Time to update the weblog again.. I’m still alive but covered with work lately.
I’ve been non-smoking since the Bruce Springsteen concert on July, 5th. So for it has worked out, my initial fears that I’ll loose some valued habits that I associated with cigarettes did not come true. Funny how I was never able to imagine myself in a coffee house or waiting without a cigarette.. and now I do not even know why. I’m still addicted to coffee (and the stays in aforementioned coffee houses to cure my need). What did it make different this time? I started to watch smokers during their daily life — my prejudgement that smoking makes all of us calmer was shattered afterwards. And what other reason to smoke did I ever state (sans the addiction part)?
What kept me occupied? My master thesis mostly. The attending professor did the first review of my thesis and the results were less than joyous. Seems like I’ll have to rewrite most of the thesis to make him happy. But his is one thing about hackers: when we fall down we get up and try to make most out of it. Otherwise no one would ever finish any development project. I’ll have to edit most of my thesis and develop a new storyline for its use cases but at least it seems that the software itself is finished (except the demonstration use cases).
The rest of my time went into SECOQC. A new release is around the porch and will improve various internals as well as provide a new user experience (sounds funny when this means mostly a new command line interface). So I’m doing a bit of user interface development lately: it’s rapid feedback loop is quite redeeming.
And of course I was not able to stay away from concerts. As NiN’s current tour is called “wave goodbye” I had to travel to Budapest for one (hopefully not last) concert. Did you know that you can get shriveled fingertips at a live concert? I didn’t. Thanks to Google Maps on the iPhone we were able to find the Szimpla again after the concert. Great place to hang out if you have some spare time in Budapest, but I never seem able to find the exit..
Hopefully I’ll be able to cover my master thesis with a real announcement soon.. to achieve this I’ve switched to “productive” mode: I’ve locked myself in with a stockpile of pizza and wine (-: code needs to be written.
Dear lazy web,
sometimes I get the urge to clean out cruft lying around my room, otherwise my mind keeps on thinking about stuff that still needs to be read or repaired.
Cloths get donated, eBay is good for larger stuff. But what about books? They tend to spread around me, some of them just collecting dust and without chance of ever being read again. I’ve used Amazon Marketplace for time to time but did run into some problems lately: their rates seem rise and now I’ve got some problems with them recognizing my banking account for pay-outs.. funny as it is the same account that I’m using for years to pay my book bills on the same site.
So, dear web, are there any alternatives? What I search for is a marketplace for used books, possibly nationally ordered so that I might cut on transportation costs.
27 it is.
Should I be afraid of getting old? Feel my oldish bones? I’ve been at a Bruce Springsteen concert two days ago and after seeing that 60year-old doing his thing age does not seem as menacing as usual.
So how did the last year go? It did have its highs and lows but that’s the trade-off of being alive. The first nine month were marked by lots of work, I learned a lot thanks to my coworkers. At the same time excessive party-going was happening, balance got lost. I did not always do the things that would make me feel proud and that would be worth chasing after for the rest of my life. Life had to change.
The last three months have been more quiet. I “really” started to work on my master thesis again, we canceled another master thesis that was stagnating.. overall some open loops have been closed or are currently being worked on. A stealthy “Simplify your life”-operation seems to have occurred in the background, through it my financial situation got clearer — while not alarming the recession did take its share.
Writing helps me to clear my mind, writing in public does wonders for committing myself to something. So what are my goals for the next year?
- finish master thesis. Actually both of them. They’ve been on my mind far too long.
- live more healthy: during the last years I’ve done much harm to my body: lack of movement, sleep deprivation, smoking.. the list gets longer and longer. The next goal for the coming year is to stop smoking, and be happy with it. This implies doing more sport which is always a bonus.
- reconnect to the real world.. seems like I’ve lost human touch from times to times. Also a real vacation is long overdue.. now that I’ve clarified my financial situation I can think about where I want to go and how I can collect the required funds.
- There’s still that guitar thingie standing in my room.. find time and passion to learn to make it talk
So long and thanks for everything.
60 years. 180 minutes.
The house has been build.
I’ll be at the next concert.
Badlands you gotta live it every day
Let the broken hearts stand
As the price youve gotta pay
Well keep pushin till its understood
And these badlands start treating us good
Bruce Springsteen – Badlands
Henry David Thoreau: Walden
Walden. It’s one of the books that need the right time to be read and took eons otherwise. So what’s it about?
Self-Reliance and human development. Mostly through simple living and solitude. Rethinking common moral assumptions.
Good points. Sometimes excellently written. But if you can paraphrase the whole book with three sentences why write around four-hundred pages about it? Now I know lots about animals and geography around Lake Walden, most of that knowledge is of course dated nowadays (and wouldn’t be of use even otherwise).
While reading the book never forget that the self-reliant dweller lived two miles from civilization and got a food basket each weekend from his mum. Wilderness indeed.
Still the idea of a simple lifestyle has its merits. Paired with the will to give most commitments freedom might truly await.
I never knew, and never shall know, a worse man than myself.
Walden, Henry David Thoureau
Nova Rock 2009
..I’ve only lived to tell. All after all the festival was a good one, the only disappointment was the weather: At the end of the first day heavy rain broke out which led to heavy mud. I was very impressed with the bands overall, there were no real disappointments:
Nine Inch Nails. I’m more than a bit biased, I’ve listened to them too much for a long time and they were the primary reason for my attending of Novarock. Half an hour into their set heavy rain broke in and after ninety minutes a fuse blow and the band had to stop. Till then the concert was totally awesome: this was the best or second-to-best NiN concert that I’ve ever attended. And on the other side the rain did help me: my head made unwelcome acquintance with a thrown glass of vodka lemon and the water washed all out from my hair and skin.
Machine Head. My second reason for Nova Rock. I’ve seen them one and a half years ago in Vienna where the audio sucked, this time they took extra long to tune their gear.. and it was worth it: they played an absolute amazing concert. I went there having quite a bit of a headache but after approx. ten minutes started to bang my head.. and never quite stopped. The atmosphere during the concert was magical, the band seemed to enjoy it too. And I lost some scrunchies during head-banging.
Faith No More. Wow! The band does not really take themselves too serious.. their Pokerface (by lady gaga) cover was.. cool. Also they should have been awarded a price for best audience interaction.
Staind. They played in the mud on the second day. Cool band, there aren’t many bands that can combine that gutural growling and melodic singing as Staind.
Chickenfoot. This superband consists of parts of Satriani, Van Halen and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I expected much and wasn’t disappointed. I kinda miss never hearing to Van Halen, if that band was half as good as this one they must have been great.
Chris Cornell. He started weak (Bitch ain’t part of me) but got better. In sum he played songs from half a dozen of bands (Audioslave, Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin). You still can’t call him doing covers as he was lead of most of that bands. And you can’t be too sorry after hearing Black Hole Sun or Good Times, Bad Times live.
Disturbed. Lead singer: My brother and sisters.. we are.. audience: DISTURBED!
Today I’ve reentered civilization, enjoyed a long bath and now I’m off to see a coffee house. The festival was great, thanks and kudos to all people that made it possible.
Now back to writing my master thesis..