on the idiocy of some

don't ask me for what obscure reason i have finally made up my mind to go to a master's degree. fact is, i have. and there's this cute little subject called... never mind. doesn't matter, anyway. and in this suject we have to make a presentation of a book. general description, topics teated, blah blah, and insist upon a chapter we deem important.
well, along comes a colleague of mine with his "presentation". he starts reading it, mind you, of his darn paper. ok, maybe he's not good at presentations. but he isn't good at reading either. kept stumbling through the words like a drunken elephant. hard as i tried, i couldn't follow what he was saying but for the mutters and mumbles. and then the book lands on my desk. i open it and... surprise, surprise. the bloke was actually reading the preface of the darn book, word by word. and not even reading it properly. and his in depth presentation of the chapter, which was not at all an important one, well... yeah, he read us the chapter aloud, in the same 4th grader manner.
well, i know i'm a nerd. but mind you there are people out there who aren't, but who still can read. so this guy basically cheats by copying a preface and he can't even read that clearly. the only question i still have is whether he copied the text, or just scanned it. my guess would be for the latter. oh, and as to the title of the blog entry. the idiocy is entirely mine. because idiots like these still get my pulse racing in rage...

olympic discipline of heart spilling

i wanted to rant about something, but am not sure what got me started on this. must be my old age :). what i do remember however, is the point i wanted to make. i seem to have an issue with putting your life, your emotions on display, to an as large crowd as possible. i simply cannot understand this ‘doing the laundry in public’.
there is a tv show running here, hosted by a guy who graduated psychology (i think), discussing people’s problems on tv. i do not have the nerves to watch, so i can’t give you any more details. what makes it worse than your average “my neighbour stole my salad from the gargen” talk show is the fact that this guy actually studied to help people with issues in thei lives. that is they come and pour their hearts out, and he tries to make them find a way out. in private. and he has something like professional confidentiality to observe - that is not going to the superstore and chatting to the cashier about someone’s troubles. but no. this one does it on national television. and people actually go to the show and stick their insides out in front of the camera for a nation to see, if they care to watch (and they do).
is it me being behind times and changes, or is this totally wacko??? all of a sudden tom cruise and the penible show he put on on oprah, making a total fool of himself, doesn’t seem that out of place anymore, not for someone called thomas cruise mapother IV, anyway… crazy times we live in, i tell you.

dead pants

the dead pants. or as the german would put it, die toten hosen. which while unknown were once presented as 'die toten hasen', meaning the dead rabbits. irrelevant, actually, but to this day i find that slip hilarious :)
i am talking about a band, a german punk rock band who sing (mostly) in german. yes, there are bands other than rammstein doing that :p. the band's history goes back to 1982. my favourite songs include unsterblich ('immortal') and ich bin die sehsucht in dir ('i am the longing in you'). do not let the titles mislead you to deem the songs cheesy. if you prefer english songs, there's the frustration-venting pushed again - an excellent song! - and an english album called learning english, lesson one.
just give 'em a listen if you're into the genre ;)

sheep in the big city

warning: aggressive ranting ahead :D. remember the cartoon sheep in the big city? with the lost sheep looked for by the military? private public and general specific were after sheep, the main character, but he kept escaping them. oh, the wit! oh, the irony of that cartoon...
unfortunately, there are loads of sheep in a big city. and that would be a good thing, if only they would rise to cartoon-sheep's level of intelligence.
as it happens, a great mall opened in my city today. just across the street from my block. people flocked to it like sheep. not too bad. but they stared blank-eyed or round-eyed, like sheep. they walked like sheep, stepping on your toes if you didn't get out of the way. they drove like sheep, driven by policeman and honking. and they even bleated like sheep, or that's how it sounded to my strained nerves. and i might not even have realised. i wasn't planning on going against the stream today. but the cosmic joker had it that i had to walk in the opposite direction of the pouring of the crowd stream. and i couldn't help marvelling at and getting frustrated by all the sheepishness.

scrat

scrat is a remedy i want to share with you.
i discovered something that makes me feel good. something that amuses me and picks me up when i'm so down that i can't pick myself up from the floor. remember ice age? remember scrat? you don't knpow who scrat is? the little fellow at the beginning. the one true reasons for the forming of continents.
i watched the scrat-mini-movie today. i kept quietly chuckling to myself for the whole duration of it. but i felt so gooooood afterwards. i guess you could say that the life and torment of scrat is a really liberating experience - some really have it worse than you. so why fret?

i need a miracle

... and not someone's charity. that's the way a beautiful song goes. a song from a computer game called silent hill. a friend told me about the game (*wink*). never seen or played it, but looks good from what i've seen of screenshots. not recommended to play late at night when you're alone and a storm is raging outside. or maybe recommended just then. depends on how you digest survival horror ;). this particular song from the soundtrack is called i want love and is sung by melissa williamson. a fragment of the lyrics is posted here, they are beautiful as is, but even more gripping when you listen to them to the music - song warmly recommended ;)

I want a cup that overflows with love
Although it's not enough to fill my heart
I want a barrel full of love
Although I know it's not enough to fill my heart
Want a river full of love, but then
I know the holes will still remain
I need an ocean full of love
Although I know the holes will still remain
And this Swiss cheese heart knows
Only kindness can fill its holes
Love can dry my tears
As pain disappears
I need a miracle and not someone's charity
One drop of love from him
And my heart's in ecstacy
The high that is sending me
Is most likely ending me
I need a miracle and not someone's charity now
Fill up my heart with love
Oh you'd be amazed at how little I need from him
To feel complete here and now
Stirring within me are these feelings I can't ignore
I need a miracle and that's what I'm hoping for

lasagna

actually, i was faced with quite a few choices of topics today. however, i didn't feel in the necessary mood to rant about most of them, so i stuck with a "light" one. and it really is light. you'll see in a minute why.
i absolutely adore pasta. have tried home-made lasagna. but i found it very heavy on the stomache. so i decided to cut out all the heavy crap, and voila, today i made one that even my mum would eat :)
the ingredients are plain and need no pre-cooking. all you need is lasagna (duh!), canned sliced mushrooms, sliced cheddar cheese and sliced ham - pick whatever sortiments of these you enjoy. and the classical bechamel sauce (butter, flour, milk and maybe cream - makes it yummier). layer mushrooms, sauce, lasagna, ham, cheese, sauce, lasagna, and over again until you're done with the ingredients. make sure the topmost layer is cheese. bake until the cheese forms a nice gold brown crust and bon appetit!

heed the warning bell...

... for they are coming. one of the tag lines of the movie the village. no, i will not give you a synopsis, and i will not give you a review. there are people who do that better than me on dedicated sites. i'm afraid i'm not even going to give you a humble personal opinion about the movie, although i do think it was underrated from what i've read of reviews. what i am going to tell you about is the ideas i've been left brooding about. yes, in the end it made a lasting impression.
i've been left thinking of how tabus are constructed, passed on and reinforced when questioned in tight communities; of how an outside threat, whether real or imaginary, creates cohesion within a group and shifts attention from inside problems - these questions are mere signs of professional deformation for me. but there are others, deeper and more meaningful: thoughts of the lengths some people go to escape the ghosts of their own past; of how human nature surfaces in primary instincts like love, curiosity, posessiveness, a certain murderous instinct - always; of how sooner or later any good intention is tainted by the need to inforce one's vision upon others, by matter of deceit, if necessary; of how far one's right to lead people allows them to intrude upon their free will... and others as such. a somehow bubbly elogy of the power of love has somehow gone under on me, under the weight of these questions.
and then, another interesting aspect of human behaviour is concentrated in something that, for me, was the most memorable phrase of the movie. heed the warning bell that echoes within it.

"sometimes we don't do things we want to do so that others won't know we want to do them"

losers weepers (1): the story of loss

i think there's hardly anyone who hasn't suffered the loss of someone dear. death takes a loved one away. but most of the times, i think life does. and i honestly do not know which pain is bigger. i guess losing someone to death is perceived as a reason for grief and seems something unfair. i find losing someone to life more saddening. losing touch with friends, growing apart from loved ones, falling out with parents, moving away from all those you've held dear for so long in life.
i am not a believer as the definition goes. i have no faith whatsoever in established faith. but i do believe in the soul and that it may live on after death. i also belive it can be maimed and twisted, as your limbs may be maimed and twisted. and i do believe you lose a bit of it every time a loved one dies, one you have bound your soul to. however, there is the remote comfort that the soul is out there, much likely in a better place. and the distance that separates you can and will some day be bridged.
if you lose someone to life, there's a gap that no one may close again. it's filled with all the things each of your lives holds. those things you cannot erase and you cannot walk around. they are here to stay, blocking your path, maiming your soul as it tries to reach around. blessed are those whose loved ones' bodies have died away but whose' spirits wait somewhere for a joyous reunion. blessed when compared to the maimed souls on earth.

might and magic

a universe i am most fond of, as you might have guessed from other posts. well, that universe had a marvellous incarnation in the heroes of might and magic series. i only played III and IV. but good things come to those who wait. every time i check the game's site there is some new piece of information on the fifth game of this particular might and magic series. i can hardly await its release as the trailer and demos look very promising. also, what i have read so far about the factions and creatures shows real hard research and compiling work has been carried out, each nation has a background, a philosophy, a personality. indeed, it promises not to be yet another 'go forth slash eveeything you encounter' game. here's a little teaser - a picture of one of the available wallpapers.