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..
Working environment
You know that you’ve done something right when your working environment looks like this. Yes I am working in computer science but there’s nothing for creativity than a fountain pen and some sheets of blank paper.
Add a coffee house featuring dark interior, subtle music and a never ending supply of well-brewn coffee and I’m happy. Subtle music in this case was an interesting mix of Tom Waits and Gotan Project.
This is the Amacord and is situated at the Naschmarkt/Schleifmuehlgasse, 4th district, Vienna. Coffee is not too expensive too.