Scientifically proven...

Life's harder for man.

You've been Pimped?

I am now officially certified to comply with EN 14153-2.

Random Philosphy

Passionate in english usually refers to love and sex. In portuguese apaixionado means in love. In german "passioniert" is usually used in conjunction with stamp collecting and other really passionate stuff. Strange people.

Lights

New toys arrived. Now I can enter the world of glamour portraits (and normal portraits as well), the only thing I need is models. Any volunteers?

Happy...?

Your Social Dysfunction: Happy You're a happy person - you have a good amount of self-esteem, and are socially healthy. While this isn't a social dysfunction per se, you're definitely not normal. Consider yourself lucky: you walk that fine line between 'normal' and being outright narcissistic. You're rare - which is something else to be happy about.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Please note that we aren't, nor do we claim to be, psychologists. This quiz is for fun and entertainment only. Try not to freak out about your results.

"Abuso di Credulita Popolare"

Seems you are not allowed to publically fool people in italy. Now a court has to decide if it is the church or the atheist fooling them...

Working on weekends...

The bottom line is that, in my experience, one will in general be healthier, happier, and more successful if one takes reasonable amounts of time away from work, doing whatever helps you to relax. Don’t let the culture of crazy work schedules and macho bragging about them drive you to unhealthy practices. Find out what works for you and, as long as it isn’t clearly unreasonable, stick with it, and explain that to anyone who tries to persuade you not to.

--- Found on Cosmic Variance

Seems I am not the only one thinking that having time off is better for your mental health...

Tech Underground

This looks promising,

Random Stuff

Happy Newton's day. (Newtons Birthday was the 25th...). Also celebrated on the same day: the birth of the first communist jew or jewish communist roughly 2000 years ago.

On tsunami-news: the german minister of science now wants a tsunami warning system for the mediterranean. The one in the pacific and indean ocean (if working at all) will give people a 10 minute before warning. Assuming the speed of tsunamis is the same in the mediterranean as it is in the pacific and the indian ocean, this will give you a 2 minute before warning (rough and unscientific guess by me). Time enough to kiss your ass goodbye or have a last quick one with your girl-friend (or whatever at hand), not time enough to run.

And I'll be gone till the 5th, as there surprisingly is no work to be done inbetween...

Bonobos

Just came home from a nice evening with friends. Going with the S-Bahn is always interesting...

Just opposite of me sat a couple, both being at the beginning of their twenties. He sitting there showing off like "I have that big balls and a that huge member, I can't even sit straight", she sitting completely taken by something in her hands, ignoring him. Both having that "I'm so annoyed"-face. No talking. Then he grabs whatever she was holding in her hands, she shouting at him to be careful. Silence. Annoyance. Kissing. More Kissing. He starting to take out his earphones, not paying much interest in her, even while still kissing. She had to get off at the next station, saying "I love you", he mumbling something, then louder "You too". Kisses. She leaving, he completely obsessed by his walkman. Still annoyance on both of their faces.

Then I thought, well, my life sucks. But their life sucks even more, and worse: they don't even know it.

Cosmic Variance

This seems to be interesting...

A poem is a city

a poem is a city filled with streets and sewers
filled with saints, heroes, beggars, madmen,
filled with banality and booze,
filled with rain and thunder and periods of
drought, a poem is a city at war,
a poem is a city asking a clock why,
a poem is a city burning,
a poem is a city under guns
its barbershops filled with cynical drunks,
a poem is a city where God rides naked
through the streets like Lady Godiva,
where dogs bark at night, and chase away
the flag; a poem is a city of poets,
most of them quite similar
and envious and bitter...
a poem is this city now,
50 miles from nowhere,
9:09 in the morning,
the taste of liquor and cigarettes,
no police, no lovers, walking the streets,
this poem, this city, closing its doors,
barricaded, almost empty,
mournful without tears, aging without pity,
the hardrock mountains,
the ocean like a lavender flame,
a moon destitute of greatness,
a small music from broken windows...

a poem is a city, a poem is a nation,
a poem is the world...

and now I stick this under glass
for the mad editor's scrutiny,
the night is elsewhere
and faint gray ladies stand in line,
dog follows dog to estuary,
the trumpets bring on gallows
as small men rant at things
they cannot do.


--- Charles Bukowski

The yellow Blinking Lights...

The yellow Blinking Lights...
Originally uploaded by perreira.

...are turned on for testing only.

It's the end of the world...

...as we know it.

Common Sense

Friday I went to a lecture about research managment in chemical industry. Triggered by that I browsed my fathers bookshelf on some stuff about management in general, project management, time management, etc. Disguised as the new fancy shiny multicolored hat XYZ method (highly priced seminars available) are usually things, which I thought of as being completely obvious to anybody. Well, at least thats what I though before I started my PhD some years ago...

It all boils down to some very simple rules: define your goal, define your objectives. Then figure out how to reach these goals and define a route. Check regularly if you are getting closer. If you do, fine. If you don't, re-check the goals, if they are clear enough, re-check your path, if it leads where you want it to lead. When dealing with people, when trying to lead people do the same. Be clear about stuff, if you want person A to do B, tell person A to do B and not let person A figure it our by himself, because most probably he will do C. Treat people as people. Be nice to people. If they fail, do not treat them as idiots, everybody fails sometime.

Please send now an enormous amount of mony to my bank account for this short introduction to the deep and mystic ways of management.

Unfortunately our management did not get these insights until now...

Portugal, 1964 part two

Done with scanning slides, now the whole set of pictures of Portugal in 1964 is on Flickr. Does anybody of you know a better idea to scan slides with glass frames than opening the frames and taking the slides out? (Not a good idea, as they are glued in...) Most slide scanners only can handle the thin glassless frames.

Portugal, 1964

Oporto
Originally uploaded by perreira.

Scanning the slides my father took in 1964 on a trip through Portugal.

People

I wish I could write... There is an amazing amount of people around here worth being put into a story.

Usually I take breakfast at a portuguese cafe around the corner, where there are the habitual people, sometimes some new people. There is the group of elder portuguese man, usually discussing football or complaining about stuff. Complaining, saying what one should do, but today nobody ever, one really should, if it would be them, they for sure would. And maybe have another bagaço around eleven in the morning.

Two days ago there were two women, I didn't really get what they were, psychologist or astrologist (anyway, same species). They were discussing some computer programs to councel people, you put in some stuff, get a recommendation, edit it and people are supposed to live happily ever after if they follow these recommendations. Telling how you have to put in stuff about love and partners for younger girls, put stuff about the job for middle aged men, about younger girls for older men.

There is the alternatives, pretty common around here in Altona. They try to be really different from the mainstream, starting by dressing differently. But, differently in a very strict dress code, wearing kind of an uniform. All of them look the same, behave the same, talk the same. All of them are very individual.

And sometimes, very seldom, you may actually spot a hamburgian, mostly an elderly couple of them. They speak the local dialect, are conservative and open at the same time, are very anxious to show that they know a couple of words of portuguese, order a badly pronounced galão, talk about the holiday they once had in spain, it wasn't that bad there, people were quite well behaved, it was clean, well, the food was a bit weird, but in generally, yes, it was very clean, not like in Italy (or Yugoslavia or wherever). And the people there were nice as well. Well. Not like at home, but not that bad...

False sense of Duty

I could have been to Lisbon. I could have been to one of the best parties ever. I even was offered that I do not have to pay the entire trip...

Instead I spent my day in the Experimental Hall, labeling exactly four cables and talking two and a half hour with six people about three cables we need. Just to clarify: the cables have plug A on one end, plug B on the other and are of a well defined length. In real life, this would be a matter of one e-mail or at most 10 minutes of conversation, of which 8 would be occupied by asking how is the family. No, we spent more than one complete person-workday on that.

The next time my would-like-to-be-boss tells me that I am urgently needed, I'll tell him to sod off and go on an extended holiday.

National Shame...

I am not really a modern guy, sometimes I think my value system is so 1980... Having too many doctors in a hospital is a national shame. I thought too few would be a shame, too many a sign of luxury. But, as I said, sometimes I am so 1980...