.:DIGEST JAN 18:. _____20180101: parallel Just seen a documentary about parallel universes. At one point one of the presenters said that he could create a parallel universe by choosing pencakes over eggs for breakfast and vice versa. On one day, I'd love to have the courage to histerically yell at a random guy on the street that "you chose the fucking pencakes and I stuck in this universe, you moron". It would be fun to see their reaction. *** _____20180102: burnout I am like an old star today: I don't know if I'm going to collapse or explode. Or maybe I'll just slowly and silently burn out. *** _____20180103: geography You can acually measure how cool websites/web services are by imagining how their names would sound if they were countries. Examples. Gopherland: damn fine. Mastodonia: fucking awesome. Twitteria: na-ah. Facebookland: absolutely no fucking way. Just imagine. *** _____20180104: healthcare State healthcare is a perfect system. If you are healthy, of course. Here's a bit of an advice for y'all: don't get sick. It's as simple as that. *** _____20180105: burn Yesterday's news today: this post was brought to you by $ ssh gunnarfrost@sdf.org ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host Could've been worse. It could've said something like ssh_exchange_identification: North hemisphere set to fire by remote host *** _____20180106: literature I always wanted to write a book. A real one, a novel or something. The "writing" part is the hard one. The "book" part is easy: whenever I visit a place that sells books or has a bookstore, I arrive home with at least one new book in my bag. On one hand I hate those guys whose books I buy. Lucky bastards, have the time, the motivation and the patience to actually write a book. On the other hand, send help, books are blocking the front door. Tell the help not to hurry though: I still haven't read at least ten of them. *** _____20180107: giveaway Dear Diary. Yesterday I got my first ever Mastodon response. It was about me giving away books. Probably should stay away from Mastodon for a while. *** _____20180108: laws First law of the universe: there's no toilet nearby when you'd really need one. Amendment to the first law: if there is one, it is always occupied. Second law of the universe: there is no remote place nearby when you'd really need one because of Law #1. Amendment to the second law: if there is one, there is always a policeman standing right front of it. Third law of the universe: no matter that you think you can't hold it until you get home because Laws #1 and #2, you can. Amendment to the third law: you'll always be unable to find your keys for the first try, even if they are in the pocket you just searched. *** _____20180109: blank People used to be afraid of the empty, shining and blank paper rolled up to their typewriters. Those times are gone. Now we are scared of blinking cursors at the top of the blank page. So we start typing meaningless crap just to erase that emptyness, thinking "I just need to start typing and I will eventually get into the mood and create something of value". Today I am stuck at the "meaningless crap" part. *** _____20180110: countryside Moving away from the city to the countryside (well, countryside by city standards) was one of the best decisions in my life. My social anxiety disorder (SAD; how accurate) seems to be fading slowly. I am now learning how to move away from the internet. Most likely this will isolate me from the society a bit more than necessary, however I feel that end of the social spectrum much healthier. *** _____20180111: bench Today it was rather foggy. Reflecting to yesterday's entry, this is another thing I really love in remote living. Heading home from work I had a half an hour rest on a bench, doing nothing, just watching how the fog floats amongst the trees. My mind was empty and clean. It felt good. *** _____20180112: spirit Hard day today. And a long one. I feel tired, but that's OK. My brain feels dull and full; maybe I should take a walk, rest for a couple of minutes on yesterday's bench. Yesterday it helped a lot. A bird cries somewhere in the woods. It's dark and it sounds like if some weird spirit would cry out for salvation. Really spooky. *** _____20180113: acceptance Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, there is always a dumbass who tells you why you're doing it wrong. That's just the nature of the things. Don't fight it. Accept it. And learn how to ignore it. *** _____20180114: open Frozen drops of water falling from the roof of the porch. Snow, sparkling and clean and the whitest white. The sound of branches breaking and falling heavily. Not a single footstep, not a single word. And you just stand there with a mug of coffee so hot it almost burns your hand. You open your eyes and ears to the beauty of this Sunday morning. It is only 6 AM, but you are already smiling. *** _____20180115: inmates On its way to the town, the bus passes by a penitentiary. Today in the morning I saw them releasing a couple of inmates. The ex-prisoners seemed tired, frustrated, frightened and cold. It was minus 12 degrees Celsius. Many of them was wearing a light coat, their breath was swirling all around their heads, like a cloud right before the storm. I could almost see the warmth of freedom in their hearts dying in the brute frost. I saw one of them turning his head back towards the gate. Whether he was missing the warm of the building, or swearing an oath to never return, I couldn't tell. *** _____20180116: desire Everyone who has seen this planet from space realized that the existence of life is miracolous. They realized how fragile the balance that keeps life in existence is. They realized that we are rare and unique. We, all the others clearly lack that perspective. We are unaware what we are, who we are and that everything we suffer for in our tiny, misarable lifespans is without value in a cosmic sense. This is not some esoteric bullshit. Everything we consider to be precious either dies with us or barely survives our existence. Consider this next time when you desperately desire something merely material. *** _____20180117: itsyer "Knock knock" "Who's there?" "Itsyer." "Itsyer who?" "It's yer total incapability to produce meaningful texts today." *** _____20180118: sunrise I saw the sun rising today. I was standing there, sleepy and cold, waiting for it to emerge. It was teasing me for twenty minutes, painting the horizon with its firey, orange glow, beautiful and scary at the same time. And then, in a blink of an eye, there it was, burning a blue ghost of its image into my retina, so I could carry the sight for a little longer even after the moment was gone. *** _____20180119: solutions You know what distinguishes us, humans from (other) animals? No, it's not language. Sit down, smarty. No. It is our ability to overthink and overcomplicate things. In nature, every problem yields for the simplest possible solution. In our society, we use to overthink our problems and invent complex solutions to solve them. Meanwhile, we create even more complicated problems. Right now we have problems so complicated that even our most complex solutions are useless. And, thanks to us being so damn smart, we started to lose our abilities. We can't walk long distances any more. We forgot how to write with a pen. We don't recognize real values any more, we only see price tags with prices we invented. Our planet is almost literally boiling around us, thanks to our superior solutions. And while we think ourselves superior, the truth is that we would be unable to survive any more if our overcomplicated solutions would be taken away. This is not some Greenpeace crap. This is reality. This is what we became because of what distinguishes us from (other) animals: the ability to overthink and overcomplicate things. *** _____20180120: midnight What was that? Noises from the porch! It's twenty past midnight. Burglary. Aliens! They are here to abduct me. Weird surgical tools, painful white light, a laser beam opening my chest, the cold of a steel table on my back... Where's my flashlight? Grab that hammer! Stay strong, fight for the last breath! A pair of shining eyes in the dark. The beam of the flashlight swipes across the porch, cutting through the deep darkness. Be gone, squirrel! Let me sleep. *** _____20180121: path Today is Sunday. At night, a lot of snow has fallen. Today is about shoveling, trying to cut a path towards civilization (meanwhile the truth is I don't really want to get anywhere near civilization). Tomorrow is Monday. Another day in a cubicle. Tomorrow is about nothing, but things I don't actually want to do. I'd just shovel for days, weeks even. It is so much better outside. I don't mind getting physical. I don't mind the cold. I'd just keep cutting my path towards civilization and keep hoping I will never actually get there. *** _____20180122: black I consider making coffee as art. No, I'm not talking about fucking hipster latte. I am talking about real coffee, home made stuff. Real coffee is made with care. It is important how you store the beans after you've opened the package. You shouldn't let it go dry. Going wet isn't good either. Your coffee maker is essential. It's like his brush was for Renoir. It's like his piano was for Mozart. And no, your Nespresso-whatever-the-fuck is not a coffee maker. After making sure you have the right raw material and toolset, the artistic process begins. You shouldn't overbrew. You shouln't underbrew either. Be careful, it is only a matter of seconds. And of course real people serve their real coffees black. Sugar is for kids. Milk is for babies. Real coffee is pure and black. *** _____20180123: belongings Our society underrates simple living. We always want one more gadget, although we already own more than we need. We always want one more room, even though we already have more than we occupy. We always want one more piece of clothes, no matter we already own more than we regularly wear. We exactly need two plates, one mug and a glass per person, yet we keep buying 12-pieces sets. We keep buying bigger and bigger screens, yet our rooms are too small to enjoy their advantages. We buy stuff just for the momentary joy. We are over-consumers. Have a sheet of paper and a pencil. Make an inventory of your belongings. Now, circle everything that you'd take to the shelter in case of a nuclear war or such. Those are the ones you need. All the others are most likely just for making you feel better. And while they make you feel better for some time, they actually make you never think about the circled things: the ones you really need. *** _____20180124: bored People who never start anything: you'll never experience the joy of creation. People who only do stuff for the sake of doing something: you'll never experience the satisfaction when looking on the fruits of your works. People who start doing things but abandon them because getting bored: yeah, well, we really should finish that particular shit, right? *** _____20180125: audible I guess every corporation has a section in their internal policies about employees must start every teleconference with "Can you hear me?", or a variant alike ("Am I audible?"), shortly followed by "Can you see my screen?". *** _____20180126: turd You know who's worse than Charles Manson? I'll tell you. Adolf Hitler. And do you know who is worse than Adolf Hitler? I'll tell you. People who walk their dogs in public places and don't collect their dog's turd. Basically you can be worse than that only if you walk your dog in public places AND you don't collect your dog's turd AND you are Adolf Hitler. *** _____20180127: melt The snow started to melt today. What a pity! I really liked the thick white carpet outside. Whenever I looked out of the window or took a walk, it helped me to ease my mind. I felt clean and peaceful. Spring is coming and that feeling started to fade. *** _____20180128: pizza Putting my pizza into the oven then forgetting about it was a bad idea. Especially the forgetting part. I was about to stay away from the city on Sunday, but I guess now it's either the city or starving to death. *** _____20180129: traces I can only see traces of the winter. As of the season would be long gone and the remains would only be here to mock me for my love of the coldest season. Another season is coming slowly. Time for "rebirth", for "something new", for "nature's revival". For me, it is not a beginning, nor it is the end. It is just spring, which (for me) is less pleasant than winter's peaceful stillness and permanence. *** _____20180130: teams Dear Diary. Today I was asked whether I am on Team Edison or Team Tesla. First, some people have just way too much time. They invent nonsense things, such as "teams" just to try to categorize other people by forcing them to answer dumb questions they just invented. Probably these very people would slowly develop a grudge agains you if your answer would be something not fitting into their invented, miserable little world. Also probably they pathetically try to justify their own thoughts, their oppinion and their mere existence through these dumb questions. Second, since when do thieves have a team? *** _____20180131: composite Public domain idea for airlines: Economy Class Braggers' Information Card "At 34,000 feet, the temperature outside is usually between minus 50 and 60 degrees Celsius. The low pressure and the even lower level of oxygen make this height unhabitable for most species, including humans. Only millimeters of carefully crafted composite material stand between You, Valued Passenger and a painful, gruesome death. Please always remember, that airplanes are marvels of modern engineering, making it possible to travel and survive in conditions not suitable for human existence. You should be always greatful and think about all the scientists and explorers and engineers and geniuses who made that possible. Even on economy class, you fucking prick."