giovedì 30 ottobre 2008
domenica 26 ottobre 2008
borderline
I wonder how it comes that deep emotions put into words so often come close to kitsch.. somehow it's nearly frustrating to notice how not suitable language is to communicate really important things. also wondering if humans will ever manage to dig out a more adapt tool.
sabato 25 ottobre 2008
Why life's like a puzzle
- if two pieces do not fit, they were not meant to be united.
- if two pieces nearly fit, they still do not really.
- if you force two pieces together you will only distort the picture and they will be missing somewhere else.
- each piece has it's own place, but the search for it can be long and difficult. at least it is bound to lead to success if one doesn't give up too early.
- everybody feels the emptyness of a missing piece. when it is finally found things fall into place and are cleared up.
- filling in gaps holds some surprises and might change your point of view.
- sometimes you can fit together a lot of pieces because you simply see the connections.
- sometimes you can not find any sense in all the chaos.
- either way, you keep going until you are finished.
venerdì 24 ottobre 2008
As real as possible
When once upon a time people pushed the use of pc's in offices very often 'reducing paper' and therefore 'increasing tidyness' and 'better organization' were important selling points - as virtual desktops somehow tend to enforce these things.. but for the price of keeping people structured against their natural habits :)
As now it becomes fashionable to adapt machines more to human needs than vice versa, new interfaces start to make chaos possible again.
Check out the video:
As now it becomes fashionable to adapt machines more to human needs than vice versa, new interfaces start to make chaos possible again.
Check out the video:
mercoledì 22 ottobre 2008
lunedì 20 ottobre 2008
long forgotten habits
maybe it was due to my early start this morning, i couldnt really determine it. but the day somehow was strange, time passed very quickly and also i did a lot of things which i had not addressed for weeks or even months. and they all somehow fitted in.
but the most amusing and curious thing happened when i went to the state library to pick up some ordered books. you have to search them by yourself in huge shelves (and it was the first time i ever picked up something there) but somehow i found them immediately, they literally made themselves noticed. one of them was not so big so i decided to keep it out of the big bag for reading on the tube. however, i could not bear to go underground so soon again so i choose to walk to the next station where i had to change the lines anyway. but still, i was curious about that book and opened it up, already walking. and this is when it happened; i switched back into that habit i had as a kid: walking along the streets, navigating nearly without taking my eyes from the pages, my head in another world, reading a book until i got to my destination. the moment of arrival then seems like an awakening, returning from some kind of daydream to reality. and as every sudden awakening it has this strange but pleasant moment of feeling startled - about the place at which you happend to be now.
but the most amusing and curious thing happened when i went to the state library to pick up some ordered books. you have to search them by yourself in huge shelves (and it was the first time i ever picked up something there) but somehow i found them immediately, they literally made themselves noticed. one of them was not so big so i decided to keep it out of the big bag for reading on the tube. however, i could not bear to go underground so soon again so i choose to walk to the next station where i had to change the lines anyway. but still, i was curious about that book and opened it up, already walking. and this is when it happened; i switched back into that habit i had as a kid: walking along the streets, navigating nearly without taking my eyes from the pages, my head in another world, reading a book until i got to my destination. the moment of arrival then seems like an awakening, returning from some kind of daydream to reality. and as every sudden awakening it has this strange but pleasant moment of feeling startled - about the place at which you happend to be now.
5:30
and not a bit of sleepiness remaining to drowse away to sleep again.. so i got up. but this left me in the confused state of what to do with so much time before any normal person would start any activities. it nearly felt like a mental block, like 'you are not going to do such a freakish thing' but actually, i did. and it did not feel bad at all, just slightly displaced - in an interesting way.
domenica 19 ottobre 2008
Happy moment
Everyday I recieve some advertisment on god knows what fancy things and recently this makes me happy for one reason: I rejoyce realizing that I DO NOT NEED all this stuff! :)
sabato 18 ottobre 2008
one photo..
.. and so many completely different interpretations! I was really surprised how differently people percieve the same image, showed to them without any specific context. The spontaneous reactions ranged from shocked (it looks really violent, borderline) to completely enthusiastic (oh, so sweeet!). Especially these opposites make me wonder how much the reaction of these people tells about themselves, their experiences in life? And at the same time it again strenghtens the point of photography being something very subjective, in this case even independently from the photographer.
mercoledì 15 ottobre 2008
liking sincere people
I realised again how much I appreciate sincere people. Ok, admittedly sincerity might be a bit rough to take at first, but I am by now convinced that it saves you a lot of trouble down the line (basically the same thing as the short feedback cycles in agile programming... quite a human and common sense thing, really).
It's like filling things in a black box, not knowing if they go together well with what is already in.. but how should you possibly know if the owner doesn't tell? You will usually only notice when suddenly and out of the lightest blue there comes an explosion for some completely minuscule thing. And as is probably intuitive, an explosion tends to cause much more damage than some bit of incompatibility information given at the start.
For this reason, it take it to be quite useful to address people directly when a problem occurs, because most of the time they are not deliberately being a nuisance. I just wonder if generally people need more encouragement to dare to state that they do not like something.
It's like filling things in a black box, not knowing if they go together well with what is already in.. but how should you possibly know if the owner doesn't tell? You will usually only notice when suddenly and out of the lightest blue there comes an explosion for some completely minuscule thing. And as is probably intuitive, an explosion tends to cause much more damage than some bit of incompatibility information given at the start.
For this reason, it take it to be quite useful to address people directly when a problem occurs, because most of the time they are not deliberately being a nuisance. I just wonder if generally people need more encouragement to dare to state that they do not like something.
giovedì 9 ottobre 2008
turned inside out
sometimes I wonder if it is any use for a person's development to always search for the special, unknown, or pretend to be more clever so people would appreciate one.
actually i guess at this point the focus is exactly the wrong way round, as a person then is so fixated on the opinion of others that it is easy to forget how their inside actually looks like. it is as if they became strangers to themselves, which is likely to be the source of a lot of trouble. because how should they be authentic and rest in themselves, when they have forgotten how they are? this is probably quite difficult, but what is more is the scare they are likely to develop against looking at themselves as they really are. supposedly, one would notice one's faults first, as they probably were the first reason why one initially tried to make up with pretending. this might in fact be very hard to accept, but after delusion some positive surprises are likely to be in store, for example when a problem is mastered better than expected. in some sense it is like sounding one's limits, accepting the deficits as well as the talents.
actually, i do still not understand why often it seems to be so difficult to take on the good things about the own personality.. i wonder if it might have to do with responsibility? it seems as if accepting and promoting one's deficiencies would absolve the person in question of the responsibility of doing or at least attempting things in a specific area, so maybe for tricky things self-depreciation is the more comfortable option. conversely, does accepting a talent not imply the duty to train it (which might be hard work) as well as using it for something good (which might even be harder)?
actually i guess at this point the focus is exactly the wrong way round, as a person then is so fixated on the opinion of others that it is easy to forget how their inside actually looks like. it is as if they became strangers to themselves, which is likely to be the source of a lot of trouble. because how should they be authentic and rest in themselves, when they have forgotten how they are? this is probably quite difficult, but what is more is the scare they are likely to develop against looking at themselves as they really are. supposedly, one would notice one's faults first, as they probably were the first reason why one initially tried to make up with pretending. this might in fact be very hard to accept, but after delusion some positive surprises are likely to be in store, for example when a problem is mastered better than expected. in some sense it is like sounding one's limits, accepting the deficits as well as the talents.
actually, i do still not understand why often it seems to be so difficult to take on the good things about the own personality.. i wonder if it might have to do with responsibility? it seems as if accepting and promoting one's deficiencies would absolve the person in question of the responsibility of doing or at least attempting things in a specific area, so maybe for tricky things self-depreciation is the more comfortable option. conversely, does accepting a talent not imply the duty to train it (which might be hard work) as well as using it for something good (which might even be harder)?
Religion for dummies?
Further titles in that series also star Satanism for dummies, Jihad for dummies etc..
I wonder how good a book like that is, has anyone once opened one of them? I guess I am not so convinced of the attempt to squeeze religions or cults into a nutshell like that, claiming to make them easily accessible and less complex as they are. But maybe for a start? I don't know.
oh, there is even a link to pictures of scientology for dummies it seems they are about to publish it and want people's opinion on the cover. check it out :)
martedì 7 ottobre 2008
Reply all...
is probably one of the most stupid functions if in the wrong hands! It really gets me upset when people can not control themselves and spam everybody's (including my) inbox with their absolutely peanut responses! I mean, this is what most groups have a coordinator for.. so only one person has to bother about this stuff...
Maybe I shouldn't be so annoyed but rather feel priviledged to know that one person was not able to read the correct time in an email and therefore made another appointment which in turn will cause him to be late to a rehearsal for about half an hour but actually itdoesntinterestme because icannotevenbethere!!!
Maybe I shouldn't be so annoyed but rather feel priviledged to know that one person was not able to read the correct time in an email and therefore made another appointment which in turn will cause him to be late to a rehearsal for about half an hour but actually itdoesntinterestme because icannotevenbethere!!!
surprisingly easy
More and more one hypothesis is growing in my mind, namely that no matter how crazy, prestigious, or ambitious a matter might be it's roots are simple and trivial.
Probably in the beginning there is some informal email, where someone you knows invites you to join a project, like a concert somewhere (in this case Florence). You think to yourself 'alright, sounds cool', accept and start preparing yourself; something that you have done thousands of times before. Of course, on the way you will find out how difficult it can be to coordinate people for rehearsals etc, but still when you arrive there things go as usual. Just maybe that you don't really know when and where you go or where you will stay, but someone will tell you in time so no reason to bother. Quite suddenly you find yourself in a hotel, putting down your things and some strange thought crosses your mind 'actually, how come that I am here in this foreign place for playing a concert? i did everything as always but things somehow changed to a different track'. And only from there you realise that the whole thing was planned that way, that you doing something you would not have thought possible but that you are still the same and actually quite capable of living up to the expectations. From that point, everything continues as before - it's the same ritual every time, everywhere. Tune, adjust yourself, rehearse, relax, tune again, and there we go.
Just around this routine there are millions of details, things that simply happen when one meets new people, and some of them are nearly hilariously funny :) For example the guides of the church in which we played told us: 'no, it's closed for the public now, you are not allowed to enter! but if you want, there is a concert this evening, you can come back then.' When we explained that we actually were the musicians, they first gave us a quite puzzled look but then showed a lot of understanding and let us pass. However, things continued like that when we had a look at the instruments or were depositing our stuff as at first there was noone to show us around :) Also the coordination during the concert was a bit spontaneous, but luckily only the formalities were affected by this. In the end it turned out that exactly one link had been missing: the lady coordinating between San Lorenzo and the external music institutes had not appeared this evening.
In the end all that chaos did not matter: it was a real pleasure to play in this beautiful and huge church, whose dimensions gave great possibilities to experiment with sound whilst still providing a somehow homely atmosphere.
In the evening all this seemed so different already, somehow unreal. But still I could fall asleep with the happy and grateful feeling that on my first solo trip everything had gone well.
Probably in the beginning there is some informal email, where someone you knows invites you to join a project, like a concert somewhere (in this case Florence). You think to yourself 'alright, sounds cool', accept and start preparing yourself; something that you have done thousands of times before. Of course, on the way you will find out how difficult it can be to coordinate people for rehearsals etc, but still when you arrive there things go as usual. Just maybe that you don't really know when and where you go or where you will stay, but someone will tell you in time so no reason to bother. Quite suddenly you find yourself in a hotel, putting down your things and some strange thought crosses your mind 'actually, how come that I am here in this foreign place for playing a concert? i did everything as always but things somehow changed to a different track'. And only from there you realise that the whole thing was planned that way, that you doing something you would not have thought possible but that you are still the same and actually quite capable of living up to the expectations. From that point, everything continues as before - it's the same ritual every time, everywhere. Tune, adjust yourself, rehearse, relax, tune again, and there we go.
Just around this routine there are millions of details, things that simply happen when one meets new people, and some of them are nearly hilariously funny :) For example the guides of the church in which we played told us: 'no, it's closed for the public now, you are not allowed to enter! but if you want, there is a concert this evening, you can come back then.' When we explained that we actually were the musicians, they first gave us a quite puzzled look but then showed a lot of understanding and let us pass. However, things continued like that when we had a look at the instruments or were depositing our stuff as at first there was noone to show us around :) Also the coordination during the concert was a bit spontaneous, but luckily only the formalities were affected by this. In the end it turned out that exactly one link had been missing: the lady coordinating between San Lorenzo and the external music institutes had not appeared this evening.
In the end all that chaos did not matter: it was a real pleasure to play in this beautiful and huge church, whose dimensions gave great possibilities to experiment with sound whilst still providing a somehow homely atmosphere.
In the evening all this seemed so different already, somehow unreal. But still I could fall asleep with the happy and grateful feeling that on my first solo trip everything had gone well.
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