posting from the new phone for the first time! we're staying on a campsite on the beach of south ronaldsay. the car's fantastic - and we didn't freeze :) ami still sleeping ... we're really far north-the sun doesn't set until 11pm! weather typical but still no rain so far. proper holidaying starts today.
...or how we tried to live in XXIth century and failed.
Around May we've decided to buy ourselves a cool new smartphone. HTC Touch HD, to be precise.
First we tried the proper way: through a contract with a phone provider. On first try, we've failed an online credit check.
Meanwhile, I had my wallet stolen and all my cards locked.
In Orange salon, we've failed credit checks again. We were told to make the checks ourselves through Experian or Equifax to see what's going on.
After getting back the new credit cards, I've done both checks. All turned out nothing wrong (after a few days of them learning how to read royal mail addresses). We went to Orange again, and failed the credit check again.
Not willing to pay £500+ for new sim-free phone, we turned to eBay. It was mid-June by then, a month has passed. And here the story really took off.
Looking for a bargain, we found the phone for £330 with pre-installed Garmin software, slightly used. Cool!
We got the phone. Let's call it Phone A. Just the handset. The charger was a generic mini-usb one. And the Garmin software was a pirate CD of Garmin software FOR NOKIA.
I've checked IMEI - the phone A was reported stolen.
I've opened a paypal dispute and demanded a refund. The seller agreed, if I sent him the phone back. So I did (stupidly). Next day he claimed the phone arrived damaged and demanded money for repairs FROM ME.
I've escalated dispute to a claim. I have no phone A, and no 300 pounds. Now I'm waiting for the response from PayPal which they say will be on July 19th.
Meanwhile, still wanting the phone for holidays, we bought another phone, phone B. £320, used, boxed with all accessories.
Phone B was lost in post.
Royal Mail takes 15 days to say whether a Special Delivery is lost or not. After 15 days, instead of a refund, the seller offered to send another phone - phone C - under the same conditions. I agreed.
What we got was, again, just a handset, but at least this time it had original pouch and charger. That was all.
I demanded refund for cables and accessories. The data cable was apparently 'in post'. For the headset, I got a refund and bought a replacement in an online shop.
I got a Nokia headset instead. The replacement will be dispatched 'tonight'.
So now, after two months and spending some 700 pounds, the situation is as follows:
Phone A is back at the seller, with whom I have a claim dispute over PayPal.
Phone B is lost, presumably stolen, somewhere on its way from Essex to London.
Phone C is here, but with no original accessories except for charger, and a useless Nokia headset.
And we're leaving for holidays today, so no chance to improve any of that.
So much for online shopping.
PS: And now Royal Mail decided to NOT deliver our GPS software on time for holidays WHICH WAS THE WHOLE REASON FOR BUYING THE FRAKKING PHONE IN THE FIRST PLACE.
- 70% of the population would turn gay, because it's just so much more fun
- The remaining 30% would be kept as slaves for procreation purposes, and because gays love to take children and turn them gay
- After a slave couple, forced to procreate through drug addiction, gave IVF birth throuh Cesarean section to a desired number of babies, all their other pregnancies would be automatically aborted
- Once the mother would reach non-procreative age, she would be euthanasied
- And everyone would be constantly high. And worship Satan.
The coverage of Afghan War in British media is really quite pathetic. The only thing the tv and newspapers are all interested in is that the British soldiers are dying. You'd think they just sit all day in their camps and get mortared, or drive around trucks and get blown up by mines.
What's happened to good old war reporting? There's a war in Afghanistan. You may disagree with it, but that's the fact. There are battles. People are dying. Recently, there's a massive offensive on Taliban, allegedly one of the largest ones since the war - something we only know from US coverage, not from local news. And the Brits fight on its right flank in the Panther's Claw operation (I know that from wikipedia, not from BBC). Of course some people will die. Dozens, possibly hundreds more die on the other side. That's what happens in the war. But no, the only thing you'll hear is 'another british soldier dead'. Why? What was he doing? In what context? What's going on with the war? Are we winning? Are we losing? Are we in a stalemate?
We don't know that. Instead we're treated, of course, to a stream of interviews with friends and families of the dead, the meaningless eulogies (of course he was 'brave'. they don't take cowards to the war!) the dreaded 24-hour news 'human angle'. The human angle that is torn out of context, blown out of proportion, treated everytime as a separate, unrelated event. Our poor boys, sent to die for 'incomprehensible reasons', because the media do nothing to make these reasons even the slightest bit comprehensible.
... if the burqa is just "an expression of culture and tradition" instead of instrument of oppression - why are their husbands wearing jeans and t-shirts?
Watching "Omohide Poro Poro" for the first time after ten years (only now I feel I can really appreciate that low-key movie) I think I've finally nailed what makes Japan the best-portrayed nation in cinema. Why I seem to have known every street, every house, every garden as if I've lived there for years, something I never experienced even in London, even in the most victorian-Hammer-Horror-style parts down in Southwark; or Paris; or Warsaw. Somehow, all these cities which I've seen countless times on celluloid, always seem faker than they really are. Not so Japan, which I've rarely seen in any other form than animation.
A live-action movie will simply be never as detailed and thorough with backgrounds as an animation - especially Ghibli-style, or any old-school 80's/early 90's animation. Two crucial things make the animation better suited for portraying real cities and landscapes:
- Camera focus. Unless you use some very special tricks, you will never get the camera focused equally on the characters and background, and on every single element of background. What you need in a live movie are long shots or even total shots establishing the scenery; a shot of Manhattan, a shot of Kilimanjaro, and then we're back to the characters. In animation like Poro Poro you can read every neon and newspaper headline in the shop window as the action happens in the foreground.
- Limited use of close-ups and crowd shots. There's no shame in having an entire cell showing just a lonely silhouette against an empty street in the rain. A distant car on a mountain road. Two kids playing in the park - somewhere on the horizon. That way you don't get that beautifully hand-crafted background is full visible. Since you don't pay the actors, you don't need to justify their fee by having them constantly in the middle of the screen.
Of course, the natural advantages of painting over photograph also play part, unless you compare against a really artistic and crafted movies - a cell painter has full freedom of selecting what he wants to show and how. He can focus on that which creates the real mood and feeling of the scene, instead of just photo-realistic rendition. The water-colour style of Takahata's movies is perfectly suited for that, since the graphics can just smoothly vanish in the white blur.
Anyway, what I'm saying is - if any of you've seen Omoide Poro Poro a long time ago, say, when you just started watching Ghibli movies and thought "oh, this is different... I'm not sure I like it all that much" - try and watch it again now. It's a real grown-up movie and should only be watched by grown-ups.
Turns out "The Black Smoke Band" which played for War of the Worlds consists of:
Herbie Flower on bass ("Space Oddity", "Walk on the Wild Side") Chris Spedding on lead guitar (Roxy Music, Elton John) Gordon Marshall on drums (The Moody Blues tour drummer) Julia Thornton on harp and xylophone (Roxy Music tour harpist)
And a few session guitarists and a keyboard-player from Mike and the Mechanics.
That's quite a neat line-up there. And Chris Thompson, lead vocals of "Manfred Mann's Earth Band". And of course Justin Hayward. And a holographic Richard Burton.
Judging by the average audience age, most of the people would remember the original WotW album, or even the original Moody Blues and Manfred Mann line-ups. Which must've been rather neat for them.
I've been ranting about this for the last hour, and I need to vent now.
THE FUCK is wrong with people who come up with computer and phone models and other electronics? Why can't they learn anything from Apple's marketing division?
I don't fucking care whether a notebook is called XG5t58.5 or GT3943.13. I want to know what I can expect from that model. And I don't need a dozen crappy netbooks, I just want one that is good. I don't want to have to delve into wikipedia to learn that the difference between Samsung Visio and Samsung Pisio is 0.5 MP more on camera.
And when I finally decide what I want from my computer or phone, I want to be able to go into store and buy it. This particular model, not something else, not "almost like". I want to be free from googling EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DETAIL of a phone or notebook to determine whether I want Acer 5054235 with GeForce 9443 or Asus 321114234 with Radeon 100051. Especially since the morons in the shop will never be able to tell me the difference anyway!
Normally, seeing as it's a big business managed by big business people, I would think that maybe they know what they're doing. Maybe they know something I don't know about how to run an electronics company. But then I look at Apple's market share and brand awareness, and remember that there is no Iphone 5455 VIX and Iphone 1100.BT+, there's just Iphone 1, 2 and 3. And there's Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro in the shop, not Macbook MC240LL/A. Yes, the MacBooks have model numbers as well, but you know what? I DON'T NEED TO FUCKING KNOW THAT.
And what happened with Asus EEE line? It started off so good, you had Eee 900 with 9 inch screen and Eee 1000 with 10 inch screen. And that was ALL we needed to know when buying it. Now there's 1000H, 1000HA, 1002HA, 1000HE, and shitfuckload of other crap with no significant difference in price or quality. The hell? Why not produce just ONE GOOD NETBOOK ?
And you can't even market these things properly! All Apple has to do is market "Iphone" or "MacBook". One ad for everything. One shop for everything. It saves money and produces brand awareness. Two concepts nobody else in electronics world seems to be familiar with, apparently.
The cart squeaked up the greasy and damp trackway, filled with ore, pushed by a tired, ragged halfling. Finally, they've arrived at the top of the mine, where other hobbits proceeded to unload it.
A Snaga guard barked at the hobbits. "Well, that's the end for today!", thought Sam, and staggered off to his barracks.
It was evening meal time, and they were served the same vile gruel as every day for the last ten years. Suddenly, the barrack door opened and, as all the slaves stood to attention, uruk-hai captain threw something that looked like a whimpering bundle of dirty clothes on the floor.
Sam and others approached, curiously. The newcomer stretched himself on the floor, shivering, crawling. He looked almost unhuman, with wild, bulging eyes and thin white skin on skeleton-like hands.
"They call that a replacement? He won't last much longer than that Brandybuck kid!," groaned the foreman, kicked the new guest lightly and returned to his gruel. "Precioussss...", the poor creature hissed, scowling in pain. Something in the voice seemed familiar to Sam. He looked carefully at the face of the other hobbit.
"Master Baggins?", he asked finally, surprised. Madness disappeared for a brief moment from the eyes of the new slave and it seemed to try to remember something; in the end, it just shook his hand and stared wildly around again. "Preciousss...?" it repeated.
"You know this... hobbit?" the foreman asked, hesitating.
"It's Frodo Baggins. I used to work for him as a gardener in the old days. He went mad and disappeared some time before the War started. Just like his uncle a few years before. Family of loons, all of them."
This is a quite new thing, and I'm sure whatever marketing guys they have at Opera they will explain it better than I can - or better yet, if you install it and try to play with it, you'll see immediately why it's such a great idea. I say 'idea' not a product, because a) it's obviously in a very early beta stage (how do you turn PHP on in the web server?) and b) I'm sure there's many, many limitations that will appear along the way. But it already has plenty of 'wow' factor; maybe there are other applications that enable you to easily host a webserver, mp3 host, photo gallery, chat and message board from your own PC all at the same time (name two?) but Opera gets extra points for style, ease of use and mainstream following. Combine that with in-browser VNC and Google Gears and your browser really turns into the most powerful tool you will ever need.
Of course, it will probably get hacked into oblivion once it goes live and we'll never hear of it again - until Apple buys it and releases it in black...
Okay, so I liked T4: Salvation. In fact, I liked it a lot. I know for some reason I'm in a minority, but them's the facts.
It was very well made and photographed. Special effects were much more realistic than in the last two, and not just because we have better computers. Okay, so it didn't have (real) Arnie and humour, as everyone noticed, but then it's not your typical Terminator movie and everyone should be prepared for that. It's a WAR movie, that takes place after a nuclear holocaust. Just how many jokes can you tell in that situation? And for how many episodes should the Governator be chasing something or be chased by something? We know it couldn't work for the fourth time - it didn't work for the third time, after all.
Yelchin was better than in Star Trek. And Bale was better than in Batmans. It was an action movie, so there was a lot of siliness - but come on, you don't go to watch the Terminator to look for the plot holes! That's like looking for plot holes in a Doctor Who series finale. The Terminators still throw main characters around to kill them, which still doesn't work. But that's proper!
All in all, thoroughly enjoyable. Light years ahead of T3, and if you're not into camp, actually better than T2.
Sometimes, there's this favourite flavour of ice-cream you remember from childhood, that you think is gone, and then you go on the internet and search for it and you discover that the Japanese are still making it, and they make it taste even better than you remember.
Postęp ogarnia różne dziedziny - W Danii lansują "wielkie rodziny", Czyli że zamiast pary małżonków Taka rodzina ma więcej członków (i więcej członkiń). Czasem w ten sposób Żyje ze sobą z piętnaście osób, Więc kombinacji to z tysiąc aż da, Gdy każdy z każdą i z każdym każda. ...a ileż przy tym werwy, polotu, Przekomarzanek, śmiechu, szczebiotu! Toteż odczuwam bardzo niemile, Że w tej dziedzinie jesteśmy w tyle. Wszystko się u nas niby rozrasta, Ale te sprawy wciąż jak za Piasta. Przyparłem żonę do muru z rana: - Trzeba coś robić! Świat patrzy na nas! - Dobrze - odparła z wyrazem troski - Zaproś Dreptaków i Rosołowskich... Nadchodzi wieczór. Wrażeń łakomi Do mojej chaty walą znajomi, M-3 mieszkanie trzeszczy w posadach, Zaraz się zacznie degrengolada Oraz rozpusta! Ale na razie Głos zabrał Zyzio na dużym gazie. Widocznie stracił po wódce wątek, Bo wybełkotał: - W.. .wesołych ś.. .wiątek! Moja małżonka natychmiast na to Przyniosła z kuchni ciastka z herbatą. Wnet się zaczęły spory i krzyki, Mężczyźni hajda do polityki, Panie wyjęły włóczkę i druty, Zaczęły sobie przymierzać buty I obgadywać Basie, że chytra, A Henio kopnął się po pół litra... Widząc to wszystko, krzyknąłem: - Hola! Miała się przecież odbyć swawola! - Słusznie - rzekł Józio. - Dalej, kochani! Tu wyjął krzesło spod jednej pani, A ta, upadłszy na parkiet z dębu Wybiła sobie sześć przednich zębów, Za co jej amant, Trypućko Czesław, Dał w łeb Józiowi nogą od krzesła, Jak się zakręci, zakłębi wokół, Sam sierżant Miziak spisał protokół! I rzekł życzliwie, kiedy wychodził: - Sto lat z okazji pańskich urodzin! Usiłowałem przekonać władzę: - Myśmy tak chcieli, jak w Kopenhadze... - Weź pan - doradził mi - aspirynę! ... Jak stworzyć polską "wielką rodzinę"???!!!
Friends sing together La, La, La, La Friends do things together La, La, La, La Friends laugh together Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha Friends make graphs together La, La, La, La
Friends help you when you're in danger Friends are people who are not strangers Friends help you shift into a new place Tell you if you've got food on you're face
Friends are the ones, on who you can depend He's my friend, He's not my friend Friends are the ones who are there at the end He's my friend, They're not my friends
If you trip over I'll catch your fall If you kick my dick, I won't break your balls If you get drunk and vomit on me I'll make sure you get home safely
If you cross the road and a truck struck you And scrape you up and reconstruct you I'll cheer you up if you're depressed If you get murdered I'll avenge your death
Friends walk together La, La, La, La Pop and lock together
Me and him together La, La, La, La Me and Jim forever
Friends go jogging at the track Friends borrow money never pay It back Friends do not let friends do crack Friends go out and grab a snack Friends drink beer in the sun Unlike girlfriends they don't mind if you have more than one Friends tell you when your fly's undone
My Uncle John had a special friend They dressed a like, his name was Ben I've never seen two friends like them They we're very very friendly men
La, La, La, La Friends, Friends, Friends La, La, La, La Friends, Friends, Friends, Friends La, La, La, La Friends, Friends, Friends, Friends La, La, La, La Friends La, La, La, La
From a broad historical perspective, it's actually quite easy to divide Europe into Eastern and Western parts.
The defining boundary is, to me, the Holy Roman Empire. Like a huge mountain range, or an inland sea, the Empire, stretching longitudinally right across the middle of the continent, separated the two historical halves so thoroughly, they may not have as well have known anything about each other.
The interests of the two parts were internally inter-connected, but externally had naught in common. The occasional royal marriage or military expedition seemed like a travel to a distant continent. Indeed, the Spaniards or Italians may have shown more interest in dealings of Africans (or, later, Americans and Asians) rather than those of the Magyars or Kievans.
The policies of the West were expansionistic, both within and without. Perhaps most importantly, to the West of the Holy Roman Empire, the nations seem to choose their enemies themselves. If an outer enemy lacked, they would turn on each other. If the mutual conflicts were resolved for a time, they would expand outwards. In the East, the enemy always seems to come from Beyond. The Mongols, the Cumans, the Bulgars, the Ottomans, the Muscovites, the Teutonics, even the Swedes approached from beyond the historical horizon in shape of "innumerable hordes". Even the (rare) instances of expansion are almost always in response to the external threat. The internal infighting is rare; the Eastern Europe has no "N-year wars" worth mentioning, numerous minor Baltic-centred conflicts notwithstanding. Dynastic arrangements, unions and dissolutions, brief raids, flashy conquests and failed campaigns, and finally plain old isolationism define the history of the East in stark contrast to the constant slaughters of the West. The chief conflicts are always "against" somebody, rather than "between" somebodies - or if they were between somebodies, they would be usually regarded as "rebellions" or "revolts". Furthermore, the boundary of the HRE seems impassable to all armies, except the Swedes who would utilize their unique position, straddling the Baltic: the East never marches against anybody in the West; The West never even notices the East until it becomes weak enough for harmless pickings.
The influence of Asia, the Steppes, is another crucial experience which is not shared between the two Europes. The Magyars have been beaten back by the Saxons. The Mongols have stopped on the gates of Karyntia. The Turks have only twice reached Vienna, and once Italy. Even the Red Army has barely passed beyond Berlin, the furthest the Steppe Hordes have reached since Catalaunian Plains. It may not be easy to realize until one gains an outside perspective, but the Steppe is what binds Eastern Europe perhaps closer than any other historical, religious, linguistic or military experience. Whether through constant struggle with, or being under oppression from the Steppe, we have been shaped unmistakably into that conglomerate of nations that is Eastern Europe.
With that perspective in mind, it is easy to understand the phenomenon of Czechs. Geographically and linguistically in the very middle of what could be called East, mentally - once you scrape off the thin layer of communism - they appear thoroughly Westernized. This, I believe, is because the Czechs have not shared the bulk experience of East. Firstly, they've belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. They've belonged to its long and fierce history. The Czech kings have become Emperors. The Czech theologians have become heretics. Theirs was an active part in the religious struggle of the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, which shook the old and prepared foundation for the new West, while leaving the East completely unshrugged. Secondly, sheltered behind Carpathians and Hungary, they were safe from the Steppe. No kefir-drinking horse archer has arrived at Prague for more than a stop-over or diversion; no coffee-smelling pasha besieged its walls. What little common the Czechs have with the rest of the East is due to those few decades of suffering under the last, Soviet horde. It is easy to contrast it with their immediate neighbours, Hungarians. Children of Asia themselves, through dynastic and military turmoils the Hungarians may have, for a moment, had a chance to play a part in the Western drama of internal conflicts; but the Steppe has come and claimed its rightful ascendancy - and the Hungarian kingdom disappears from the history books written to the West of Elbe river. I don't know enough about Slovenes, who shared similar fates to Czechs, to make such a comparison, but the fact they were the first to join EU and Euro speaks volumes for where they belong as civilization.
As the history of Europe got complicated, there were attempts to divide it further into meaningful chunks. Northern Europe, Central Europe, South-Eastern Europe... but to me, these are all simply attempts to interpret the latest historical developments separate from the centuries of straightforward divisions. It's like selecting a few-months old song into the Top Ten of All-Times list. Yes, the Austro-Hungarian Empire brought its nations closer together, and yes, the Eastern Bloc spread the taste of borsch and vodka further than seemed possible; but if you go beyond the skin-deep, some of the ancient connections don't match the new divisions any longer. Greece doesn't have more in common with Belgium than with Slovenia just because a British PM was stubborn 60 years ago. Czechs may share the love of Sachertorte with Hungarians and Galicians, but they will remember being an active part of something the other two never were - a major Western superpower.
Sure there are other, more detailed layers above our common Eastern European, Steppe-ridden roots; the Austrian KuK nostalgia; the uniquely Polish, weird influence of Italian renaissance; the Venetian traders on the coasts of Balkans; the mountain valleys of Carpathians; the religious divisions of Catholics, Orthodox and Muslim; and random border changes which meant regions like Istria, Kraina, Silesia or Pomerania suddenly switched geopolitical allegiances; but like the various layers that form the differences among the Brits, French, Spanish, Germans, Netherlanders, Italians, they are only spices that one adds on to his individual bowl of stew. The stock is one and the same for all of us.
I've recently become a fan of rev. Mandell Creighton M.A., a British historian, writer and bishop of London in the last years of XIXth century.
For anyone interested in history of Britain, his works (which are very few, unfortunately) are a definite MUST READ. The man was a terrific writer; his books read like the best fantasy. He was a Mertonian, of course, and you can certainly trace paralells in his writing with that of other more famous Mertonians. Pacing is impecable; the chapters leading to major events (Battle of Evesham, St Bartholomew's Night, etc.) read like thrillers.
Furthermore, as a man of cloth, and a victorian, Creighton is a man of strict morals; and it's quite refreshing to see those morals used in a book of non-fiction. His opinions are not left out of his biographies and essays, and this makes them so much more interesting. His characters are alive and multi-dimensional. It does help, of course, that he selects the most interesting periods or personalities of English history.
If you're ever bored of fiction and want to read something equally riveting, pick up one of Rev. Creighton's books.
So, was Europe ready for the first single-mother minister?
Apparently not, at least not the media. "French minister leaves her child alone in hospital to go on an official visit". Where alone means in care of doctors and family, and the child is mildly sick and recovering.
So a mother is only a mother. Who cares what her other duties are. She wants to work? Well, she shouldn't have a bloody kid, then.
Out of relative boredom, I've decided to rank my mp3 folders according to space they use, first by category, then total. Accounting for various bitrates, and how prolific artists are, or how easy it was to get hold of them, this still says something of my music tastes, although is not a straightforward indicator. Some artists are just more mainstream than others. No Misc/Various etc. folders included. These are top 10 or top 5 sub-folders in each category folder:
The alert level has been downgraded from "MILLIONS MAY GET SICK" to "Many will be ill". In small letters.
Death of 10 13 people shot by a gunner in Azerbaijan school deserves a one-sentence mention on page 20. One person catching a flu in Scotland deserves first page article.
Price of a loaf of bread in Zimbabwe has now exceeded US national debt: 125 trillion dollars. That's Zimbabwean dollars, but still impressive.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
curious
thoughtful
flirty
annoyed
