literary movement, which is out of my reach.
However, empirically, mothers-in-law have proved to be more nosy and generally pain in the ass to both male and female population. Fathers-in-law are more commonly "problematic" before weddings than after.
And my FAVOURITE...... The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you!
"Some sort of mental illness" covers a wide range of illnesses, including the minor ones that aren't easy to spot.
Also, "1/4 population" (or, popularly, "1 out of 4") doesn't mean "1 out of EVERY 4", because the latter infers that even if you collected 4 clinically sane persons, 1 would still have to be clinically insane, and having that you can't be both "clinically sane" and "clinically insane" at the same time, the said construction is impossible.
I might be a boring fart, but ignorance is scarcely fun.
If websites updated themselves
Published on , in Ranting
It's been almost 6 months since the previous blah entry and, unfortunately, even longer since the last website update. So many times have I thought of the great wisdom I should have shared in blah but never found time to, as well as the many feature upgrades that should have be done. But, alas, these thoughts used to approach me just before I'd fall asleep, and many a time would I ponder what would it be like if I could just WiFi my thoughts into my computer and let it do the magic :)
However, it struck me the most when someone pointed out that I used to, at least, keep my photo galleries fresh with the recent social activities, yet that I failed to upload anything in the last year. Thus I decided to right my wrongs and have started collecting the missing photos that were the prime excuse for my idleness and have started modelling the minor upgrades to the website itself.
Now, a month later, something has been done.
First of all, data has been updated to be more accurate: dead websites have been moved to their rightful places in the list, current running ones have been updated, personal info on the adequate pages has been updated (you might notice that a colleague of mine and I won a certain competition, especially having written this in bold), etc.
More importantly, photo galleries have been upgraded and now they should be loading faster as I've drastically reduced the number of requests sent to the server per gallery and have enabled the thumbnail caching. Not only that but they should be easier to navigate having that now you can use Left and Right arrow keys on your keyboard to go back and forward, and hide the currently open photo by pressing Escape. Finally, now you can clearly see if a photo has a comment associated to it having that each such photo has a small icon in the top-right corner as well as the fancy mouse-over hint displaying the comment.
But what will surely shake your pants the most is the fact that I've uploaded 3475 new photos, and that now you know what to do this weekend :D
To make it easier for you, the galleries are listed below, in reverse chronological order: Old Town (2 photos, 68kb), Five days in Java, Awards ceremony (4 photos, 160kb), Žika's 24th birthday (5 photos, 240kb), Petrovac na Mlavi (225 photos, 13.9mb), Vinski Podrum (4 photos, 216kb), Kilt approval party (91 photos, 3.6mb), United Kingdom (2046 photos, 115.1mb), Croatia (Lovran, Istra) (895 photos, 49.9mb), Skupština (15 photos, 524kb), VMC (3 photos, 104kb), Labour day BBQ, Zvezdara (72 photos, 4.9mb), 31.12.2007. New Year's Masquerade (79 photos, 2.9mb), Imagine Cup '07, Serbian Finals (4 photos, 120kb), Irish Pub (27 photos, 1.2mb), Nina's 19th Birthday (3 photos, 112kb).
Enjoy!
A housewarming party
Published on , in Ranting
I've finally moved in, and I'm throwing a housewarming party!
Everyone is invited, so do come over.
Not often does an ambassador make such a party! ;)
So, yeah - I finally got a house on the Internet Map, and having that I'm the first (and currently the only) one from Serbia I hereby proclaim myself as an ambassador!
Even though it's all secluded on the local map, I've got quite a bunch of Russian neighbours on the global map.
Finally, thanks to all of my friends who clicked the voting link to have me charted - clicking it now will potentially get me a new rooftop, and eventually a bigger house - but I'm a modest kind a bloke, so I'm happy with things as they are :)
Who's a metalhead now?
Published on , in Ranting
There's still quite a number of people who keep calling me a "metalhead".
In my book, "metalhead" is someone who listens to (almost) nothing but metal and in more extreme case lives/breathes for metal.
Having that I'm very open-minded when it comes to music and that I don't particularly care for metal as a phenomenon that much any more, this label has grown to be of a patronising kind to me and it bothers me when someone insists on applying it to me.
Previous poll's results had shown that 51% of you wouldn't pay even 100€ for a website.
I sure do hope you don't need one as no one is insane enough to do it that cheap.
It's rather sad how common people disparage the techies. We've spent whole lots of money investing in our knowledge and our computers, being our tools of work (and not toys as some still believe) yet when we charge for our services, we're rude if not worse.
How come that everyone expect their neighbour-techie to always fix their computers (be it software or hardware related), regardless the fact that if they hadn't known such a guy, some self-proclaimed professional would charge the hell out of them?
No, we're "computer-minglers" with loads of spare time, so why wouldn't we just make you everything that pops up onto your mind, for free? After all, it's not like we'd be doing a proper job, now would it?
Think again.
No carpenter would build you a whole lot of furniture just for a glass of juice and occasional pat on the back. Why don't you try finding an auto-mechanic which would fix your 20 year falling-apart junk, and ask absolutely nothing in return. Damn, most even wouldn't change your oil for free.
So, to see how cheap you really are, I've put on a new poll - to ask you how much do you charge for your professional services. After you've voted (hopefully honestly), think of how much have you cast before. 51% of you should be ashamed at that point.
In Netherlands
Published on , in Ranting
I'll be in Netherlands 'till the end of the month.
Should you need me, I'll be reachable via +31 64 654 6952
Dreams, uncensored
Published on , in Ranting
I've finally gotten my paws on Finntroll forum's database and have (finally) extracted my dreams from it (strange place for archiving them in first place, innit? :))
There's a whole lot of them for you to read and there'll be a whole lot more once I decide to translate ones I have archived in Serbian.
Those of you who know me will enjoy this "new" feature, whilst the others will think that I'm just inventing things as I write. Either way, it would have been even more of the entries if I wasn't too lazy to write the recent ones ('cause I've started having 2-3 per night, and I tend to think they're getting too "ordinary").
Also, as soon as I've got more spare time I'm going to extract all "Good&Bad about today" posts from the database and post them here.
This blog is finally getting some shape, so feel free to enjoy it! :)
Gone camping
Published on , in Ranting
I'm currently mountain-high, wrestling with bears.
Will be camping 'till 3rd of May.
Have fun 'till then and try not to miss me that much ;)
Cheers!
An irreligious rant
Published on , in Ranting
Religion is a weapon of mass destruction and mass manipulation which should have been distinct in the past.
But, yes, people need guidance and I understand all of that.
However, in more civilised societies religion takes the smaller part in daily life - like base morals which people assign to religion and such. Take Islam for example - when I told a Muslim girl that I was an Atheist she didn't even know what is that.
When I explained it to her, she started to look funny at me and still couldn't understand how can I live my life if not in dedication to god...
I obviously do, and I live a good life.
I am an explorer, a visionary, an empiricist... I live my life at its finest and am not obsessed by things I can't explain in the means that I need to respect them with fear. Life is now, and life is short. If I don't dedicate it to myself and people who deserve it - I'm better off dead.
Why the hell did I type all of this to you - I have no idea; but it was a moment of inspiration.
And I guess I'm getting bored of this programming book that I'm reading :D
As BeerMan said: Religion is what people use when they aren't interested in science or sports..
I apparently am a role-model to some of you
Published on , in Ranting
At first I was rather annoyed. Seeing websites that copy the concept, layout or even the design elements from my own websites made me pull my hair and yell at people. But now I realize that I should consider that as an approval of the quality of my work and therefore I salute you.
Thank you, all of you who haven't got your own ideas or sense of style for proving me that I'm a good designer. Thanks for using my concepts, as it proves that I have a developed sense of organization. Most of all, thank you for visiting all of my web-projects and tracking all the stages of their development.
But remember one thing - you won't get far by just copying ones who are better. Microsoft may have gotten away with it, but people can tell the difference between the innovators and plagiarists.
So, at least be polite and honest to admit that you have copied the ideas, concept or the elements from others and try not to present them as initially yours as you'll get your arse in trouble one day and mommy will be far away.
As well, people like you make lives of people like me (and those better than me) more complicated since the potential employers have lost their faith in freelancers due to being ripped off by quasi-developers and con-artists presenting themselves as top of the notch experts and producing, well, crap.
A fireside chat with nutonmychin6903
Published on , in Ranting
I never understood what is spam all about, i.e. who benefits of it?
Ok, the anti-spam and the antivirus companies, I guess, but what's the point in an e-mail that contains random sentences and an image or is promoting a shop that don't exist (or similar)? (maybe I would understand if I used Windows and it decided to crash after opening such an e-mail ;))
However, I'm ever amazed by programmers spending their rather precious time on developing such stuff. Just this morning I was contacted by the best-programmed spam-bot I've seen so far.
Friday, December 29, 2006 nutonmychin6903
03:06 zi... anyone there?
03:08 well annyway, guess your not there? Dachaz
03:11 jussst came back nutonmychin6903
03:12 hold on a sec. be right back nutonmychin6903
03:17 ok im bqck. sorry bout that. still there? Dachaz
03:17 for now nutonmychin6903
03:17 oh your there hi....
03:18 a/s/l (age sex llocation)? Dachaz
03:18 let's skip the crap, shall we? nutonmychin6903
03:19 im 27/f/USA. was lookin at your profile. thought you might like to chat.
03:19 so whatt have you been up to cochobamba? Dachaz
03:19 what a good bot you are nutonmychin6903
03:19 bot? whats that? somee kinda insult or something? Dachaz
03:19 it's a type of candy nutonmychin6903
03:19 cool. i was just hangin out watching tv.. i was getting kinda horny (*blushes) Dachaz
03:20 I bet you have nutonmychin6903
03:20 feel like a little cyber fun witz me ? please please... Dachaz
03:20 naah, let's go for a real thing nutonmychin6903
03:21 well i can give you the real thing.. but lets get to know each other first thhen maybe we can visit Dachaz
03:21 knowledge is the path to suffering nutonmychin6903
03:21 oh well your loss. why dont you open up my profile and see what you missed out on. theres a link there to my homepage where i have some real nice pics to leave with. Dachaz
03:22 I will try not to do that
Looks like a chat with a real person except for the fact that replies were coming back faster than it'd require anyone to think of them, not even to type them. The best trigger was the one where I commented how good bot it is, and got a whole sentence back in a nanosecond.
Other than that someone did a nasty good work:
Give nothing - expect nothing
Published on , in Ranting
I'm tired of so many things, both physically and mentally.
So many things are wrong and there's no way of fixing them.
What's the point in setting the alarm clock for the morning if waking up early won't make me feel more accomplished but just more tired?
Why am I expected to do things your way when it's not a good one? Why do I have to fight to do things my way when you're aware of my greater productivity when I do so? Why do you cherish people with plenty of time for wasting and punish me for using all of my potentials and doing things better but in a different manner?
How can you forget decades of respect over an argument you started? Who gave you the silly idea that treating me with disrespect won't give you the same treatment back?
I'm randomly addressing all of you who are someone's bosses, professors or relatives - the fact that someone mistreated you doesn't give you the right to mistreat someone else.
What the hell happened to me?
Published on , in Ranting
I used to be surrounded by women. All the time. No, really, I did.
Most of my friends envied me for that, but I never realized why. Now I do.
Where did all of them go? I can't tell. Some of them just turned nasty, while some of them were just unfortunate to be friends of people I'm not friends with any more.
So was she.
I met her while getting back from the pub.
She had obviously been a friend of a friend since I never was in a conflict with her, but haven't seen her for two years, at least. I couldn't remember her name, until she said it to a mate who was with me. I still can't recall whose friend she was. I have several theories, but no real clue. We went different ways, obviously. At least I did. I stopped going to random black metal concerts (a really long time ago), and it was just a thing she was coming back from. Can't blame her - it was a rather good concert - at least for those still interested in that stuff.
She looks good. Really good, actually. Better than when I used to know her. Either that or I'm totally wasted. I dare not to think the latter.
Will I see her again? - I really don't know. I hope I will. I know I'll try.
I still wonder what is she thinking right now. Is she sharing the same thoughts as mine. Or at least similar. Will she be asking her friend, who was my friend, if she is friends with me still? Probably not. Would be nice, though.
It's December
Published on , in Ranting
My favourite month of them all.
Is it because my birthday is just around corner? - Yes.
Is it because about a dozen of relatives and friends have their birthdays in December? - Yes.
Is it because New Year is so near? - Yes.
Is it because of the snow? - Yes, though the lack of snow can ruin the mood.
I can't think of a better month, actually. December even tops July, the month when the glorious summer break starts.
E-mail is working, again
Published on , in Ranting
You might have wondered what the hell was going on during the last week as you couldn't e-mail me properly, and I had promised that everything will work forever and ever... Well, it was my bad this time.
I decided to set my mail exchange to go through Google's GMail and I had set the MX records incorrectly. However, NAThosting admins have fixed that and now I'm available, again.
For those of you who didn't know, Google is offering a neat bunch of apps for your domain.
So now Google controls 66.6% of my e-mail. If my faculty decides to switch to Google mail apps it'll go to a complete 100%.
Should we fear the domination?
I say yes, but not just yet. In 10 years Google will enslave us all, but as for now: Blessed be Google.
Blessed be Google!
Published on , in Ranting
In one of previous posts of mine I ranted how pissed am I over my old host for not giving me my database dump back which led to losing some of Blah entries... A random thought crossed my mind today: let's see if they're left somewhere in Google's cache! Guess what? They were!
It might not be a big deal to you (my blog surely isn't one of the most interesting things to read) but I was thrilled to realize that things never get lost on the internet thanks to our good ol' friend Google!
Is there anyone whose life hasn't gotten easier since the invention(s) of Google?
...aside of Microsoft and Yahoo!, of course ;)
Back on track
Published on , in Ranting
I'm back and working hard.
One website is launched already (see above), two are "in progress" and two more shall come afterwards.
If you are in need for a website, you'll have to wait 'till early October as I doubt I'll finish these any time sooner.
Gone
Published on , in Ranting
I'm currently in Croatia and won't be back untill 15.08.
Till then, you can contact me via following cellphone: +385 95 8237698
Cheers!
Shit and lobster
Published on , in Ranting
As you might have seen - website(s) and e-mail were dead in last 2 months (or so).
We should all thank BeigeTower for that...
OK - I don't want to be a cunt and forget all the years of free hosting they have given me, but is it THAT hard to say the truth when one asks you if the hosting will be up again?
Now I chose one of many paid-for hostings - NAThosting - and from what I've seen so far I think I've made a great choice.
The downside is that I never got my database dump back from BeigeTower (even though I asked admins a million times) and so some of my blog rantings have disappeared, as well as most of my well kept stats/visit logs. (keep fingers crossed that I get those back, eventually)
So, what have I been up to?
A lot - as always.
I've been studying a lot, traveled a bit and overall had a wonderful time. I realized all of these require posts of their own, and I promise I'll do that tomorrow.
Now, I'll keep uploading data I've got on my computer - and tomorrow the famous Cyber Leksikon will be back, though with serious lack of content, since the previously mentioned database issue.
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me an Apple iMac?
My friends all use PCs, I must make amends.
Linux is some good stuff, but Unix is the best,
So Lord, won’t you buy me an Apple iMac?
The human brain, part one
Published on , in Ranting
I was going back home from the faculty and for some reason I had decided to buy scratch-cards.
Whenever I’m in the mood, I decide to buy three (which is ~2€ well spent ) so I did the same this time as well. I haven’t got a slightest idea why, but I felt as if I’m going to win something.
The most insane train of thoughts passed through my mind: if I win 500,000din (~5900€) - I’m going to keep one part for next year’s tution fee, I’m going to buy myself a 20″ iMac and I’m going to buy my mom something she always wanted but could never afford since she spent all her paycheck on me. Then the most horrifying thought crossed my mind: what if I get a Mercedes Benz? No tution fee, no iMac, no gift for mom… For that moment, that was the worst option there is (since reality was not an option).
Of course, out of all three I won exchange value of one, so I might scratch myself yet another nothing tomorrow as well…
Gee, have I grown old...
Published on , in Ranting
I've been glitching some code mattering the Photo Album area and ended in Solo Shots whilst testing. Gee, have I grown old...
It's been a long time since I checked my elderly photos, so seeing myself with short(er) hair and a careless face was a strange experience. I took a couple of moments to think about the carelessnes of that time, as well as of all the "business" I had then, and couldn't but notice that it was a happy time. All I cared about was visiting concerts and getting "schedule" done for my dear female friends. Now I can't fit their schedule and currently am spending most of the time thinking of some work that should be done, earning money and similar. From status of visiting every single concert in the town, I've glitched to visiting almost none - meirly the bands I'm interested in.
Well, it has all taken its natural cause, that's for sure, but since I haven't spent much time thinking about the past, it seemed strange.
"It's all part of growing old" as our elders would say.
Growing together
Published on , in Ranting
So, I've lived with 6 other people for 17 days, and have grown to them as to a family of my own.
It's all strange now: sleeping alone in the room, having dinner alone, not waking up with 4 people whom will I spend the whole day with...
It's sad... I feel quite empty at the moment having nothing to do in paticular, and being "alone" in my own city.
I miss the activity we had there, since it's getting dull here.
I miss the clouds, since it's all gray here.
I miss seeing thunders over Rijeka, whilst having none over Lovran.
...but at least thunders have gotten sound when I came back...
Life is good.
Published on , in Ranting
When I look back upon my life and how is it treating me, I can't but notice that life is good.
How come?
Well, it wasn't more than a year ago when I haven't had idea if my family could afford my education on Computing faculty, but now I'm two days apart from officially becoming their student. I look back on the times of extreme paranoia in which I was running from bank to bank asking for loans, credits, scolarships, job, ... anything that could help me estabilsh some foundation for my projected faculty... Unfortunately that didn't help a lot, but my strong will made my parents re-organize and find some long lost money and even save some by which making my further education possible. The morale of this story is rather simple - one has to be persistent in his quest, and not to be demoralized by first obsticle he crosses in his path. If I gave up the first time my parents told me that I'm insane for thinking of going to such an expensive faculty over the "fantastic" free ones, I wouldn't be sitting here writing this.
No, I said no - I'm not going to attend a "fantastic" free faculty because I've spent 12 years of my life studying stuff I don't care about in a slightest bit, and I don't want to pretend to be studying informatics on Faculty of Organization (or any other) whilst actually studying economics and sociology. No - I'll work if I have to, I'll work for a year and not attend any faculty - it doesn't matter what will I do, as long as I'm making myself possible to study and learn stuff I'm actually going to use in my life.
That persistance persuaded my parents into taking me seriously, and I'm glad for that.
Unfortunately, many so-called intellectuals of my country still look upon my faculty as if it is yet another of those faculties where you don't do anything and get good marks because you're paying for high tution fee. This is my final message to them - I am really sorry that you can't afford quality education for your children, but don't thread on me!
Really... When I was talking to my ex-professor of chemistry about what faculty will I attend, everything was well untill I said that magical word "private faculty". Some of professors who were in the room alongside the two of us started rolling their eyes with that intelligent thought "Maah, yet another of those lazy spoiled bastards, why can't he attend normal university like all of the normal children? I finished normal university and I'm just fine"... Some of them just thought of simplified thought "Only idiots attend private faculties".
Well, yes - I am an idiot for caring what will I study. I am an idiot for wanting to get the best knowledge possible in my country. I am an idiot because I want an successfull career which will allow me to work for whom I want, in which country I want and therefore give my family everything they need whilst not living in panic like my parents used to, most of the time, in because of their bank accounts were in negative area.
That is my final message to all of you who had this judgitive attitude to my choice of high education, and if you ever re-initiate this issue once again, I'll send you the print of this mumbling via snail mail each month.
Other reasons why is life good:
This will be short(er), I promise.
I was sitting there bashing my head against the wall a week ago where and how will I find something to work at this summer since I'll be getting no more money from my parents and my needs have grown.
It was two days ago when an old friend of mine showed up offering me serious job opportunity out of the blue . I was more than glad to take it.
Why did he pick me?
Alongside the fact that we've known each other for 5 years now, we've kept our friendship meirly electronically, so, therefore, I didn't convince him over a beer to choose me. Actually, he has been monitoring my work all of the time and had noticed that I'm the person he's looking for. Of course, at this time of need I was more than happy to accept the offer. Morale: don't ever be ashamed of your work! EVER! Don't be ashamed to present your knowledge and skills to other people, even if it looks to be in vain. This website might look as an useless piece of junk in the internet to some of you, but it got me several jobs and even several international friends!
Finally, what's to be expected to be seen on this website?
New design! Very soon!
It is a catastrophy that I haven't re-designed this website in more than 2 years (nor that I've changed the pic in the main page for over a year).
I'm planning to add several new sections, re-organize existing ones, add a lot of posts to this section (extended versions of ones posted in Finntroll forum's "Good&Bad about today") and remove some rubbish that had piled up here.
Also, some of my websites are going to be upgraded, but that might not affect you paticurally (minor glitches and optimizations).
So, to all brave fellows and gals who had actually read all of this - I'm sending the warmest greets.
Take care, and take a beer.
New year and all about it
Published on , in Ranting
What was happening during the downtime of this section?
Actually: a lot.
- It had been a birthday season - approx. one birthday a day. That implied a lot of parties of which most did suck.
'Twas my birthday as well, and it was quite different than all the others (my earlier ones and those happened during the month). Possibly because it was the last one of such amount (~70 people were there that night).
Be sure to check the pics.
- I happened to be the only one that came to the Swedish class one day. That made proffesor quite pissed (1 of 6 registered students showing up), but he held the class as if all of us were present. By the end of the first month of the classes, our group officially reduced itself down to 4.
- Several days before my birthday, my father gave me Canon A75 digital camera. This means that there will be 3-4 times more photos' from where ever I go. (e.g. we took ~140 photos on that roadtrip to Novi Sad, but I would try not to make more than 36 with the standard camera). Finally I'll be able to photograph all the stuff I always wanted, but could never afford developing that amount of films... (I suppose that "Art photography" section will just pop-up soon ;))
- Very night before my birthday I decided to go to the theater. I made a mistake by doing so. That was the most stupid thing I ever watched, and I watched Kassandra and Power Rangers when I was a kid... The show was desperate try to make multimedia-show out of nothing, in a living room-like theatre with inexperienced actors. I'll try not to think of it much.
- Aside of this, the other days of the month were busy as well. Working on new issue of Hornburg, keeping the High School's website in order, giving my best to study for exams, trying to see friends I haven't seen in ages (Nina Deljanin, Mladen and Uroš were the only ones I managed to see), trying to keep the business in order (but that didn't seem to go well in because of serious lack of time), etc. That was some rough time, but as I was saying during that period "that's what you get for doing relatively nothing for three months - it has to come up some time..."
- Then came the Christmas. I put all the decorations 'round the house, but it just didn't feel right as there was no snow. Same went for the New Year's Eve - it had no spirit. However, I spent a nice night with a great deal of my friends at a home-party. However, absolutely none of us felt as if it was NYE, but as if it was just an ordinary friday night, only not being in the pub.
- Afterwards came this blessed week of freedom. I finally have had some time for everything I wanted to do, and I hope it will stay this way in the future. Had spent one afternoon playing "Baš Čelik" at Anta's place, which was fantastic (I was surprised how good the game was). Later we went to that legendary roadtrip, and had made plans for the further ones.
Overall, life's treating me good - and I think I deserve that as I always try to fulfill it propperly.
Had even heard fantastic news mattering the faculty I'm going to attend on, thus I have no worries.
I'm currently being maximally positive.
Thanks for reading, all the best in the new year!
(as I've already said on Finntroll forum "I wish you to be able to fulfill your wishes" ... damn I like to quote myself ;))
Jag läser svenska!
Published on , in Ranting
I've finally started the long-expected Swedish course!
It had been two classes so far, and I couldn't be more happy!
The professour is a great guy with a lot of enthusiasm and the group is more-or-less okay. Fortunately, I'm attending the course with Damyan (a friend of mine), thus I could never be bored.
As for so far, I can read propperly and say several simple sentences, such as "Jag är född i Belgrad" or "Varifrån är du?", ... "Och så vidare".
I'd have to notice that my previous angagement had served me well (learning of Siebenbürgen, Finntroll, Fejd and Burzum lyrics; as well as the time spent with "Lär dig svenska" CD), as I'm reading/speaking things we have done so far with the most ease (comparing to the others in the group).
It all seems to me like dream becoming true, thus I'm being very happy by even thinking of it :)
Machina infernale
Published on , in Ranting
I have finally bought myself a decent cellphone.
The moment I saw it in the magazine I knew that I would get it soon. Not more than two days had passed since.
As I'm not in the touch with the cellphone developement, I had no idea of Symbian's existance. When I read about it, I firstly thought it was just another foolishness, as Java "midlets" are, but as I was rather interested of it's real posibilities, I started googling. It didn't take long for me to realise that I was wrong. I spent whole afternoon, and a big part of the night, reading user comments on both local and international sites. None were negative. The next morning I had to read all about Symbian: support, developing, distribution, etc. Then I had finally made my mind.
I checked for all the alternatives (other Symbian based phones), and realised that there are none worth of their price (e.g. 1MP camera is something that I don't need, but it boosts the price for 200€). By the afternoon I was in the shop.
The only unfortunate thing is that I spent all the money on the phone itself, thus I'm currently collecting funds for the bluetooth adapter, with which I'll make this baby ROCK!
...goodbye Siemens C60...
Death
Published on , in Ranting
While taking me out of operation theatre, they took the tube* out and started to wake me up. The first thing I know is that I'm choking to death...
No flash-backs, no life passing in front of my eyes, just desperately trying to take a breath. I was swinging my hands, even knowing that I'm not helping doctors, but I felt like if I stop doing it that I would die.
Fortunately, it ended - not sure how, not sure when, but it did. I lost most of the memory of the unpleasant feeling, but still I can recall a bit of it. (notice: memory of the feeling, not of the events).
That gave me a thought - how the hell do we know that life passes in front of our eyes before death? All the people who might experienced that had certainly died! It's called "near-death experience", and I experienced one, but nothing did flash in front of my eyes, except the faces of doctors surrounding me and trying to help me!
* tube, tubus: the part of aparature used to keep you alive during the surgery, goes inside the mouth, far deep into throat
Size does matter
Published on , in Ranting
I've finally beaten my long-heared friend, Natasha, by 1cm! My 61cm-long hair has finally prevailed!
It's fantastic how fast does my hair grow, I gained 60cm in 33 months of which, more than 20cm in last 10 months. It just accelerated its growth over the last year.
And yes, in those 33months, I took only one haircut and still I have no split ends!
The insanity unleashed
Published on , in Ranting
It's been quite a time since I decided to start writing a web-journal of some sort.
Of course, due to my attitude, I wanted to develop my own system just to be different from others, and to say "No, it's not a Blog, it's Blah". As you may see, I didn't stand up to my principles as it would have taken whole eternity to build something like this, thus I said 'why reinvent the wheel' as well as one 'what the hell', and your worst nightmares are here.
It'll take some time until I adjust it to be the way I want it to, but be patient - it'll be worth it.
The finished product
I've finally moved in, and I'm throwing a housewarming party!
) so I did the same this time as well. I haven’t got a slightest idea why, but I felt as if I’m going to win something.
I have finally bought myself a decent cellphone.
Dachaz
darko.zelic
+31639107668
@Dachaz