On the mirror's edge

Published on 02.06.2012., in Ranting

Deep down. Dark reflection, no sound. I'm sitting on a ledge, staring into the deep. Mirror image is so sharp and inviting. To my left is a 4-storey building, under water. In front of me are some boats and occasional cyclists. I check the roof ornaments again, staring into the deep. I realise how this moment is wasted on me, as the mist draws over the mirror, arbitrarily. I'm hoping for a wave, but nothing disrupts this razor-sharp image.
I intend to come here again, sober, happy and with a camera. I intend to steal this moment, wishing I could do it without thinking of you, even though I want to share it with you.
I pull back, trying not to succumb.

Het Scheepvaartmuseum and NEMO

Published on 23.04.2012., in Ranting, Netherlands

This Sunday I did something I wanted to do for years - visit Het Scheepvaartmuseum and NEMO.

Het Scheepvaartmuseum has been on my list since the first time I was in Netherlands, but at that time it was under re-construction (as it was my second time around). Over the time, my interest only grew, thanks to a relatively recent discovery of my weird fascination with all things maritime, which has manifested itself through visits to a number of harbour-cities and their maritime museums. Het Scheepvaartmuseum might not be as rich as Hamburg's Altonaer Museum, but the installations are fairly interesting for a quick couple of hours' browse. The replica of East-Indian Amsterdam might not be as fun as the replica of her Scandinavian counterpart Götheborg, but she's still a mighty fine vessel. Overall, you can't go wrong if you're interested in the sea.

On the other hand, NEMO was a complete disappointment.
I did know that it was kids-oriented, which is why I was weary of it in the times past. But in 2010 I visited Universeum, another kids-oriented science/nature museum, and was completely stunned by things it offered. Expecting something alike, I was very eager to get to NEMO. Unfortunately, I realised it was nothing but a fancy kids' playground, with very little left to be imagined for the adults.
I hate to say it, but the most interesting part for me was getting out on the roof terrace. The view from there is amazing, and I was lucky to get some sunshine. Still, that is something you can do without even getting into the museum.

Bottom line - Het Scheepvaartmuseum: Good; NEMO: Bad.

Panoramas!

Published on 16.08.2011., in Ranting

As you have probably noticed, I have next to no time to fiddle with my own website further than adding new galleries or updating data in either sites or skills sections (not to mention that I have blogged barely twice in last two years).
Well, uni's over, work has kicked in and all the free time has gone into travelling and sorting out photos (which is taking way more time than it used to ever since I found out about HDR and more recently have gone dSLR).

Anyway, last couple of days I've been playing with both new and old panoramas I've taken over time and have decided to publish all of them here, as an additional gallery in photos.

So, go ahead and check them out!

How to gain weight and increase your carbon footprint

Published on 11.02.2010., in Ranting

Take a really big project to work on from home.
Try to have as short deadline as possible, so you'd work all of your woken hours.
Take a parallel project as well, with slightly longer deadline.
Optimise your workspace: make the same room your office, dining room and bedroom. Optimal room size shouldn't be over 6m². If possible, try to pick a room within the shortest walking distance to the toilet.
Work explicitly during the night, and sleep throughout the day.
Order all of your food on-line. Order more than necessary in order to receive free shipping. Desserts are optional.
On extreme occasions prepare your own food, but only if it requires just microwaving something or putting something to boil. Please note that this method both produces less non-recycable junk and counts as a workout, so you should think it through.
Drink approx. 2l of soft drinks daily, opt for most sugary-carbonated ones.
Make your biweekly shower the most physically demanding action.
Repeat for as long as required.

Upon completion, take a moment to admire the amount of plastic and styrofoam in your trash, as well as your new plump line.

Birthdays, like they used to be

Published on 19.12.2009., in Ranting, Madness

Do you remember the time before Facebook, when birthdays were special?
Y'know, when only your closest friends took the trouble of either writing down or memorising the date, then going to even more trouble to think of a witty SMS, cute greeting card or similar and finally sending 'em seconds after midnight to be the first to congratulate you?
Childish as it may be, it did make me feel special, and it went on for over 20 years.
Then, last year, I opened the damn fagbook account and ended up with about 150 wall posts for my birthday, almost all of them generic, and some starting even hours before the actual date (even though the sender was in the same city as me, spare the time-zone).
Did that make my birthday special? No, it made it quite the opposite - it made me feel like the village whore.
So, this year, I went on to conduct an experiment. In hope not to see a Facebook birthday greeting ever again, I decided ti deactivate my account the night before my birthday, and reactivate it at some point the day after my birthday. Alas, I failed in my initial intention as I received a generic greeting about noon of the day before, under excuse "better not to forget". Jumping Jesus, WTF? I'm not blaming this person in particular, it's the whole current "culture", but the basic idea of birthday greetings IS to remember the SPECIFIC date. It's not "happy birth-period-thingy", now, is it? However, that urged me to deactivate account sooner (even though that meant a bit more boring day at the hospital, but all in the good name of science!).
So, people would now have to try and remember how did they send me greetings for all those years prior to last one, and so far - they're failing. It's 2AM, I haven't recieved a single SMS, my email inbox is slowly filling with auto-generated greetings from all the forums and major sites I'm on, and the ONLY human-sent greeting so far is from a cousin.
Ha.
I'm not saying "experiment over, that's that" - but the first stage is rather clear - so far I'd be on at least 50 wall posts, instead I'm on 1.
Morning came with a lousy start - first 4 greetings were from family members (which was never the case), but soon enough, my friends realised that it's definitively not a glitch, and that I'm not on Facebook any more, so SMSes started arriving. Interestingly enough, the first one was from a friend in Slovenia, whom I do hold close and dear, but didn't really expect her to be the first!
The day went on as I hoped it would - which is exactly like all those pre-fagbook years: with actual phone calls (notably more than last year!) and witty SMSes. For me, that's "mission accomplished", and I'll be sticking to the recipe for years to come!

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