Blergh.

Friend is an abstract being, whose definition depends strongly on a mutual emotional bond, which is why it cannot be defined. It defines itself. – The stuff I come up with at 2 am…

Also, it would appear that the Goethe Institute likes accuracy. It is a rare gem to find someone that really appreciates nitpicking. I wonder how exactly they will appreciate it. But I will find out in time. Also, it would appear that last night improv is useful no matter why it is necessary.

And this video is for the mere reason that I got to recite it in a random conversation. Thanks for that, the guy who was in the newspaper (I prefer not to use names.)

That damn goat

I must say, I have started to kind of enjoy updating this place so often. It keeps me in the game. Keeps the pressure up. Makes sure I keep using English that might not sound simple for several people. This way I can keep remembering.

Smooth subject change.

Making speeches is surprisingly difficult. Well, technically ‘making’ a speech is easy. Especially if it is supposed to be in English. Holding the speech is the difficult part. One has to nail the accent, spot the appropriate pauses, play with the tone, keep equal eye contact with all four quadrants of the audience, use convincing body language and after all that, one has to actually say the right words. And hope that the speech is somehow special, made exquisite by something one did. Hope that it was a good one.

And worst of all, there aren’t really that many places where to learn the art of speech holding. One doesn’t simply copy Obama. After all, I find Obama’s pauses too irregular and long. Naturally he needs longer pauses that the common man, he has someone applauding at his ‘words of wisdom’ in the middle of his speeches. Bush was even worse. Both of them. One can’t even look at Steve Jobs for guidance as his speeches were never the type one is supposed to hold one’s own. I use ‘one’ for an unknown person a lot because I am used to German (they use ‘man’ if the acting person is unknown).

To this end I firmly believe that improvisation is the best route to take when one holds a speech. Not a complete improv, as that may very likely lead to disaster. One needs to know what the speech is to be about.

to ERR is human

Sometimes nostalgia is exactly what it used to be. Perhaps it even improves with time. Merely being able to remember the emotions, the actions, the experience of time that has passed perhaps a decade ago. The sense of young curiosity and happiness really stirs up something from the deep.

Nostalgia works for this generation and the previous ones, but I cannot fathom the next generation to be able to get this utter and complete sensation caused by things in their childhood. You might think this doubt is folly, but I implore you to rethink it.

While I admit, many a childhood may differ considerably from mine. Alas, I can only use my own experience as a standpoint. Also, I will take a narrow line of experiences to explain myself.

Try to remember, what were the most influential bits of your time as a kid. Say, about 7 or 8. Now exclude the late nights with your friends, just hanging out, roller-skating, whatever. And family trips. These are repeating events, basically processes that take place almost completely independently from your place of origin, culture, family wealth, status, etc. What’s left?

A small amount of events and things. The things are special from your point of view. May it be a teddy, a sheep, a picture, a piece of fancy, a toy or a game. Perhaps a movie, a play. Perhaps a piece of the most beautiful music you had ever heard. Then think how many things you had seen or experienced by that time. Not as many as the kids nowadays. The pool from which the greatest experiences could come has grown wider. By a lot.

There is so much stuff in the world that pretty much everyone can get. Most of it is mostly remakes, just older stuff made shinier. There are hardly any new concepts, hardly any new attempts to make something revolutionary. With an overflow of information it is hard to make emotional connections with a small part of it. Hence, one will have a weaker sense of nostalgia, when being reminded of the small part. I cannot say for certain that this is how it is, as I was born when I was and as I was and am. As a corollary, I cannot see into the minds of the youngsters I see and I definitely cannot see how they will react emotionally in the future to the things of the past. It is just a hunch.

But what I know for certain is that I cannot imagine myself not getting emotional when I hear the words “Paris in the fall. The last months of the year, and the end of the millenium. The city holds many memories for me. Of cafés, of music, of love. And of death.” [cue epic music].

I know I am usually relatively adept at keeping my emotions in check, but some emotions are too strong to be controlled. “That damn goat!”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But for now, I shall leave you with friendzoning. It happens to all of us at some point of our lives. And it is always annoying. But it always keeps hope alive.

“I knew you were up to something but I really didn’t think necrophilia!”

Things are going remarkably well. So well that I find the lack of pressure relieving. I get to watch Space Battleship and Flash Gordon again. And as I go by my errands I find myself daydreaming. It’s been a long time since I could enjoy downtime. And even as I enjoy it, I hate it. I know it is really not downtime, I am *supposed* to be doing stuff. But I prefer not to.

Moonlighting

I do not have respect for many people. I believe it has to be earned. Like trust. While I do not treat people I do not respect (or trust) like rubbish, I do hold people I respect at a higher step than others.

It is of no use to ask me whom I respect, I will not reveal it. I am not willing to show bias towards some people. Although you may notice me doing so every day. This is merely called being human.

 

Also it would appear that this new software is too complicated for me to be able to change line breaks in the middle of the night. I will deal with it at some point.

For something a little more old-fashioned and a little more modern

I do not know for sure how this post differs from everything else I’ve posted, but I know that I am writing this in a new way.

Let’s just say Dell Dock is surprisingly useful.

 

The more time people are left with, the less productive they become. It’s like a force or nature that overcomes them.

Unfortunately this may cause people to become incapable of finishing all the stuff they want by the time they want it.

I really do hate downtime.

Perhaps I should pick up a book to read.

Nah, rather watch a movie or something while I listen to some music and research, categorize and explain beauty. And while I talk to someone.

Multitasking is something I quite enjoy.

 

Also, being in the presence of non-real people really softens one’s brains.

Facts and fiction

I just found out that about a fifth of the visits to this blog originate from the United States and about a tenth of it from Russia. This makes me wonder who they are.
It is also interesting to note that even when I did not post anything in a long time, the visits never died out and explosively grew when there was some new action here. This gives me hope that my theory about "something" is correct. I refrain myself from revealing the "something" because I do not wish to explain it in depth. This is because I was given the task of making a speech about it and, sadly, I cannot share the same content freely, efficiently and pleasantly twice. No matter how hard I try I cannot make two identical speeches. Zum Teufel, I can't make two good speeches on the same subject from the same angle.
This is why I have openly shown resistance towards being the first speaker on the same subject twice during debates.
But it is good to know my theory might hold true. In a way it is sad, as my theory states that "something" has caused the decline of our (The World's (Hello, World!)) culture. If this holds true, it is bad for our culture. (Un)fortunately some governments are trying to limit the "something", which could help our culture. Alas, it does not come without negative consequences.

It is fascinating how Broken Sword has remained to be one of the greatest games of all time. There is a kind of magic to using global trends and medieval history to create a huge conspiracy of faith. The point hinged on the facts that governments cared more about corporations than about people; that after the (Cold) war all departments of defense faced budgetary cuts, which caused a sense of betrayal within the governments and military; that global market was in a crisis, and that due to the growing public unrest all decisions of the governments and corporations were hurried and, in essence, mistakes, from which recovery was painful. Allegedly all this was orchestrated by a small group of people who wished to come to power and rule the world. To do this, they needed an artifact of the Knights Templar. Go figure.
But the point remains, the trend continues and someone may try to take advantage of the growing chaos. "The pattern is emerging. Our time is now."

"In the beginning was the end."
"And end wrought by our enemies began our darkness."
"In the end will be a beginning!"
"An end to our enemies heralds our new day!"

Which brings me to a third point. I have experienced a huge amount of 'déjà vu'-s lately. It's like I'm watching something that happened two years ago on a VCR. And I choose to go down the same path.
I kind of liked that path.

While I'd wish to talk about it further, I'd rather not publish personal facts publicly. Who knows who might read it and when. And them I'm left with someone claiming that I wrote something I do not have any inkling of. At the very least, no remembrance of having written it.
It sounds stupid but it has happened. I still don't know what ##### was on about.

No video today, however a nice little article from Forbes should keep you entertained.

Perplexion.

Yesterday someone with really good English asked me a question I could not answer. I was surprised because the question had to do with my home town. She asked me where does a specific street continue. I did find the place she was looking for and showed it to her, however my initial reaction was shock. It was a simple question that I could not answer. I befuddled me.
It was not until five minutes after she had asked me did I realize that the street indeed does not continue anywhere at all and the place she was looking for she had accidentally passed only a mere moments before.
I just wonder at the shock. I mean, I go there very often and I know the street layout, but I could not remember where a street continues without changing name.
This is so going to haunt me for days to come. I wonder who that person was.

Also, why in the world do I know a word like 'befuddle'?

Usually I rely on the quote 'I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence", sadly I must admit there are exceptions. There are way too many coincidences that I've noticed lately for all of them to be systematically connected. Or perhaps it's just my brain going to overdrive as it sometimes does when I intentionally get myself more work to do to minimize downtime. After all, I do support the quote "I hate downtime, my mind starts to wander and I begin to think too much."

And Estonian music is REALLY not helping. I'm not talking about the groovy Hovery Covery, I'm talking about choir songs and such. Ancient history for some, annoyingly present for me. I've never been a fan of Estonian music, no matter that I was a choir boy.

Anyways it is time to stop writing personal stuff and go on with philosophy, music, politics, irgendwas I've been yammering about in previous posts. I shall leave you with some music which I do hope you will all listen from the beginning to the end. This will give me enough time to find one of the great powerful quotes about the beginning and the end being connected and dependent on POV.



And that full stop in the title is there because I want it to be there.

There is no certainty, only opportunity

I did not wish to edit my previous post but I had a rather strong urge to share more of my standpoints. Especially since I remember them at the present time. If you know me, you also know that memory is the limiting factor of many things I wish to do.

It is simply that something has been bugging me for a long time. It is that ever since World War II, the U.S. has been showing itself as 'World Police'. Just recently they put their aim on Megaupload, a company based in Hong Kong with the management residing in New Zealand. Since the servers were located in the U.S., they could confiscate them. And then NZ police officers arrested the management... and gave them over to the U.S. authorities to be accused of using piracy in order to make money. This clearly illustrates the power of the United States of America over smaller independent countries.
Many people have heard about something called SOPA. This is a devilish American bill that, if it became a law, would allow the U.S. to interfere in practically any country's legal system in case of a mere doubt of guilt of piracy. It would mean that by U.S. laws they'd be allowed to arrest foreigners making copies of music, movies, ebooks etc for personal use, even though it is legal in some countries. Unfortunately not cooperating with U.S. authorities could have a negative influence to the other countries' international relations with not only the U.S., but also with its friends - other countries forced into submission. This poses a threat to the free world.
One can only hope that Ireland will come to everyone's rescue.

It's the end of the world as we know it

Recently I cooked a part of a computer to get it working again. It appears rather odd that this method could aid a GPU, but in the end it did help me out.

Anyways, what I wanted to rant... umm... talk about... was ACTA. While granted, SOPA and PIPA are threats to human rights as well, these are less talked about at the present time. ACTA, however is talked about nearly every day at school, in the news, in social media, on the radio, etc.
Firstly, I need to stress that I condemn piracy. I don't loathe it, because I do not understand it. In this very sweet little country piracy is defined as sharing copyrighted material or making copies of programs and/or databases. Hence music, ebooks and movies are allowed to be copied for personal use. Good music and movies are practically impossible to come by here. If you don't believe me, try finding a place in some small country that would sell albums by Globus. Or even worse, try obtaining music by Mark Petrie legally. That is not an instrumentable goal as he doesn't actually sell his music. Programs however, have many free alternatives. For instance, instead of pirating Photoshop, you can easily use Paint.NET or GIMP instead. Instead of Windows you have Linux.
Now that it is clear that I am not a supporter of piracy, I can continue to ACTA. While this agreement certainly sounds nice, if read. Contrary to popular belief, a large part of it (the part signed by many members of the EU) is openly available for everyone to read. It, however, is only a minute piece in a puzzle. It barely has any specific points, practically everything can be interpreted differently by different people. Politicians (who, as you know, use lies to cover the truth up) say that this enables separate states choose their own interpretation of the agreement, making sure they make new national laws in accordance with the agreement. Unfortunately this is not completely true, otherwise this agreement would hold no power and there'd be no point in signing it. Every country could deal with piracy independently without outside bias. But ACTA HAS to be understood the same way everywhere. And this is where the danger lies. Which reminds me, soon new episodes of Danger 5 (an Italian show) should be uploaded. Coming back to the subject of ACTA, it must be stated that the only way all countries that have signed the treaty to understand it the same way is to have official rules that dictate how it should be understood. Since politicians are not up to date with these rules, they cannot really know what they are signing. And yet they do sign it. Perhaps because of ignorance, perhaps because they profit from it. It really doesn't matter why they do it, it matters that they do. It would be common sense that politicians look out for the people. However, as YPM proved a long time ago, "government policy has nothing to do with common sense".


[Partly a repost, sorry about that. Never gets old, so I hope you will forgive me for I have sinned.]

The preset rules that dictate the interpretation of the international agreement, as stated before, are not known to the officials and politicians who sign it. These rules probably state that piracy has to be counted a criminal offense for which the punishment allegedly is 5 to 10 years of prison. To put things into perspective, a planned murder is most likely to be sentenced 4 years or less. This is illustrated by the following artwork.

I believe that pretty much everyone agrees that this kind of punishment is folly. However this policy has not been confirmed, as pretty much nothing has been confirmed about ACTA besides its existence. It is only the probable future.
You might argue that this is so ridiculous it could not possibly be probable. Tertullian might start arguing with you on that point if he could, unfortunately he has been dead for a little while. But just think of the alternative. Large secret meetings to discuss ACTA just to be able to slap all pirates in the world on their collective wrists? Such secrecy and ambiguity just to impose small punishments? We know politicians tend not to be the sharpest tools in the shed but even they have some brains. And I use the phrase 'tend to be' because I know fully well that there are some logical politicians out there, no matter how overshadowed they 'tend to be' by their disillusioned colleagues.
You now might think that there is a controversy in what I've written in that politicians hide ACTA because it has a detrimental effect on piracy and freedom of speech, however they do not know the contents of ACTA. I can assure you there is no controversy of the like in my point. Firstly, keeping ACTA secret was most probably not their decision. Secondly, they had to keep ACTA secret because they were told to do so. This does not need them to know what they are hiding.
The point to which I was strenuously trying to reach was that if ACTA didn't consist of harsh punishments for small crimes, it would have nearly no effect on government policies. Anti-piracy laws are in place in countries all over the world. If ACTA was safe and made little change to the world as we know it, it would be powerless and put quite frankly, pointless. Everyone can see logic behind that.
In conclusion, it is clear that in order for ACTA to have a reason for existence, it has to have a large-scale effect on the global piracy culture. This can only be if it was in conflict with human rights, most importantly the freedom of speech. If this too shall pass, the world as we know it will be no more.
Big Brother will be watching everything you do using ISPs as their slaves. People will be forced to submit to the power of giant world powers, such as the United States of America. All opposition will be eliminated. Resistance will be useless.
That is not the future I want. That is not the future any of us really want, save for a few. That is not something that can be allowed to happen.
But as always, it will get much worse before it gets any better.

And no, I will not embed REM here, as suitable as it'd be.

It should also be noted that ACTA would disallow me from embedding these lovely illustrative works of art here and technically I could be considered criminally responsible for sharing copyrighted works.


"Words offer the means to meaning and to those, who will listen, the enunciation of truth."