SKUPER V1AKRA FUR FRIE

"Wife: Have you got anything without SPAM?
Waitress: Well, there's SPAM egg sausage and SPAM, that's not got much SPAM in it.
Wife: I don't want any SPAM!
Man: Why can't she have egg bacon SPAM and sausage?
Wife: That's got SPAM in it!
Man: Hasn't got as much SPAM in it as SPAM egg sausage and SPAM, has it?
Vikings: SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM... Lovely SPAM! Wonderful SPAM!
- The infamous Monty Python SPAM skit which was the inspiration for use of the word SPAM for junk advertising on the internet. (-> WAV sound file of the SPAM chorus)"
- Taken from Wikiquote

Alright, this comment contains a heavy spoiler, so if you haven't watched "The Ring" yet, skip this comment, it'll totally ruin the movie!



Some days ago, I once again got a wonderful spam mail from one of my wonderful friends. Blast him. Although I shield myself pretty effectively against usual spam, some of my old school friends are dumb or superstitious enough to send chain letters to every damn person they know, which sadly enough includes me as well. I usually respond with comments that range from educative ("These mails are just hoaxes that are based on the principle that people spread them 'just to be sure', so you better stop it") to outright insulting.
This one made me think though. It was a mail that claimed to contain luck. If I send it to at least 10 other people during the next hour, I'd be totally lucky and some great wish would come true. If I didn't send it to anyone though or even proved to be so vile as to delete it, I would suffer inexplicable bad luck. They even put in some examples. Someone (they even got their name) followed the mails instructions and won the lottery next day. Someone else found the love of his life. On the other hand, a guy (they even got his name!) who deleted the email died the next day! And another who ignored it won in the lottery, but lost everything a week afterwards. Makes you think, eh? Made me think at least. Think about the movie "The Ring" to be exact. (Okay, so here my Ring spoiler jumps in, so stop reading if you don't wanna be totally spoiled.)
In Ring you got this video that kills you seven days after you watched it, right? And in the end it turns out that the only thing that stops this curs is not to secure the poor childs body, but to make a copy of the video and show it to someone else, to spread the child's message (and the curse). Realize anything? In fact, this is nothing but a very aggressive spam message. Something along the lines of "Hello, this is a very important video message. I, the weird little child was killed by my adoptive parents cause they blamed me for weird things that happened. This is very sad, but doesn't matter much. The thing is that you need to copy and spread this video message to as many people as possible. Then, you will be as lucky as to keep your life and sanity. If you don't spread it in the next seven days, you're gonna be rather unlucky. Your sincerely, the child from the well."
So, forget about curses and killer videos. This is simply another spam message by some anti-social nerd kid that had no friends and annoyed his parents, the government and the rest of society with spam. And what happened? She got buried alive in a well. You have been warned, spammers!

Guess who's back

"Sacrificing minions: Is there any problem it can't solve?" - Xykon

Alright, I've been shopping once again. Got myself some new shoes, as I spend the last month with permanently wet feet due to a broken sole. Added some other clothes as well and acquainted a new DVD. Actually it's a double set, consisting of the movies Aragami and 2LDK, which form the Duel Project. Two directors, same rules: 1 night, 1 room, 2 main characters, low budget, all about one topic: Duel.
Two quite different tales popped out. While 2LDK is about two upcoming actresses in their flat share, waiting for the call which will decide which of them gets the lead role in the movie that could mean their breakthrough, Aragami tells the myth of a samurai meeting Aragami, god of war, in a lonesome temple and being asked a most curious question by the spirit: To kill him.
Both highly interesting movies which I saw three years ago at the Düsseldorf Japan Days in their German premiere. They were shown in Japanese with German subtitles back then, but the DVD also includes German dubbing. I didn't check it out yet though and I always have to give the advise that Japanese movies should be watched in the original. Dubbing of Japanese films somehow simply isn't as well made as that of American movies. (Not that I wouldn't watch those in English if I can help it.) Nearly always, the voice acting is quite feeble in comparison to the original voices.
Anyway, next Tuesday I'll be off to hospital to correct a Septumdeviation, so I'll be offline for a bloody whole week. And I won't even be able to write or read a lot, cause I won't be freakin' able to put my glasses on my sliced and once again sewn nose. Sounds like I'll listen to a lot of music. God bless the inventor of audio books.

"I am talking about motherfucking Falco and shit!"

Just stumbled over a page by accident and I must say I find it pretty interesting. On www.pandora.com you simply enter one of your favorite bands or songs and the page automatically generates a playlist of artists that might fit your taste. Voting on these songs will then enhance the accuracy of the search. By this you easily can find new interesting bands. And as a sidenote, you can listen to good bands for free on the website. Still looking for the rub in it...

The grass is always greener on the other side

This could be the One
But what do you think?
We could give it a try
Cause you never know
Maybe we could be soul mates
But maybe not
But maybe so
If you never try
Then you'll never know
The grass could be greener
And it will always be greener on the other side
But you just never know
This could be the One
- The One by Limp Bizkit

There are many different kinds of relationships. Friendships, partnerships, couples, relationships for the sake of sex and the relations of a ship of course.
Androx and me e.g. are just like an old couple. He is a nerfherder guy's best friend. (Kind of like an overweight dog.) I even sense differences in his writing style that he does not even sense himself. (Long story and no one but us would understand anyway.) It's that kind of long lasting friendship that just doesn't gets questioned or canceled. It just is.
That's the most relaxing kind of relationship. You know you can count on the other person, no matter what. But of course, just like with old couples, you need a fiery affair from time to time. And honestly, you simply get underlaid in such a friendship...
Mentioning underlaidness, I am single again for nearly a year now and feel the merits as well as it's flaws. You definitely have more time for your stuff (and I got a lot of stuff) to do and have far more freedom over your daily structures. You simply don't have to care for someone else constantly (unless your last relationship left you a babbling, drooling offspring). On the other side, you are totally on your own. You might have some friends, but you have no one you can emotionally and physically get as near to as you could with a lover. You don't have the warming feeling in your stomache when you are thinking of your lover and you cannot fill that tiny ever-empty space in your chest by simply hugging your beloved as long and intently as you can. (And no, Mr I-interpret-your-text-like-a-poem-for-sixth-graders, I don't mean your stupid heart as a symbol of love, I mean the spot in the middle of the chest that does not physically exist but still feels empty most of the time. No idea whether anyone but me knows this thing...) And the sex is just as welcome of course. Sex between a couple is not in the least dirty (who said so anyway?) but can be the most romantic thing ever. And knowing it to be like that and totally out of reach is just as bad as not knowing it and knowing it to be out of reach.
Funy thing. When you are in a relationship, you wish to have more time for yourself or to have more freedom and when you gained it, you would give up all your freedom and time for someone to love. Seems like it's true when they say the grass is always greener on the other side...

The best damn 14 days of your new life in slavery

"A slave is not he who works without wages, it is he tries to stop working and discovers he is not allowed."
- Anonymous

It's been some time, again. But this time I got a (nearly) ironclad excuse. I've been pretty... well, not busy... occupied with my workshop thingy. It was quite interesting; we did a lot about various mental and physical illnesses and some general stuff about being a slave of the system and caring for old or disabled people. But the really interesting stuff were the self-experiences. On the first Thursday we got blinded goggles and had to run around for half an hour with no sight at all. Man, I definitely never want to be blind! But it was interesting non the less. On second Tuesday we even topped it. Wheelchair day! Take 6 civil service workers, give them three wheelchairs and let them loose in Münster. Guess I never made so many jokes about wheelchair users as when I was one myself...
But it's really unbelievable how many obstacles you meet as wheelie... Half the shops you cannot enter without help because they got one, ONE friggin' stair!!! Most traffic lights have too short intervals, stairs and other obstacles are everywhere, you cannot reach the interface in an elevator, some shops are simply too crowded, not to speak of christmas business... And we were told that you can't go out when there is too much snow. Not because you couldn't get through the snow (that's clear, of course), but if you are on your own, the salt (or other stuff) that is used to destroy the snow will stick to your wheel, which you have to push to move. And this stuff will ruin your hands (and gloves). So being disbabled can really suck...
There have been a lot more little stories that could be worth telling, but not today. Too tired, too hard to put together words in a fashion that they make sense. It's 14°C and dark.

Blog 7: A New Hope

"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so."
- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Okay folks, I give up. Even I was surprised by just how lazy I can be. I simply have no energy to keep up with the length and style that I followed up until now. (You would have noticed the lack of new postings, if you had cared.)
This realisation simply means that I'm gonna change my style (the lil bit there is) to something even less coordinated. I got a nifty widget (don't know? don't ask) that enables me to just type away whenever I feel like it, saving me at least 5 seconds. Seconds that I can use to relax from my exhausting life and you. So I'll start writing more often, but shorter and (even) less interesting.
You will instantly feel the change. You will e.g. not read anything from me in the next week and the week thereafter. But that's not because I will realize that even this form of blogging is too annoying to me, but simply because I don't like you. No, wait, it's because I have to go to a weird workshop thing for civil service that lasts two weeks and I won't have any internet connection. But I still don't like you. So bugger off.

An apple a day keeps windows away

"'So computers are tools of the devil?' thought Newt. He had no problem believing it. Computers had to be the tools of somebody, and all he knew for certain was that it definitely wasn't him."
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Hi, it's me again. I know, it took me some time to finally continue my blogging routine, I really was quite busy with some stuff. But as some people, I won't mention Victoria's name at this point, have been pressing me to write something new, I guess it was time for an update. Apart from the usual tragedy, there have been two major events in the last weeks, which also are the reason for my long absence. The second is that I bought myself a Mac mini this week and spent the weekend configuring it. Not configuring in the Windows user sense, trying to make the system finally work or at least have it stable for half an hour, but rather exploring the plenty possibilities that are included in the system. Proper browser and mail programs, full iTunes implementation, good DVD playback, and even very good applications to edit movies, design your own DVDs and create your own music!
Well, anyway, just expect me to brag about my Mac a lot in the next weeks. Rants about Microsoft might also be increasing, but all you Windows users deserve it, muhahaha.
Ahem... where was I? A yes, I skipped the first point of why I deserted my post at the blogging front. I have been pretty busy on a project that is quite important to me (aside from the Third Fleet). Basically it is the Vampire: The Masquerade campaign, that my old role-playing group has been playing last, before we fell apart for reasons of time and interest. (Interestingly enough, we now re-initiated the group and even managed to have everyone attend the first meeting!) I personally thought the campaign, which is settled 1200 years before the Christ affair and intended to reach as far as the modern days, was far too superb (= chaotic) to just let it die. Long story short, we transferred the campaign to a Wiki, changed to English to reach a broader public (= Victoria) and started posting stuff that is all but the actual game. We got two new players by now and are doing their preludes (no idea what that is? Pity...), so if anyone else is interested in joining, just leave a comment and we can arrange things. Further information can also be found here.
Ah, before I forget. Victoria got herself a blog as well. Visio Dei: Music is my god. Visit it or die in anguish (sort of).
Did I mention my Mac mini already?