Snowstorms, frost - "everything what tigers like the best*"

In the last 2-3 weeks we had lots of snow falling from the sky. Effect is that if you want to drive somewhere you have to dig out your car first.

Actually it's not that bad. In the last 2 days I saw few trucks taking out piles of snow, so one doesn't have to walk in the streets any more.

Luck, tour de world and festivals

Random conversation today. Though I think this conversation started with the subject of my company, then we change it to "pregnancy" and just before this thing below - mobile phones.

<cloudi> you know what
<cloudi> I checked Tae's profile
<cloudi> for fun
<cloudi> and I was reading some entries for fun
<cloudi> and gosh
<cloudi> I understand those! O_O
<kubuś> that's terrible :D
<cloudi> no shit! :3
<kubuś> chill
<kubuś> soon it will turn out that I'm parler-ing French better than English
<kubuś> and you're hablar-ing Spanish better than inglés
<cloudi> unfortunately no, my dear watson
<cloudi> my English is still better than Spanish
<cloudi> yet!
<kubuś> just for now! :D
<cloudi> methinks that Spanish is getting closer to my Norwegian XD
<kubuś> oh get your self some friends from Norge and not only from the land of miners and earthquakes
<cloudi> chill
<cloudi> when I will get to the stage
<cloudi> where I'm speaking with people from there who don't understand English
<cloudi> then we will start worrying ;]
<kubuś> :D
<cloudi> but hell...
<cloudi> with my luck
<cloudi> I will land some day in Chile
<kubuś> permanently!
<kubuś> :D
<cloudi> and there's gonna be an earthquake
<kubuś> 9,5 :D
<cloudi> I tell you!
<kubuś> no problem, I will go for a rescue then!
<cloudi> with my luck?
<kubuś> unless there's gonna be Open'er*
<cloudi> aww :3
<kubuś> or Coke*
<cloudi> sure
<kubuś> or Selector*
<kubuś> :D
<cloudi> there are priorities
<kubuś> yup.

I will never have normal friends.

*If you ever thought you knew definition of "fanaticism," you probably never heard Kubuś speaking about Alter Art's festivals.

Boli blog - the heat eased off

We have a Polish comic website. Very good, yet often for people over 18 (sex, drugs, boobs and rock'n'roll). So you have to be over that magical age to see it.

Translated version below.

RIP Leslie Nielsen

When I came to work I had an idea for a note to be posted, but then I checked twitter and saw the trending topic about Leslie Nielsen. Why Mondays have to suck so much? :/

Mr. Nielsen's comedies were the best and always made me laugh. Even though for me he will be Lt. Frank Drebin I will enjoy discovering his other roles, those more and less serious.



Mr. Nielsen, wherever you are, I hope you're making others laugh as you made with the film above just few seconds ago :)

Not corpirate conversations

Conversation that took place few minutes ago with the biggest music geek I know.

"Hey, you're listening to "Northern" music, right? Because I have this band called Valravn and I don't know if I 'stole' it from you. They are fucking awesome."
"Nope. I can't remember. што ето?" I asked and looked for one of their songs on youtube. "Hey, they are quite nice. Where are they from?"
"Denmark. Something else than your beloved Norway. I have to look through my events, because I must have found them somewhere..."
"You know... 'You're listening to Northern music' sounds very amusing when I have Buraka Som Sistema on my speakers."

Corporate conversations

Since I have too much to do ¹⁾ and nothing to write about ²⁾ I'm gonna upload today some conversations that took place today or not so long ago.

Corporate conversations #1
"Do you know when people get the best ideas? During cigarette break or in toilette."
"And that's why you're not allowed to smoke in bathrooms, you could solve all problems."

Corporate conversations #2
P. is talking through phone and trying to sell an advert to his client.
"We can sell you a spot on our service Woman. I'm sure those cleaning brooms are going to be a hit there!" he said with this gross laughter like a frog.
"Yeah, sure. And why not put it in the category 'sex' or 'erotic'." I mumbled.
"And if you click through this website there are subcategories 'sex' and 'beauty'."

Corporate conversations #3
Phone rings, aka picks it up.
"Hey, are you sitting in room 102 now?" asks some dude.
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
"And are you listening to some weird music now?" dude continues interrogation.
"Well... Just now Ślązak and before that Forfiter and Gorrilaz."
"And could you turn the volume a little bit down? Because our lamps are falling into resonance..."

¹⁾ I even had an idea what to do today, but software said "no no."
²⁾ I have no flow to write anything nice.

La la la la

I was supposed to write about some nice Norwegian ska concert I have been to. Trying to be smart and witty I wanted to put lyrics from one of the Scandinavian anthems. And I ended watching those.

You know what... I know flags that are prettier than Polish. Countries who have more magnificent history than we do. But we fracking beat everyone when it comes to anthems.

No? Really?!

Today I'm going to pretend a psychologist. Or sociologist. And this means I'm gonna state obvious things, just because I have too much free time.

You see... My friend is getting married, this Saturday to be exact. She's been busy lately, so have I, so you can assume we weren't meeting as often as with our other (different) group of friends. However about 2h I got a text message with an invitation to her wedding at church. As a reminder I want to add that today is Thursday. I thanked and politely declined, though with a little bit of evil subtext ("you sent the news too late, I got plans!").

But now... Let's rewind and look at the facts.

• Clue #1: I knew she was looking for a wedding photographer almost a year ago.
• Clue #2: When I was away for May weekend someone else called with the news "Did you know that M. is getting married in October?!" Person who called me has another mutual friend with the girl who is the bride-to-be this Saturday.
• Clue #3: two weeks ago another random person of this drama calls me with question "Hey, do we have anything for M.'s hen party?" What was I supposed to answer? "Ya know... first thing I don't even officially know about the wedding and the second... I don't know nothing about the party."
• Clue #4: Facebook event added 2 days ago.

So when I got the SMS my first reaction was "You're getting married? Really?! No wai!" The fact that my friend is forgetful and few other things is nothing new. I can't be at the ceremony, but oh well. Shit happens. However what made me totally laugh was that Facebook event.

I understand Facebook addiction or creating events as a reminder there. I often use it on last.fm to remember when are the gigs I want to attend to. But creating such instead of a wedding invitation? SERIOUSLY?!

I am terrified how FB becomes the only way of communication. Few weeks ago I got an invitation to a party, the info was only there. Fine. Just when I was supposed to go out for some small shopping in the city and then go to the event. Luckily out of habit I checked my home page and there I found a notice. "Sorry, the party is cancelled. See ya next week."

Or the b-day wishes. My friend counter is slightly above 200 and most of people know each other. So whenever there's someone's birthday I got info that John Smith and 29849308 other people wrote wishes on someone's wall. I'm old fashioned, but I think it's sweeter to get a phone call or even a simple text message. It shows that you remember and put at least some effort in it. Even it's picking up the phone or clicking "send a private message" if you don't have the number.

I'm so old fashioned :s

Pura Energía, Puro Chile

I have no idea how many times I said this today, but...

I FELL IN LOVE WITH THESE VIDS.

I have no idea who came up with such great visualisations, but I'm still astonished. It's really worth watching in HD.

And those fireworks... Even Disney stays behind with their animation.

Encantada!

I like learning languages. It's useful, fun, looks nice in CV, but most of all - you don't have to watch films with subtitles. My newest goal is to know Spanish, one of the reasons being those few Chileans spamming my twitter or facebook. And I don't like not understanding things that pop up in my face.

I'm a lazy person and since I lately had to do an audiobook advert, I tried this form of learning. My first victim is Pimsleur course which I got from my friend.

The scariest films of the decade

One of Polish websites (a very virtual one) made a gallery of "Top10 scariest films of the decade." As I'm lately in the horror business I allowed myself to comment about those.

So here we go!

The Descent

Horror film are lately my thing. First I saw The Fourth Kind and now The Descent part I & II.

So first a quick introduction. Parts I & II are like a continued story. In the first part we have this opening scene: 3 gals go rafting (or canoeing). Risk - this is something they love. At the end of the river awaits husband of one of them with their little daughter. Kiss, kiss, laugh, everyone is happy, "you guys go ahead and we'll meet in the town." So our little happy (not? this is explained in the 2nd part) family packs themselves into the car and goes. Unfortunately the husband was a little bit distracted and got them into an accident in which he and the kid dies. Drama. Drama. Drama. But after a year they meet again with few other girls to explore new caves.

And here spoilers begin.

Where did the manners go?

You know... I must admit that most of guys among my friends are gentlemen. It's not about letting a girl go first through the door, allowing her to sit in a bus, just... being a modern knight in a shinning armour.

However in the last few days or weeks I've seen examples that some are either morons or don't give a **** about good manners.

What pissed me off lately?

1. At work we have two interns. Girls lets add. Those girls are new, they work here for 3-4 days. And two guys who apparently stopped their mental development at the age of 12 (when you see nude girls in Playboy) are trying to be funny and throw texts like "I'm scratching my George everyday." Apart from this being tasteless... Has anyone told them that this can qualify as sexual harassment? -__-
2. Coming back from a concert I had to go on my own. Around midnight. True it was city centre and theoretically nothing could happen to me, but still... most of guys would at least make sure that reach at least the bus/train stop safely, but no... this certain guy was interested in listening to the other part of the event (even if the whole trip would take him 15 minutes or so and he could easily come back to the gig).
3. You know... girl is still a girl. No matter what distance towards her she has and how close friends you are. You just don't say some rude texts like "your fat as a pig" or "shove it in your ass". No to mention "you're pathetic." I can bite back and tell such guy to shove those things into his bottom, but behaving like this towards any girl makes me angry...

I know that gentleman is a dying specie, but geez... Some should really be taught good manners -__-"

As I said, I have close friends who may be rude, who have talks that would make most of people feel troubled. However when a girl would be insulted in any way they would stand in her defence. But as I said... those are starting to be in minority.

"I want to believe"

Be warned - this is a long entry.
Since I was this little I watched sci-fi shows. Be it The X-Files, SG-1 or Psi-Factor - I really loved those shows about aliens coming from the outer-space. I also watched some freaky show which told about ghosts, already mentioned aliens and Nazis and their secret bunkers where they've hidden treasures. And those stories really gave me goosebumps. I couldn't stand the first tunes of The X-files' music theme, it scared the hell out of me.

But I was 10...

Get inspired, but do not copy

From time to time I have a website to design. One of my current projects pro publico bono (which means more less that doing this for free) is a website for a small parish. It's located in the country, so I can't do anything fancy like corporate web 2.0 blogs. This website has to have a specific style. And here is also where my adventure begins.

Un blob CSS (and some summer rant)

Smashing Magazine (my 2nd favourite lecture these days; I have nothing to do at work most of the time) released an article about what wonders you can do with CSS3. WONDERS, seriously. I can't wait to use that piece of teh interwebs, but the things is... that I don't think it will be soon.

What I found the cute was this Blob. JS + CSS3 = "Woo! I can play with this for hours." Like a truly disabled mentally grown up who is bored at work. But the things is... I use Firefox. And here is where the problems begins.

The day I wore a dress

This may look silly as a subject to write, but this is seriously epic for me. Out of a whim I decided to wear a dress today. Not the best for me, but with some accessories this looks good.

And as most of you already assume I don't wear this piece of wardrobe too often. Last time my friends had the chance to see me in this particular dress was in 2008 (I remember because it was The Dark Knight's première) and even then I had it over some sort of pants.

A-n-y-w-a-y... Few funny things which made my day because of my choice of attire today:

Sexy girls, anyone?

For the last 2h, me and my paszczak (my beloved Jus who doesn't know that there are two Korean teams) are sitting and looking for hot girls. I mean hot, so hot that we would drool and decided that we both are at least bi.

And... nothing. 2h of searching, asking guys for advice and nothing. Apart from finding few really cute girls ♥ and me picking mostly lesbians*, I must say that:

(Almost) family conversations #2

As we all know during office hours in this time of year A.D. 2010 we're watching the World Cup working very hard. In this very moment Argentina is winning with South Korea 2:0. Just after the 2nd goal my friend wrote me a text message.

<jus> Oh, there are gonna be work camps for someone...
<cloudi> Honey, it's not that Korea.
<jus> Fuck ;D There are 2 Korean teams at the World Cup?
<cloudi> Yup. Kind of.
<jus> Damn _^_ Epic fail.

UPDATE: And just before the whistle - Koreans score!

Europe - I love you so very much!

I fall in love with this place more and more with every single day. Each country is weird (some even very much), crazy and charming in its own way.

And I just can't stop smiling when I see this:



Ukraine in 5:05!

And check this out! This girl makes the best comics I've ever seen.

Here comes the rain again

Come to think of it I must say that last week was shitty. Nothing big and bad happened, but lots of small things just decided to make my life miserable. And the snowball effect started.

I'm in the mood. What does "the" mean? That I don't care. I don't care that someone (a friend) is upset with me, I lose willingness to talk to people with whom I really enjoy conversations and I'm detached (in my specific way). This also appears in my musical choices - this week for sure will be under the blessing of Karin Dreijer Andersson. And maybe Bel Canto since I'm discovering their compositions. Though it's too little psychedelic for the moment.

I need holidays, I know that. Part 1 shall be soon, I just need to talk to someone and set the details about my visit there. With no internet for sure. Probably I won't take my cellphone also.

And I think that it actually might be fun.

Me is s0cial h4ckin'

I have to admit - I am a stalker. I like to look what kind of things I can find around the web. Also this includes some tricks with so called "Joomla! features." But let's say I'm more advanced user and I know what and where to look.

Anyway... In my company we're looking for new people to hire. It's a funny process from the definition. I especially loved letter from one guy who wrote it in male and female gender. So kids... rule #1:

Family conversation #1

My sister sent me a text message. She asked if I'm coming for tomorrow's dinner at her place which, for your information, is our little custom for the last... 6 years? Or so? As I love these silly rethoric questions asked by her I picked up the phone and called her:

<sis> Yes?
<cloudi> No, I went to Australia*...
<sis> Hell knows with your ideas. So I understand you're coming?
<cloudi> Yup.
<sis> Oi, do you know a book The Fifth Mountain?
<cloudi> Heh?
<sis> Paulo Coelho's book. The Fifth Mountain.
<cloudi> Yeah... I know that one...
<sis> You're the one having it or bro?
<cloudi> ...I bought it for you for some b-day...

*I know that I have the habit of calling people from weird places and asking them to find me the fastest route to somewhere on google maps, but it still would be surprising if (when called) I answered that I can't come because I'm in Australia or some other wild place, right?

When a disabled (when it comes to games) child starts to play with PS2

<cloudi> a jellyfish defeated me
<kubuś> in a life-death combat?
<cloudi> yeah
<kubuś> [*]

Finally I can play Final Fantasy X (forgive me the lame pun). After lots of adventures like:

• not having a working TV in AV mode,
• taking console to friend's place (who has a working TV), yet forgetting to actually pack the games,
• borrowing a TV from friends,
• yet not borrowing an adapter so the cinch cables would magically turn into SCART input

I can play this stupid game that was so much recommended by some.

To other impaired people who don't know what this games is about: I'm some blond dude who looks like just taken from Baywatch cast. His city was attacked by a giant flying water sphere (he was sucked into it) and now he wakes up 1000 years later (Sleeping Beauty) and from what I've gathered he's trying to find his way home (E.T.). Innovative, right?*

Generally I'm not into this kind of games and it is a little bit painful for me to watch. Especially with hours of that cut scenes. I am playing this just for 2-3h and I tell you I have seen hours of films there. It's like a movie on Polsat channel where the commercials are sometimes interrupted by a film. But I found it handy, thanks to those I could finish my supper without the need to pause the game.

Which brings us to the gaming system. Pick action, pick enemy, do the action, wait for your turn. Seems boring. However! after a while it appears that the characters have few interesting moves and attacks. I especially love summoning that giant flying creature by Yuna (here I would like to greet Juli who looks just like this animated character) or using black magic by Lulu who, for your information, wanders around with a teddy-bear. If we add to the picture that she looks like emo geisha, I think that we can agree that Japanese are running on some strong drugs.

Keep that up boys! Because I'm really enjoying this game.

*Actually I can tell you about other things/names. Because the 3rd location I'm visiting looks like Hawaii. I think that S. told me the name of that place, but I think that "Hawaii" fits better. After a quick run over that place and fighting with stranger creatures (blob, Blue Lion form the Land of The OZ) we jump on a sea ship and get attacked by Sin (a local version of Cracken) I was hoping for Johnny Depp appearing on the board, but no luck. And I thought that Japanese would know what a fan service is :<

I'm tired. I'm seriously tired, because of this mourning. Yet it's not because of the tv coverage or the fact that people talk about it the whole time. Believe it or not - I think this is needed. Either as a psychology mass-treatment or by finding out why this accident occurred.

I haven't lost anyone in that plane crush. But my friend did. And it's devastating enough to see someone who is always happy, serene so devastated. To see him helpless and angry because of it. To hear his voice which breaks with every word.

But what saddens and tires me is people's reaction. Maybe not of the majority, but a growing part of "indifferent cynics." I understand that not everyone is personally affected by what happened just few days ago, but I would be thankful for understanding from their side that some people want to grieve and for those 2-3 days. Finding guilty (though I prefer not to call it this way, rather "finding the cause of the accident") and making political decisions is few days or weeks away. So why bring it by brute force now?

I know that some just show off and put [*] or join facebook groups. Is that shallow? I don't know and I don't care. Maybe they were raised that they think it's enough and that they're showing their sorrow this way. I would prefer to go for a walk, think or simply light a candle which in fact I did. Maybe it's just a demonstration, but it helps to cope with it.

A situation today which totally made me lost of words was my boss' and co-workers reaction. Some of them sell advertisements and the question was if they should bother customers or leave the topic for the week. Maybe shorter. In the end it was decided that they may and just after that some stupid jokes came. That they may advertise chocolate there, because it fits the black & white layout, or that "now you can send obituary with our chocolate telegram." I have distance towards most of things, but these jokes were just tasteless -_-'

I'm sorry, but even I am not a heartless person who will not notice that almost 100 people died in tragic circumstances and will behave like nothing happened.

Quote of the day

Too often, we lose sight of life's simple pleasures. Remember, when someone annoys you it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown BUT, it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and bitch-slap the motherfucker upside the head.

And yes, I'm back! After Olympics, few gigs, exam session and few other things.

Kids, you should learn foreign languages

This totally made my day. Today and yesterday in fact.

I was asked to write birthday wishes in Norwegian. I did something simple ("Happy birthday! I wish you everything what you can dream of and lots of more. Have a f**king good day."), gave it to my friend so she could forward it to the b-day man. Later my friend called him and delivered wishes again. The guy was totally shocked that she wrote the first ones in Norwegian. Knowing my friend's knowledge of his mother tongue he suspected his wife to be the collaborator.

"No, she didn't help me."
"Then how? What dictionary or translator you used?"
"None. I asked someone to write it for me."
"And there are Norwegian letters in it too!"
"Magic of copy-paste."
"Then tell her she knows Norwegian really good."

Believe me, this is a huge morale boost (seriously). After 2 years of learning this language I'm good enough to write 3 simple sentences and I know how to curse (yet understanding that article about swearing in Norwegian was a real pain)!

However the best part of the story happened today. Apparently sister of that Norwegian saw those wishes as those were posted on Facebook. As soon as she did, with a big "wtf" she called him asking if my friend started to learn their language. Because you see... my friend is known for being able to repeat one word in Norwegian and from what I've heard she's very reluctant to learn more ;)

And I must say - it's nice to cause a small stir like that :)

Super Bowl Ads

This just killed me (Megan Fox & Motorola):




And I want to see this film so much (Alice in Wonderland):



More ads here (Mashable).

iPad my ass

Everyone got excited about iPad (now that we know how it's named). Even I watched live broadcast from presentation. So here are is some quick random review from what I've seen.

Whining day today

Gosh... I'm so tired -_-' I can't remember when was the last time I slept 6h or more. This week I had 7 (yes, seven) tests and next week looks like there are another 5 to come. And then just exams. Considering I'll have to write two tests again, because I had an option: learn for one enough to pass and ignore the other or fail at both, next 2-3 weeks look entertaining as hell...

if someone makes you so angry...

My new wallpaper at work. Because old one was getting boring. And I'm looking for another one to put on Антон's* desktop.

Picture found @http://sawb.soup.io/post/40835212/If-someone-make-you-so-angry


*my charming notebook has a pretty name

Bo liczy się tylko "pierdolnięcie i elektro"

I know the title is in Polish, but I just have no idea how to translate this to English. However you may understand the meaning by looking at my playlist which goes on for the last few hours.

And now it's time for Bollywood songs.

The Knife cuts my mind with an opera

Oh my God... Oh my God... Oh my God... Oh my God...

I got this today:

The mp3 of Colouring of Pigeons is also available on soundcloud.com . I'm listening to it for the n-th time today and hell knows how long it will last on loop. I don't remember when was the last time when I was this catatonic because of a song*.

I can't wait for the DVD. Or even better: I can't wait to see that opera live (Why are they performing in Stockholm when I can't be there? ;____; Why?! And who got this brilliant idea that they should perform in Athens and Münster? I just hope they will announce new shows in more civilised areas, such where you can easily get by plane). Because of two reasons:

#1 - it's the Dreijer siblings. Whatever they do one has to see because of their twisted minds ♥
#2 - I want to know how one can write an opera inspired by Darwin and his theory of evolution.

*Even if some infidels say that "it's nothing exciting"

This year I promise that...

So today I was sitting at work trying to motivate myself to do anything. With few additional adventures (hello there marketing department) I decided that it would be the best to find some dance/electronic music with steady beat. This way I could wake up and maybe do that work that had to be done.

Usually in such cases I play Infected Mushroom but I'm a little bit fed up with their songs at the moment so I decided to look for something else and by some cosmic accident I found Darius & Finlay - Do it all night (Michael Mind Remix). Unfortunately youtube offered only 2-3 minute video (and google didn't offer any interesting mp3 of this version). However dear uncle Google provided me this link (warning: contains boobs). Quick glance, I saw that this one lasts for 5 minutes. Cool, I pushed the play button and Hallelujah - I switched to Photoshop or some other software. The only thing I saw were those two chicks (one playing with her breasts), but hey... this is some dance music video so it's normal that they show tanned, blond people dancing and doing weird things, right?