After someone compared my sarcasm and irony spiked view of world politics with poetry I felt like getting down and dirty, jumping onto the haiku bandwagon.

Oil Trade In Euro
The Big One Will Not Like You
Brings Democracy

I kinda like it, even tho I’m not exactly known for being a haiku fan ;-)

I just hope my inner crystal ball is wrong in what I foresee for Iran’s near future.
It already happened once, they came, liberated, brought democracy, and found it to be so cozy there, that they’re still in the neighborhood.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, [insert your deity here] may help us all.

If you understand German, you have to watch/listen to the following video.
Stubborn old people being pro online-surveillance...
because...
They've got "nothing to hide".

Magnitude of Irrelavance

I like it when people comment on stuff, be it on this site or somewhere else. I think comments are one important aspect of interaction. People give feedback, others feed that back to the commenter; there is people interacting with each other.

But lately I have realized there are a lot of irrelavant comments out there. Those which only are posted to be the first comment. This is both pointless, meaninless, impolite, and whatnot.

“First Comment“s are pointless

Oh looky, ata-boy made a comment! wee!

Are people that insecure and unimportant they have to make a point of HAVING NOTHING TO SAY?

“First Comment“s are meaningless

There is no meaning in them. There is no question asked, no misunderstaning pointed out, no agreement nodded; not even a fight picked or a flamewar started. It is NOTHING!

“First Comment“s are impolite

Imagine you make a speech, or a presentation. At the end you ask “Any questions?”, because that’s the point where discussion should start. But instead of asking a related question, someone just yells “No question, I just came in to say nothing. Bye!”

This is impolite, even rude. It stinks and only lowers the signal to noise ratio.

What not and what else

Please do not be a dick, cunt, asshole, moron, dumbass, or fuckhead. When you comment on something, give it meaning, raise a point, ask a question, insult someone, blame the aliens, or tell everbody about how you were abused as a kid.

Please leave comments whereever you go, whereever you browse. But just do not write “first comment”. You are only adding to your insignificance.

If you don’t feel like posting a comment, you can reach me via email.

Tell me some more cuss words vie the comments, please. Be creative – or be still.

Digg This

Just do me the favor and Digg This it does not take much.

Why you should Digg This

Donationcoder is the only non-political forum on the ‘net I find worthwhile. Donationcoder is good. mouser is the mastermind behind Donationcoder who comes up will all sorts of ideas.

Getting Things Done and Get Everything Organized were such an idea. Not a new idea though, someone else had already written a book about it as I understand. Now, mouser just interviewed this person and published it as a podcast!

Tell me more, then I will Digg This

• Podcast here
• GTD thread here
• podcast announcement
• Digg This
• Donationcoder.com Website
• Links to many social bookmark sites so you can easily submit it to your favorite one with just one extra click

ok one more: PLEASE! :-)

Just this once, we need to get the word out!

Note!

Only digg it, if you really think it is worth a digg. Don’t be manipulated or mind-controlled by me! Be smart – be independent – think for yourself! Do not digg it if you don’t want to.

last friday i met a pretty cool guy at the bar we went to play pool at (the bar that happened to be right next to this thingy)
he was pretty old, but nevertheless a fun guy to have a discussion with.

the main topic was language.
he, being able to speak 7 languages (that’s what he said), including english, spanish, french, german and japanese, seemed to have gotten around quite a lot (it turned out he was once a sailor).

the funny thing about the whole discussion was, that we both had the same perception of what the difference in “knowing a language” and “knowing a language” is.

this whole thing kept me thinking and suddenly, half a week later, while sitting on the BART from pleasanton to oakland, it hit me.
i found a nice way to, literally picture the whole thing.

using a language is pretty much like drawing and painting.

learning a language you start off with the bare basics, like what are the components of the sentences, how do you build sentences, etc. this is pretty much the frame, your paper, the tools, your paint.

you start off with drawing a rough pencil sketch, placing words somewhere on the huge, white space of the fabric.
it looks pretty blunt, and it sounds like that too. it is probably, if at all, conjugated the wrong way.
the order of things is not correct yet.
it’s far from being a master piece.

but once you’ve been doing this for a while, the sketches start looking better, far from perfect, but better.
people will actually see where you want to go. they will understand the basic meaning of what you want to say.

rough sketches are by no means meant to communicate details, and are very likely to be misinterpreted.

now, since you’ve been learning, you’ll get to the point where the word order is pretty good.
and you’ve collected enough words (tools) to make up an adequate vocabulary.
it’s like adding color.
pictures with colors look more natural, putting color into your language does the same thing.

you begin to pick up techniques from various other artists, slang so to say.
you try a little of this, add a bit more red on this side, take away a hint of blue there…

of course, you can always work “by the book”, hence the title of this post “language by numbers”.
tho people will notice this right away, since, as everyone can tell, those pictures where you just have to fill in the colors in the numbered spaces always look cheap.

well, so i’ve been sitting on BART, thinking about exactly this, while all around me people were talking.
it was evening rush hour, and the train was kind of packed; and, as usual for this area, you have a nice mix of styles.
the heavy, soulful brushstrokes of the african americans, the soft, almost filigree chinese language paintinge, the rough, picasso-ish hispanic style, and all of the many american flavors.

it’s like walking thru a huge art collection, taking short breaks in front of the various paintings, done by great masters, as well as unskilled schoolars.

and there’s one more thing both, language and paintings, have in common:
even tho you can learn how to draw and paint, some people never get past kindergarten level.

huge signs, tiny buttons, “i didn’t know” is not the proper excuse for j-walking, it’s “i couldn’t find the button” (it’s the tiny brass ‘nipple’)

hellooooo there, look who’s having a house right next to the bar :D

talk about disgusting, this is considered coffee in the states, i’ll stick to ‘french roast’ for now

nightlife in oakland, the city from a safe distance and cute, snuggly, cuddly killer rakoons.

the christian fundamentalists are all over TV

yesterday i found myself a new place to stay!

some of you might know already, but for those who don’t, here again.
right now i’m living in somewhere in oakland.
to get to BART i have to take the line 47 maxwell park [pdf] to fruitvale station.
fruitvale is kind of, well, mexico. not suitable for “white bread” like myself to walk thru.
but it’s ok, the bus is fine, ignoring that it wont run on saturdays and sundays.
nervertheless, my filipino roommate and her boyfriend are cool and we’re getting along great.

aaanyways, back on topic.
i found myself a new home in dublin which is a lot nearer to the place i work at.
and it looks like it is a lot safer too.

my soon-to-be landlord is currently remodelling the whole place, and in the same sentence he used to asked me to help him move some of the stuff in one room to another room, he lowered the rent down to a total bargain.
he also just got “broadband internet” and stopped pirating off his neighbors wireless.
and offering my wifi accesspoint for the time i’ll be staying there as the means to spread the intarweb all over the house (secured of course) just added cheap discount internet access to my rent: additional costs $0.00.

moving is scheduled for the 15th, so i have a little more than 2 weeks left in oakland.

amongst the things i’ve noticed over here, is one, that is kind of interesting.
everything differs in matters of factors, and i’m not talking about 1.3 or 0.7 more like 3+.

well, it’s not a rule, actually, i made it up, but it kind of gets to the point:
if you compare let’s say the states and germany, the difference is (most of the times) a matter of multiples.
this is by no means statistically proven, but more of a feeling.

meals: 3x bigger in the states.
water pressure: 3x more in germany.
tips: 15% in the US, optional in germany.
friendliness: the average american you meet at a bar, the grocery store, whereever is almost “up your ass” friendly.
buying a house: 3x higher price in the states.
gas: half the price for the same amount if you’re in the states
the chance to get shot as a policeman: i think it’s more likely to happen in oakland alone than in germany.
chlorine in the tap water: i’m not even touching this one…

about the ‘getting shot’ thing:
oakland police seems to be desperate already:
they have stickers on the back of the police cars reading “now hiring”, and i’m not joking.

looks like there’s all kind of weird, sometimes even funny, shit happening around me.
i almost feel like i’m the lorenz attractor for murphy events.

i’ve met all kinds of people already. weird people, crazy people, everything!

and i got a car today.
it’s pretty run down, but drives ok, so it should be fine for the 7 months.
i just had to get some new rear tires.

since i got told that wallmart sells pretty cheap tires, i went there, i would have never even dared setting a single foot in a wallmart otherwise.

ye well, i got told it will take like 45 minutes, maybe an hour, so we went to get some sushi, which was pretty good, AND cheap. happy hour hooray :D

when we got back to the wallmart the back where they do the car stuff was closed, kinda weird, since it was anything but 8pm which is the time they usually close.
so we went to the front and noticed something, well, funny.
around 10 police cars standing in front of the wallmart.

total lockdown… wtf?
just two words: bomb threat.

it HAD to happen, murphy’s with me, all the time.
my car, of course, was still inside.

around 7pm, i was already back at the apartment, someone called.
“hello sir, do you have a car at wallmart?”

ye.. right, gonna pick it up tomorrow.
time for an sleep overdose first.

> Sony may have “Crippled” PSP performance due to Battery issues
>
> ...Had they launched the PSP with games running at a fully unlocked 333Mhz, the battery would die in less than 2 hours…It now seems apparent that Sony have actually delivered a portable console whose capabilities are too advanced for current battery technology

how can people mistake high battery consumption for “too advanced”

gamers, or how i like to call em, idiots, geez, someone have a spare shipping of brain?

this qualifies my old 500mhz desktop as being advaned, since it empties a battery just by going through POST.

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