geek love

"There is no truth in the rumour that I love computers, it's just what I tell them to get them to bed."

 -- Terry Pratchett

catalogue of pointless hobbies

entry 1:
collecting skiing boots:
doubtful because expensive in monetary and spatial terms, plus not very nice to look at

entry 2:
trying to have matching shoes for each outfit:
only possible way to succeed would be if the only color is black.. and even then it would be a hard task, finishing with more pairs then you could wear in a month (and a hefty overdraft on the credit card)

entry 3:
devising optimisation procedures for the food machine:
ends with regular frustration why people don't use their brains and my cookies are always crumbled when they came down from the top shelf...

what is research?

* being paid for keeping yourself busy all day by thinking about problems?
* assuming that the solution already exists (somewhere in the domain of possibilities, or somewhere else in the world) and therefore has to be re-searched in order to (hopefully) be re-found??
* other proposals?

(I presumably need your help on that one, as - according to this definition - I already missed the chance to ever become a serious researcher in my childhood... (how should I have known that a grandmother's clock should have any significance to my career path ;) )

new music - just printed and recorded..

In case anyone thinks I'm having lazy weekends... I'm not... :) In fact, I spent all Saturday and Sunday in the studio, recording a new soundtrack for a very old short film. The music was composed by Tiziano Popoli for last year's short film festival in Bolzano and we played the world first performance. Now, one year later, the resistant core of the orchestra found together again and on this weekend we finally recorded Tiziano's wonderful music. I think it went quite well, and I'm impatient to see the final result: the movie with our freshly packed soundtrack :)
If anyone is interested in having a 'good old time' cinema experience, I invite you warmly to our concert next Saturday: as there is another film festival this year (which is even dedicated to these 'rimusicazioni's) we will perform with two films, one with the mentioned soundtrack and one with music by Satie.

alternative music

Maybe some of you know about interesting modern music, for example for tape and orchestra or piano with integrated toolboxes...

So how does that sound: 'Music for one apartment and six drummers' ? If you are curious, click here!

For more on the group go here.

when in doubt..

When in doubt, tell the truth.
-- Mark Twain

on care

Perilous to all of us are the devices of an art deeper than we ourselves
possess.
-- Gandalf the Grey [J.R.R. Tolkien, "Lord of the Rings"]

on wisdom

He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien

big brother is watching you

I seriously feel a bit paranoid on occasions.. I finally start to be able to read Russian letters... and, what happens?? I now get Russian Spam!! Jeez, wonder how they found out... especially as I'm not a frequent user of .ru domains... Spooky

a flavour of brighton

I will be back...

for some of you, I was - yesterday...
for some of you, I will be tomorrow.
for some of you, it will take me more than that.
but when it is time, I will be back.

if you are bored...

.... play games, feed the world, and improve your vocabulary HERE.

Life is full of surprises

There is this difficult trade-off in life: either you try to never make plans and let everything come to you, but still feel you're not satisfied because there is no goal and aim and only random things happening. On the other hand it seems that, no matter what plan you make up, it is very likely to be crossed by some event that you couldn't possibly have imagined. And this unpreparedness can turn to incredible frustration. In these cases, however, it is lucky if you are able to find that this unthought of possibility opens up entirely new ways to you. It might not be enough to compensate for the loss of your plans though, at least initially. So what is the result of this? I just wonder, if the only way to get by is to make your choice and then see what life offers you and if things go differently to repeat the procedure?

I want a pink elephant!!!

or maybe this?

Mirrors

For a long time, I have been startled by the phenomenon that people I know reacted so differently when interacting with different people around them. Recently, however, I've come to meet or better know some people very different to me and I've come to realise that my own behaviour changes rapidly according to theirs. It is a bit similar to (how we always enjoyed as kids) someone being without voice and wispering and suddenly everybody is talking silently. They still send more or less the same messages but the tone is entirely different. Now I could experience the same thing on myself, and on some occasions I hardly recognise myself, suddenly being more straightforward, softer, more aggressive... Now I just wonder how this reaction is balanced... if it is even, so both characters influence the mood of the situation or if one or the other forces itself on the other one? In a sort of hierarchy of moods or attitudes..? Who is the mirror and who the one being reflected?