christmas time approaching..

and the supposed main characters of the event get in touch via email...??!

curious family business

It is really interesting what one comes accross when searching for some technical information on the internet. The following excerpt is from an msdn developer's blog which i was browsing for information on wf. It was just too good to keep it for myself ;)

What kind of uncle am I?

Like every language, English has its own collection of words to express family relationships. There are the easy ones like mother, father, brother, and sister. Also comparatively easy are cousin, aunt, uncle, niece and nephew. But most people don't know about this "removal" part, beyond the fact that your "first cousin twice removed" is somebody you probably met once at a wedding ten years ago.

It's really not that complicated. Some people think removal has to do with estrangement, but actually it has to do with generations. The children of your Nth cousin are your Nth cousins once removed. Their grandchildren are your Nth cousins twice removed. In general, to find your Nth cousin K times removed, go to your Nth cousin and then follow their children K times.

You can also look at it from the point of view of the younger relative: Your Nth cousin K times removed is the Nth cousin of your Kth direct ancestor, where K = 1 is your parent, K = 2 is your grandparent, etc. For example, your father's second cousin is your second cousin once removed. There's a nice chart at genealogy.com that depicts many of these more complicated relationship terms.

here is an article on the terminology ;)

so what now?

this

Replace the code in the InitializeComponent method in the Mainform.Designer.cs file (hidden by default in the “Windows Form Designer Code” section) with the following code.

or that:

Der Inhalt der Methode darf nicht mit dem Code-Editor geändert werden.

everyday things

some news make the world seem like an economy strategic game, where after a bad strategy a message turns up telling: "your toilet paper supplies are running low"

don't look at this at work..

context sensitive ads

streichQuartett

"wieviel hubraum hat deine geige? hehe, meine hat mehr, stich!"

come rain, come shine

or both at the same time...

looking for amoeba

it should be some multicomputer operating system... but as i found on wikipedia, it's also the name of a water device with the curious name Advanced Multiple Organized Experimental Basin with which you can write letters in a water basin...

For further information check out this article.

sharing is caring

recently we were cutting the jasmin bushes in our garden. as we had a ginormous amount of flowering branches, we put them in some vases on the street, to share them with the neighbours.
we felt very pleased as quite some people walked by carrying some branches. however, when my mum checked how much was left, not only the flowers but also one vase was gone!

we were rather annoyed, so i went to put up a sign: please take the flowers but bring back our vase. not long after, a woman stopped by to tell us she had 'found' the vase in some front garden round the corner. these guys were quite surprised when my mum came to see them; and they promised to bring the vase back once the flowers where wilting. mine are doing so by now, so i am curious when i will see that vase again!

blow your mind

By now it is a well-known trick to break obsessive perfectionism: Do something out of your routine. Like taking the wrong bus, remain in your train one or two stops too long and see where it takes you to, take the other turn on your way home.. or the other staircase.

On my hitlist these days are: inviting a stranger for tea (to be precise, someone who thinks you are your own sister), going to perform music knowing only place and time but not people and pieces, playing scotland yard with the public transport, greeting someone with good wishes without needing anything from them, not even information. Probably most of these things sound rather trivial. Maybe they are, but one thing i've learned is that doing simple things you're not used to can be quite difficult.

The results of this study are quite varied, with one common element: the outcome was always interesting and positive, as well as relaxing. Like fresh air blowing through my head, taking away all the dullness and over-focussedness of everyday life. The best experience was being surprised by the world, even sometimes surprising myself (which usually proves even more difficult). And as surprises are, one remembers them and the special aspect of the world which made them happen.

Baseline of the whole thing: I warmly recommend you to try breaking your routines (that is, if you do have them). One thing to keep in mind though is to try this when you're alone - you can't coordinate so well when you don't know what you're going to do next!

curiosity of the day

inviting an apparently acquainted person for tea and realising afterwards that nobody in your house actually knew him. at least the address left for staying in touch gave some hint about his identity :)

creative crisis

Kundenabschreckung

Bei einer solchen Werbung wird auch das Vertrauen in die Ernsthaftigkeit des Betreibers erschüttert...
[gefunden online am 29.01.09]

introducing your course of study

you should make sure everybody understands what it is really about, otherwise you might end up with someone asking you:

"Your course is a main course, right?"

relativizing opposites

left = right;

sometimes i really like program logic... :)

random guest list

I wonder how it would be to make a party with all the people that I see online at the moment in skype.. Probably the best description would be 'quite randomized social experiment', as a lot of them are from totally different groups and have never met before, so the constellations would be rather interesting. Best would probably be if I was not present at that event, so the unifying factor would not be there either.. (and noone could eat me in case of things not working out ;)

4'33" or the absence of silence

today these music scores fell into my hands by mere chance. Of course I had heard about John Cage and his (in)famous piece before, but actually laying hands on the score and seeing how to write down 'nothing' really impressed me. It is nearly an offence to people to mock them in such way; but at the same time it is an act of a genius. In a handwritten introduction, one finds how to perform this piece:
It can be performed by any instrument or combinations of instruments, and there are different versions of subdividing it into the compulsory three movements. How this is done is up to the performer(s).
Then there is the piece - sketched down on one page three movements, all of them tacets... simply

        I
     tacet
       II
     tacet
      III
     tacet

nothing else...

Now my curiosity was definitely too much so I started searching more information on this piece. The most interesting ones I collected here for you:

first performance by david tudor



The reactions to this first performance were quite strong, from confused to furious. Somehow I can not even imagine how these people must have felt, being confronted with such performance, totally unexpectedly. At no time before this 'nothing', which actually reveiled the absence of total silence, had counted as music or had been performed as such in public. (Actually, the idea was not completely new. Other silences existed already at the time, however written down in another, more verbose way... )

By now, the piece has become very famous and is being performed with all kinds of groups of musicians for quite enthusiastic audiences. For me the most peculiar of those was the following:

performance by the bbc symphony orchestra



Isn't it incredible? To let this whole bunch of world class musicians sit and do nothing, apart from existing? As the presenter states, these performances incur a lot of tension.. I really believe this - actually I wonder if I could even sit out those 4 and a half minutes without bursting into laughter half way through!
But then, it surely must be a very fascinating experience.

If you are interested you might enjoy this short essay on the idea behind the piece, this article "the sounds of silence", and also the following one which raises the question who actually owns 'silence'?

last but not least, I wanted to share with you another one of John Cage's works - a sonata for prepared piano:

wow

cuba impressions


found on someones travel album

23rd December

Prepare for tomorrow:

Tyli naktis, šventa naktis!
Viskas miega, tik dar vis.
Motinėlė ten budi viena.
Kūdikis su meilia šypsena
Ilsisi, miega ramiai,
Ilsisi, miega ramiai.

Tyli naktis, šventa naktis!
Pildos dieviška mintis:
Viešpats, tapęs mažu vaikeliu,
Žada sieloms malonių gausių
Savo šventu gimimu
Savo šventu gimimu

Tyli naktis, šventa naktis!
Vyksta meilės paslaptis.
Angelų giesmė skamba nakčia,
nešdama piemenims žinią šią:
Jau Išganytojas čia!
Jau Išganytojas čia!

also possible:

Klusa nakts, svēta nakts!
Visi dus. Nomodā
Vēl ir Jāzeps un Marija
Kūtī, Dāvida pilsētā.
Jēzus silītē dus,
Jēzus silītē dus.

Klusa nakts, svēta nakts!
Ganiem Dievs novēl Pats
Dzirdēt eņģeļus slavējam,
Tuvu, tālu skandinām:
Kristus - Glābējs ir klāt!
Kristus - Glābējs ir klāt!

Klusa nakts, svēta nakts!
Dieva Dēls, Tava acs
Mirdz mums dievišķā skaidrībā.
Nu ir dvēsele pestīta,
Jo Tu dzimis par mums!
Jo Tu dzimis par mums!


or if you are a conservative person, stick to the original:

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Alles schläft, einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar,
Holder Knabe mit lockigem Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh.

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht
Lieb’ aus deinem holdseligen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund’,
Christ, in deiner Geburt,
Christ, in deiner Geburt!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht!
Hirten erst kund gemacht;
Durch der Engel Halleluja
Tönt es laut von fern und nah’;
Christ der Retter ist da,
Christ der Retter ist da!

either way, oil your voices so you can fully join in tomorrow night! :)

8th December

Too tired to write much... but fascinated by mirrow occurrences in life, like a role swap in theater.