Joy and woe are woven fine,

A clothing for the soul divine.

Under every grief and pine

Runs a joy with silken twine.

William Blake - Auguries of Innocence

Camel. Straw. Back. Snap.

Fuck it. Fuck this. Fuck you all. Fuck. FUCK.

It don’t work that way… you earn your daily bread… how you eventually accomplish that may be very mundane, or very suprising.

For example, last week, I earned my daily bread translating a movie. Granted, I also earned my daily coffee and cigarettes, and my nightly nightcap that way as well..

Next week, I might earn it prostituting myself. Nothing is given.

I’m behind as always, but I am at ease because this time, it’s not for long. I always talk about the puzzle, well the pieces are finally falling into place. Who knew it would gain a foothold so easily? Who would have guessed it would gain traction so exponentially!??!

Uni-wise, the meeting last Monday was apparently very successful, athough I barely managed seven of the eleven tasks I’d set for myself, and neither handed in the second draft nor demoed the system. My professore said, and I quote: “this draft is the best thesis I have read in a long, long time”. That’s a Prof. Dr. Dr. (two doctors in one!!) saying this. True, I now have to actually do the stuff I’d bragged about doing in the paper, but just finishing those basically guarantees me a good grade, a very good grade. My thesis and system are due on the 31st of January. I defend my thesis on February 8th.

Workwise, I’m working right now, and I’ve got two gigs coming up in the coming weeks that should support me for some time. The plans to stay in Berlin and find my own flat are also now written in stone. It’s all happening, one skip at a time.

All that’s left is clearing out the PhD issues, which shouldn’t be that complex, and that would imply even more funding and financial security. In 13 days, my time will be my own again. I’ll finish this blog’s design, create my website, and start taking photos as frequently as a few months ago. I’ve got a part in a play in may, summer draws ever closer, the soccer world cup is soon as well. A vacation in february or march is all but certain, the first real time off in almost three years…(not really, but close to one, at least)

Yeah it’s good… and it’s all taken or earned. None given.

So much for maxims.

Aren’t homos supposed to be infinitely better dressers than heteros? Isn’t it supposed to be a fact that their fashion sense is envied by everyone else?

I saw a guy today wearing a pink scarf, a red handbag with flowers etched on it and a purple umbrella. What’s worse, he wore a green belt and brown shoes. Even I know that those should have matching colors.

Another cliché down the drain.

“I need to put the tripod mount on my modded disposable and take it out shooting” (from chat)
Even that sounds sexual. God have mercy!

When does a cliche stop being one?

I haven’t met a single girl who doesn’t like to have long phone conversations… does that mean that I can state that as a fact when referring to my own personal experience?

I also enjoy long phone conversations…. what does THAT mean? Does it void the cliche? what? WHAT!?!?!?

I injured myself in drama group yesterday. I haven’t been hurt in ages, but yesterday, while “acting”, I managed to twist my thumb, cut open my upper lip, and bump my nose. All whithin two minutes.
Ok, let me rewind. We start out every rehearsal with some “acting exercises”. Occasionally, these include games. It was during one of those games, with me chasing a girl that I slipped and slammed my face on the side of a chair. The group oooh’d and aaah’d and asked me if I was ok. I said yeah and continued chasing, and caught the girl. It was her turn to run after me, again, I slip, and manage to put a hand out there to save my face. Bam. Twisted thumb. I get up again, finish the game and get back in formation. I actually have a very high pain threshold, and that was doubled due to a little machismo act I was put on for someone’s benefit.

Talk about putting your everything into the part. Yeah!

I guess a week of next t no sleep at all (more on that stuff soon) could be held responsible as well.

Anyway, all this taught me was that I’ve got to be more active again. My pain tolerance is still as high as ever, but the days of playing three hours of gruesome football on the beach, hitting, slamming, tackling, grinding it out against people twice your weight, and returning home all bruised are long gone.

Those days marked my mid-to-late spring, when the ski season would be fading, and the sea would be still a bit too cold for swimming. I miss those violent, bloody, days.

In other news, I’m a confused little boy. There’s a friggin’ babelfish in my head, but instead of automatically translating Venus lingo into Earth-speak (or Mars-speak, in keeping with the cheese), it’s gnawing at the insides, swallowing those few remaining brain cells that overnights and my good friend Jack haven’t dealt with. C’est la vie, eh?

However, democracy is a shelter behind which hypocrites hide, measure legitimacy, and weigh righteousness based on the numbers of the ill-informed masses.

the absolute funniest blonde joke. ever. EVER.

Queen Carla had arrived a week ago. Tonigh, her royal consorts were delivered, the numbers are complete and court has convened. Carla is my camera, an old Canon A-1 SLR, full with several lenses, filters, add-ons, etc… it was THE camera to have in the very late 70s, early 80s, and has since developed into something of a cult camera. Still, the options it has, as well as the quality it delivers are still top of the line. It was given to me on my 16th birthday, when I first showed signs of falling in love with photography, but I didn’t really use it to its full potential, and couldn’t carry it with me when I moved here. I recently started feeling the urge to have it back, and since I’ve decided to stay here a while longer, it makes more sense.

Why Carla? Well… I have names for a lot of my essential equipment. It’s not geeky, and I’ll tell you why in a second. My digital camera is called Natasha. She’s good. Very good, actually. But soon enough, I’ll want to move up and move on. Natasha isn’t a permanent name, in my mind. My laptop, on the other hand, is called Leela. Girls whose names start with “L” have been a staple of my social life, and all variations of the L****L*** have passed through the realm. Except for Leela. So, that name isn’t particularly meaningful, but there you have it. My external hard disk is called Heinrich. I need him to be strong, durable, reliable and supportive. Heinrich is a strong name. My mp3 player is Tom. I couldn’t find a more generic name for such a generic tool. Also, a certain Tom played a role when I acquire the thingy. I couldn’t care less about cell phones (mine or others) so it’s not included here. This brings us back to Carla. I love the name, and I haven’t met a single Carla which I didn’t admire, respect, lust after, drool over, or all of the above. Carla is a beautiful, musical name. But still, one that sticks with you, and not something you could try on for a day and then move along. I would marry a Carla (no particular one). So, my A-1 is Carla.

Geeky? Not at all. You see, in the days or yore (a long, long time ago) knights used to name their horses, swords, spears, maces and what not. So why not now?

In other news, I’ve started reading fantasy novels again. That’s a good sign, because, for me, it goes hand in hand with being productive academically, or for work. Which is what’s happening. I’m running out of time, but I’m finally moving full speed ahead (sort of)… actually, I’m still picking up speed, but it’s good. I’ve got to meet up with my Prof, demo the system and hand in a second draft on monday, and I just might finish. I’ve got fifteen main tasks that must be done by then, and another 15 or so that should be done before the whole thing is over. Tonigh, I’m doing 6 smaller tasks. Then, i’m taking a break (just a couple of hours) and starting on another set of 5 tasks. Two of which are major, and the rest, relatively smaller. That would leave tomorrow evening, and friday for the remaining four, one of which is really major.

So, I should have saturday and sunday to go over the stuff, maybe do a few of the smaller remaining tasks, and tweak some of the complete ones before my meeting. I’ll sleep on saturday, but only because I need to overnight again on sunday for a different reason (I can’t get up at 6am to catch the bus to H). I haven’t slept since monday, going on 63 hours… but that’s ok. If I make it till saturday without sleep, i’d have broken my old record by something like 40 hours or so.

Not that I’m bragging or anything, nor have I worked the entire time (20 percent productivity, maybe)… but yeah. Thought you’d like to know where I stand, and why I’m behind on blogging and flickring. I’d still have 14 days following monday, but if the next few days are successful, those should be more than enough time to put the whole thing together and package it nice and pretty.

I also instilled some revenge. I was hurt, a while back, she was playing games, or maybe not, but regardless it pisesd me off. I recently paid it back twofold. I promised the party involved that I’m post the email here (it’s nothing special, just a rant… worthy of the realm)… It’s not a drama, but it just felt good, because revenge is sweet, and it clarified the situation to me, somewhat. Maybe not, who know. Either way, the ball is in her court. Which is the way I like it.

Now, I go back to work. I’ll keep you updated, if only to preserve my sanity, and to give myself a virtual fan-base. Tadaa.

I had read about this somewhere, a few days before, and was wondering how to get my hands on an account (since Thursday, it’s been in invite-only beta mode…) when I read Mark’s announcement that he had invites to spare. Perfect.

Thanks to Mark, I am now a beta user over at Newsvine, a modern news portal that collects stories from well known news sources, and allows members to also type up their own news stories (to be displayed along-side the “official”, formal one). Well, it’s more than that, with a rating system similar to that of digg, user comments, providing links to articles without further reporting, your own personal column, etc. I was a regular contributor on shortnews, some time ago, and I’m still very interested in citizen journalism. I was bored with shortnews because it was somehow limited to that.

Newsvine brings in a modern internet paradigm (ok, ok, they STRESS that they’re not a regular Web2.0 company like others), but it’s very much user and service-oriented, relies on a certain level of trust, depends on user-generated content, offers several syndication alternatives, etc… Naturally, there’s still more to it than this. Tagging and categorizing content allows it to be presented intelligently, with relevant and related items near to each other. Basically, you’d have to look over it to get what I mean. Simply put, it does to online news what flickr did to merely having a page with your photos online. Sadly, you can’t. Haha.
The icing on the cake? You earn a part of the revenues made from ads on the pages holding your articles, columns or what not. A nice touch, I’d say.

Edit: Ok, my bad. I actually now have invites to give out. If you’re interested, send me an email (or just leave a comment with your email address).

If I shaved off my pubes, and tattooed “Realm of R” there… would you say I’m superficial or too self-involved, would you say I’m crazy, or would you tell me whatever I want to hear just so that I wouldn’t show you?

PS: Amo just turned 21 a couple of days ago. She can legally drink now. Can’t wait for vodka-induced inspirations… I’ve thought she was crazy for ages. Now she’s legally insane.

Happy BIRTHDAY AMO!!!