Sunday 23 April 2017

Back

Didn't run for over a month, and this evening I did 4 min 40 s / km for 8.5 km, quite ok considering how I treated myself in Japan. I should run at least every Sunday from now on, if only to see the blue sky and relentless sun a bit more. Best part of running is still twisting my head sideways and seeing the world bob its way past me. *Bob* *bob* *bob*

Stove and oven broke down, but 2/4 burners still work so I can survive. It's pretty nice to make oatmeal in a huge pot rather than a small casserole, I'll keep doing that. And I need to try sourdough again, gonna buy some coarse flour in the shop tomorrow after work.

Playing the violin when I can. A few days ago I found some confidence somewhere and played a little louder than usual in my apartment, and it turned out my neighbour couldn't hear me still, I asked yesterday when we went to a drink market and bought beer, a liquor, and the lovely Ardbeg Corryvreckan, that was a lovely calm evening of whisky tasting with a fellow connoisseur. Anyway, from now on I'll play more freely, it really helps the playing. Gear-wise I'm pretty happy, the violin does sound a little strange as I go up the neck, but first I better be able to actually do that before I complain about things other than myself.

New violin concerto on the way, this time in Frankfurt so I won't have to go very far. Have to buy two CR2025:s for the stupid bank gizmo for Volksbank online banking which eats batteries like the snot monster eats boogers. The thingamajig for SEB still hasn't run out of batteries since I got it, say, 15 years ago? German manufacturing is nothing compared to Swedish :D *Hides*

Gotta supervise a new supervisor for a Mössbauer spectroscopy lab tomorrow morning, so this will be an early night. Good night and sweet dreams which are made of... This? I never figured out what they meant by that.

Tuesday 4 April 2017

Hanami again

Funny how I get to watch hanami twice in a row, it's really pretty.

And to continue from the last post, french press is pretty good, if you have appropriate coffee for it. Ethiopian Blueberry Heaven through filter, Guatemala Naranjo in the press. But now they're both gone and I need to order something new, but first I need to finish my business trip to Japan. Kani miso is great btw.

Another loose end was that code in Silicon Valley, of course it was an easter egg. No excuse for that typedef though :p

Skipped a month. Had a period of soul searching I suppose, and I feel I'm getting colder and colder. Which is what people expect from me; whenever I break into my conservative childish nerdy demeanor, people recoil and turn their minds elsewhere. They're happy when I'm boring, or normal and "grown up" as most would say. At least my violin is always there to warm me up. "Never grow up, never surrender!" Enough of that, gonna finish my Nissin cup noodle (oh the childhood memories) and get to work!

EDIT 2017-04-05:Apparently going to the cinema is a good thing for watching a film. Some good responses, my take:

  1. The big screen - 1/z, also lower quality than even my cheap laptop monitors. Quality over quantity.
  2. People everywhere - Encourages anonymous group behaviour which I'm vehemently against, plus I laugh more freely and honestly on my own. Sneezing, coughing, whispering, wrappers/popcorn noise, too much laughing at shit jokes, the smells, the back of heads, nasty chairs, the f*ing pile of nightmares and sticky goo everywhere when you walk out... And walk in. Reminds me of medieval shoite-fest towns.
  3. Focus - Already a contradiction. This is why I don't read (online) magazines. A good film will make me focused, and I can only be 100% focused on the real time content when I'm alone.
  4. Relentlessness - Yeah, nothing like the hardcore adrenaline pumping non-stop savagery that is a film theater. I saw a middle aged man convulsing and foaming at the mouth one time, and the young lady just behind him whacked him in the solar plexus with the chair she was sitting on after ripping it out of the ground, bolts and nuts stripped clean, embedding themselves a few inches into the walls. Really swift acting, just in time for the biggest action sequence in the film to come up. The cinema is intense.
  5. A massive speaker system - Which are all rubbish compared to my 200 EUR Denon headphones + 150 EUR DAC+amp. Better even than the IMAX in Berlin. Again Q over Q.
  6. Previews - Youtube. And friends. I have a few.
  7. Disruption - Focus, relentlessness, now this. A goldfish should show the author how to make a list of 10 unique independent items. A film that requires disruption is bad, shut it down and do something else.
  8. Alone time - Uuuuhhh... Author, read what you wrote just 1 min ago you f*ing idiot.
  9. 32 ounces of cola in the dark - Ok, I'm def. not going to the cinema now, this is disgusting.
  10. Bragging rights - I recently learnt that many (most?) games published by Wadjet Eye Games were developed in Adventure Game Studio, which has been open source for a few years. It even compiles and runs in OpenBSD! I downloaded Primordia which I got off of GoG almost a year ago, but I didn't quite find the time to start it here in Japan yet. I started listening to the soundtrack, and it's pretty good stuff, I'm happy I'm a sci-fi geek. Technobabylon was on sale but I just missed it, that game seems to have an even better soundtrack. And this list entry has absolutely nothing to do with the topic.
In closing, I still go to the cinema if friends ask me. The dinner before the film tends to be the best part though. Anyway, I'm honestly very happy, this is just my happiness shining through ;)

EDIT 2017-04-05: (Yes, another one on the same day...) I won't watch the new Ghost in the Shell movie, but that's simply because it just won't be anywhere near as good as the original. I don't care about white-washing, but here's a thought on that: The problem is not that Hollywood is casting super famous white actors/actresses to make money, the problem is "Who's that asian lady?" vs "It's Scarlett!". What will make them more money, i.e. what will people pay for? I will never understand why the public cannot take criticism. Just like with Trump. I shouldn't care :p