Climbing Yggdrasil

Cormac McCarthy's The Road

2010-03-23T01:43:00.002+02:00

I began to read Cormac McCarthy's The Road a couple of days ago. I had seen the film before reading the book. The film was fairly good, though a bit slow and pensive, not the kind of movie that keeps you glued to the screen. Still, Viggo Mortensen's performance was quite solid -- the film being basically built around him.

The book was a quick read. Though rather descriptive it doesn't bore too much, having the right balance of action and descriptive parts. A post apocalyptic America is excellently described in this novel. Its a land in which no plants grow, no animals live, cities are emptied, the sun is perpetually blotted by gray clouds, and food is extremely scarce -- forcing many people to resort to cannibalism. The story revolves around an unnamed man and his unnamed son, who travel across this desolate land, barely surviving, looking to reach the ocean. The man is highly protective of his son, considering it his holy duty to take care of the boy. In barren and savage world, they manage to remain moral, and bring solace to each other. The boy is remarkably good natured, considering the world he grew up in. He mostly stays out of trouble in spite of his lack of pragmatism, being almost prescient in some cases. His father just tries to protect him, under any circumstances, even if sometimes he can be too wary around strangers.

It's a pretty depressing read. The book doesn't have many "happy" parts, the only optimism comes from the characters escaping danger, or living to see another day. Still, it's a fairly good book, event though it has its rough edges here and there. For instance I don't understand why the apostrophe is missing in every don't in the book. Must be some artsy thingy I don't really get. The end seems to be a bit far fetched, yet it's quite welcome in a book so dark and demoralizing. It's an overall immersive experience, yet the world described in the book is one in which I don't think anyone would like to be immersed into.

The Road is to a book I would read several times, it's one of those books that I read, I appreciate, but it's way too grim for me to revisit any time soon. It is an important book however, a must read -- because it describes human nature to perfection. I really do believe that if a massive disaster would strike Earth, in a few years time the world would be very much like the America described in The Road. This book can sit next to William Golding's The Emperor of Flies as a masterpiece that coldly dissects the human spirit, and reveals us for what we truly are. Albeit Golding's book was arguably more pessimistic and grim. It may not be a likable read, but it is a valuable experience.

Who I think should win the Oscars

2010-03-07T13:26:00.003+02:00

Tonight the Oscars are going to be handed, and I thought I that I might express my preferences. So, these are not the films/actors/screenplays who I think are gonna win, these are the nominees I would like to win, yet in some cases I'm quite sure they won't. Granted I haven't seen all the films that were nominated, so in most cases I'll just name my favourite. So, without further ado...

Actor in a Leading Role

Morgan Freeman (Invictus)

Actor in a Supporting Role

Cristoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds) -- really he's just awesome in this role, basically steals every scene. One of the best interpretations I've ever seen

Actress in a Leading Role

Carey Mulligan (An Education)

Actress in a Supporting Role

I've only seen Up In the Air and neither Vera Farmiga nor Anna Kendrick seemed Oscarworthy, though they were both moderately decent

Directing

James Cameron (Avatar) -- he did good, very very good as director. Though Tarantino is at a close second

Visual Effects

Avatar -- no surprise here, no?

Original Screenplay

Inglorious Basterds -- really, what's so amazing about the writing in The Hurt Locker?

Best Picture

District 9 -- both Avatar and Inglorious Basterds are strong contenders for the title, yet District 9 just worked for me better than the other films.

Well, so far you can pretty much tell that I was enthusiastic by both Avatar and Inglorious Basterds. Well, I liked pretty much everything in Avatar but the screenplay (really, it's a very cheap story). Also Inglorious Basterds was an awesome film, by all standards. I loved it very much, and I consider it Tarantino's finest ever.

I am disheartened to see that both Watchmen and Moon are absent from the list of nominations. Moon will remain a cult classic, I am certain. And Sam Rockwell's acting will be remembered for ages to come, and Gerty will remain one of the best robots in movies ever. So there's a nomination missing for best actor, best director and best movie there. And a nomination for Duncan Jones as best director.

Watchmen. Best actor in a supporting role, Jackie Earl Haley -- though he's not quite Critoph Waltz. Still a nomination would have been nice. Best director, Zack Snyder, yes in my opinion, he did better than James Cameron, much better. Best motion picture -- yess, better than District 9 in my opinion. In my heart Watchmen was the best 2009 had to offer, in spite of the fact it was one of the most competitive years for movies, ever. Also when is Viggo Mortensen going to get his well deserved Oscar? He was great in A History of Violence, he was great in Eastern Promises, he was brilliant in The Road. It's a big shame he's not on this year's list.

I don't think much of movies like Up In the Air and A Serious Man. They're mildly enjoyable, and I never get to feel much for the story. As for The Hurt Locker, it was a good film, I not denying, but I was ultimately bored by it. Kathryn Bigelow did a fairly good job directing the film, however between fairly good and best this year there's a huge leap.

And yes, I do have a bias for science fiction. Duuuh...

My new netbook

2010-03-06T23:51:00.005+02:00

I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v netbook. I've been using it a lot these last few days, and except for a few small inconveniences I'm quite pleased with it. It's been a good worthwhile investment.

At the beginning the netbook was marketed as a terminal for the web. Everybody was mesmerized by the idea of the cloud like not actually possessing your own data was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Well, though I use a handful of cloud apps, my Dell Mini remains a smaller cheaper laptop. I use it as a secondary computer, it grants me the portability of my data. I occasionally take it with me to school if I have use for it, or I bring it home to Baia Mare whenever I come back for a weekend. It made my life a bit simpler, and overall I really enjoy using the little fella.

It has a few shortcomings though. A netbook's screen is small. At a resolution of 1024x600, there's a lot of info crammed in a small amount of screen space. Also it warms up quite a bit every now and then (especially when it's turned on and the battery is charging).

I use both Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows XP. Installing XP was a quite troublesome but I finally managed to do it using this guide. Still, I had to both modify the boot.ini file after installation and to change the drive letter of the main drive (after the install it was labeled E:\ instead of C:\), a process which was a bit tedious. Also downloading the drivers for the Mini was an EXTREMELY long and annoying process. I don't know what servers Dell can afford, but really -- I felt like I was back in the Dial Up era. Downloading the drivers was even more bothersome that installing XP. Finally, after a lot of struggle I managed to get a decent XP installation, with everything working but the function keys for wireless and external monitor.

Installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix was a far easier task. The default USB creator from the .iso file didn't work in my case but Unetbootin did the trick fast and with no problems. After the install all I had to do was enable the proprietary Broadcom drivers and remove and add a few programs. For instance I much rather Dropbox instead of Ubuntu One, and I find Pidgin to be highly superior to Empathy. Also I installed Google's Chrome browser, since it became quite stable on Linux, though Firefox remains my main browser (in spite of the fact that its user interface take a lot of precious screen space -- luckily there's still F11). Installing programs was both fast and easy, though I still prefer Synaptic to Ubuntu's own Software Center.

An Ubuntu Netbook Remix screenshot

I really do like UNR, and it was pleasant to see that at least with the Dell Mini Ubuntu was a bit compatible. On my desktop the microphone doesn't work at all, the webcam is glitchy, I had to do dirty terminal work to get the sound to work, and the system is sloooow. It does it's best to maximize screen estate. Getting multiple desktops was a bit bothersome, but manageable nonetheless. On the dell mini pretty much everything works except the function keys for the wireless connection (not a big nuisance, really).

So how about the laptop? It's worth the price, if you ask me. Yes, it does have its quirks. It heats up a bit too much after a few dozen minutes of use, though it remains quite usable. Battery life isn't much and also the touchpad is a bit imprecise. And the backspace key started to screech recently. Still, none of these are really deal breakers. Just minor nuisances, overall the laptop was a great investment, that I would gladly repeat. I'm quite fond of it so far.

Frederik Pohl's Gateway

2010-03-04T19:29:00.002+02:00

Reading Frederik Pohl's Gateway was a fairly pleasant experience. Lately I haven't got much time to devote to reading. A few days ago I had a few minutes to spare in a bookshop, I saw the book -- looked interesting. It's not really a big book, only 400 (small) pages long.

The story goes like this: a guy named Robinette Broadhead wins at the lottery. Instead of spending his money to raise some kids or party like mad for a whole year, he buys himself a ticket to the Gateway. The Gateway is a space station built by an ancient race of aliens, the Heechee. Nobody knows anything about who the Heechee were, how they looked like, or why did they built certain artifacts. However the complexity of the Heechee technology helps mankind progress, and the times are tough (overpopulation + pollution).

The finding of new Heechee artifacts is done with the help of the Gateway. Docked in the Gateway about a thousand spaceships that can travel faster than light speeds (*ahem* tau space). The problem with them is that nobody knows how to set the coordinates. So travelling is kind of a trial and error rate, and the pilots' mortality rate is quite high. However if the pilot finds Heechee artifacts he/she's set for life. Robinette would like to join a few expeditions, so he live a life without worries.

A parallel storyline is represented by conversations between Robinette and Sigfrid von Psycho, his robot psychiatrist. Basically in these paragraphs Robinette does nothing but whine for pages without end. What makes up for these boring moments are the vivid descriptions of life on the Gateway. I really enjoyed those, and Robinette's travels through space. In these moments Pohl shines as a writer. However in building his characters he's a little bit feeble. Robinette is nothing but an angsty little girl throughout the novel, an Sigfrid is as flat (but not as lovable) as HAL 9000. Really, I saw a few reviews on the Internet praising the characters in this book. Well, not really, teen angst doesn't actually mean deep. Yes, Robinette's remorse at the end is almost digestible. Yet in all other places his demeanor is just annoying. Really, I felt like bitchslapping him a few times.

However things get really sci-fi-licious once the space travels begin. A vivid universe unfolds before the reader, with countless enigmas. It's a bit disappointing that the end is quickly wrapped up, and virtually all the questions about the Heechee remain unanswered. I also felt a bit cheated at the end, because I was fed a cheap psychological novel, cunningly wrapped up in really really delicious science fiction.

Overall, was it worth it? Yes, definitely, for the science fiction. I loved the Gateway, the travels, the mystery of the Heechee. Maybe I will read the sequels one day, out of sheer curiosity -- I understand many things about the Heechee are explained. Reviewers complain that in later novels the characters become flat. Who cares? Both Asimov and Clarke had flat characters. Which was great, more story, less whining. Gateway could have been sheer awesomeness. Yet somewhere on the road, clumsily built characters got in the way of the story.

John Scalzi's Old Man's War

2009-09-30T12:22:00.008+03:00

Old Man's War is probably the best book I've read lately. I got is as a Tor giveaway. I read it almost in a frenzy, and albeit I read it as a pdf -- which I generally find difficult -- I just couldn't let it go. The book is almost addictive, and it deserves it's spot near other science fiction masterpieces such as Ender's Game or Starship Troopers (a book from which Old Man's War borrow's heavily from). In spite of having many elements common to Science Fiction, the book is a stunningly good read.

The story goes like this. John Perry is a 75 years old man whose wife has just died. So he decides to join the army. To do that he must leave Earth and never return. Also be legally declared dead. Joining the army means joining the CDF (Colonial Defense Forces), and fighting to protect human colonies throughout the Universe. He gets a new genetically improved body from the CDF and he's trained as a soldier. What ensues is a brutal war where chances of survival are extremely slim. And intuitive tactics from earth really don't work that well against aliens. Neither are the awesome genetically engineered bodies, neither are the guns they're given, nothing guarantees a win except luck and ad-hoc tactics. Things get even a bit more complicated when John Perry is saved from certain death by a woman who looks just like his wive would have, had her body been pimped as his was.

The story is exquisitely well paced, a definite page turner. It's immersive, the characters are quite fun to read about, the technology presented is also a good read. I find aliens hard to digest, since they're always humanized by authors -- no matter how much authors try to de-humanize them. I accept them as given in sci-fi TV series¹, but I'm way more critical when it comes to aliens in books or even movies². Still I took the aliens in Old Man's War as granted. They serve the story well, and heck, when reading sci-fi one should always note that it stands for Science Fiction. In Ender's Game I disliked the fact that Ender has a bad conscience because he wiped out a race of aliens that threatened the whole of mankind. John Perry has battle fatigue once, and he gets a bit emo, but he gets over it three pages later and resumes obliterating aliens. Don't feel too bad for the aliens though, they eat humans.

I'm not going to get into any more spoilers, and just stick to the fact: Old Man's War is GREAT. It's definitely the best book I read in the last few months, maybe even the last few years. It fully deserved it's Hugo, and I'm really looking forward to read the sequels. I just hope John Perry won't get Enderized. I thoroughly recommend this book -- it's some of the best sci-fi has to offer, a future classic. Thoroughly enjoyable, well written and moreover a great story built on a strong premise. In my opinion John Scalzi is deserves his place next to titans of Science Fiction like Asimov, Clarke or Heinlein.

Also let's not forget to thank Tor for their giveways. And for the great free short stories they keep giving us every month.

¹I think the label sci-fi/Science Fiction should never be used referring to a TV series, feel free 
to disagree
²Yes, I believe ET and Close Encounters of the Third kind are bad (and boring) films. The Alien 
series is an exception

Cory Doctorow's Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom

2009-09-29T19:53:00.010+03:00

I could say that from all the futures presented in science fiction novels, Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom is the one I wish most was true. It's entertaining enough to keep me glued to the computer screen for the few good hours it took me to read the pdf. It's relatively short, I guess it barely makes it out of the novella category. It's a good story however, a wonderful debut for Doctorow as a novelist -- a debut only few could hope for.

The story goes like this: in the Bitchun Society no one dies. Everybody can backup him/herself -- so death is no longer a problem. You die, you get resurrected from the latest backup. Immortality is thus available for all (see why I really wish this society were true). What do people do when they know they're gonna live forever? They have fun, change their lives when possible. Crime is no longer such a big problem since death is not terminal. Jules is such a person, living his fourth life with his girlfriend Lil (who is about 15% his age). They both work at Disney at the Magic Kingdom. Basically they're pimpin' the rides there, though Doctorow doesn't use this expression. But along comes a woman named Debra with some gadgets that allows one to virtually immerse in the body of any of the USA presidents. This makes the rides in the Magic Kingdom obsolete, so Jules takes it upon himself to sabotage Debra. He's caught, which earns Debra a lot of sympathy Whuffie (money in the Bitchun Society). So Jules hit the rock bottom, and he has to get up again. Above all this his back-up system is broken, and he cannot back himself up anymore, meaning that if he dies he loses recollection of his past few months.

The story is good in my opinion. Initially it's a bit difficult to get accustomed with all those new terms, such as Whuffie, deadheading, ad-hocs, etc. It's kind of like reading a William Gibson novel -- skimming through any paragraph might result in a poorer understanding of future ones. Of course, in this sci-fi novel the world/the society doesn't change. It's just a story in a world that could be really thoroughly exploited again and again (I hope Doctorow will do that).

The story has some minor flaws, however. It's quite short, so don't expect to really be allowed to get to immerse too much into the Bitchun Society. Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom is a book that desperately needs a sequel, the Bitchun Society is just too interesting to be left for just one novel. A novel about a theme park for that matter. I couldn't really connect to the character's passion for the Magic Kingdom. It's a theme park for chrissake, Disney's theme park. So considering this it's understandable the book isn't that long. I found the parts in which Jules talks about his former life or the Bitchun Society is described much more enthralling than anything that happens with the Magic Kingdom itself.

Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom can be downloaded for free here and it's licensed under Creative Commons, so again -- thanks Cory! Chronologically I read Down and Out In the Magic Kingdom before reading Little Brother, it was the first book I downloaded legally for free (albeit it laid forgotten on my hard drive for a few years). It's quite nice to see that mainstream authors begin to see the benefices of sharing their work for free. Which is great.

So go on, download the book in your preferred format, read it and feel free to pass it forward to others.

Cory Doctorow's Little Brother

2009-09-29T16:15:00.005+03:00

I believe Little Brother is a welcomed addition to the science fiction genre. Of course it's a retelling of 1984, with computers, kids and the Department of Homeland Security added to the recipe. It was a very pleasant read, even if I read it as a pdf I downloaded from the book's official site. I find reading books on a computer monitor quite tiresome, yet I'm trying to get myself accustomed to it.

Little Brother's main character is a 17 years old boy named Marcus Yallow, nicknamed w1nst0n (1984's main character was named Winston Smith). He gets busted by the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) after some terrorists blow up the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. He is tortured in an island near San Francisco, and eventually gets released. The US after the terrorist attack grows increasingly paranoid, and gradually USA becomes a police state. So Marcus begins to get on the Xnet (a liberated version of the Internet) and start messing up with the system as much as possible. He also falls in love with a girl, and shares Linux cds. All this while the noose of the authorities starts to tighten around him.

Little Brother is a good read, I must admit. Not necessarily one of the best sci-fi novels I read -- and not even that sci-fi, if I come to think about it. Most of the technologies present in the book are available today. The book is also a good tutorial for privacy, something people keep forgetting about while we're on-line. I think that albeit a wiz-kid, Marcus is a bit too good of a programmer and hacker. I think that teenage hackers were always a rare and much overrated phenomenon. True hackers (and most hackers) have university degrees and years of doing nothing but hacking behind them. Of course, I may be wrong.

Artistically, Little Brother is (a bit) more than just propaganda for Open Source and better privacy laws. It's more than just a book that advocates piracy and peer-to-peer activity. It's a nice story set in a future-not-so-improbable. A surprisingly readable story -- pleasant for both children and adults alike. It's moral is simple: don't let the system fuck with your liberties. And what the heck, as much as it sounds like a cliché, it's a moral that I agree with. Even today harsh laws are passed in France and world-wide against so called software pirates, aka kids who download movies and songs they can't afford/want to listen to before actually buying them. So two thumbs up to Cory Doctorow for actually writing a book about the issues of the modern society.

However, I fear that all this propaganda takes just a bit out of the story itself. This is more of a philosophical issue of course -- I believe that sci-fi stories should be first and foremost stories about human nature. And if any political/social views are introduced, they shouldn't actually be the story itself. I felt Little Brother's story was conceived just to show us how we could prevent privacy abuse in today's world. Basically the propaganda is too obvious, kinda like a Richard Stallman short story. Of course, this is all forgiven since I'm all for increased privacy, software freedom and p2p. Also I'm going to look for the books Doctorow recommends at the end of Little Brother.

I welcome the fact that Cory Doctorow licensed his work under a Creative Commons license, which makes it redistributable and remixable for non-commercial purposes. It gave me quite a warm and fuzzy feeling, seeing I could legally download freely the work of an acknowledged author, a whole book, not just a short story or a novella. So kudos to Cory Doctorow for his exemplary move. More artists should follow his footsteps -- this is the way to go for the future culture. So, Mister Doctorow -- Cory, if I may -- I promise I'll buy a copy of Little Brother when I'll have the money. And thanks for releasing books for free on-line.

Linux Mint 7 Gloria

2009-07-18T14:27:00.005+03:00

I finally decided to give Linux Mint 7 Gloria (a Linux operating system based on Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope) a try, since the software from 6 was kind of dated, and the idea of beginning to compile source code doesn't quite appeal to me. I didn't have a spare blank CD, but I did have a blank USB flash drive. Following these simple directions I managed to make a bootable USB drive -- the equivalent of a live CD (except I can now reuse the flash drive for other purposes).

The install process per se is pretty straightforward, no problems here. Soon I had a functional installation of Linux Mint 7 Gloria.

The first thing I had to do was remove pidgin and pidgin-data completely and download the latest Pidgin Jaunty binaries from here. Messaging on Yahoo is impossible on versions prior to Pidgin 2.5.7 (2.5.5 comes as a default in Gloria). The latest Pidgin, once installed, works just fine.

Also I installed Cairo Dock, but I am quite disappointed by it. The eyecandy is obtrusive, and I just cant seem to get along with it. I haven't yet deleted it, since maybe I'll get the hang of it one day. But for the moment I much rather the less bloated and more useful Gnome-do docky mode.

To my dismay I find it still impossible to get Skype up and running. My microphone just doesn't work under Linux. My webcam kinda works, but the image is crappy enough to make me want to reboot to Windows whenever I need to use it. There are frustrating parts to using Linux, and not managing to use Skype is a major annoyance.

And it's not the only program not to work fine. I downloaded the Yo Frankie game from Get Deb and even this open source game with binaries for Jaunty isn't usable (Gnome-do's dock and the Gnome pannel get in the way). I never quite got it how the dictionary installed by default ought to work, since it never returned a single definition ever since Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (my very first distro). SMplayer doesn't play videos (!!!), albeit I installed it via Mint Install.

Linux doesn't quite work on the desktop. It's usable most of the time, rather ok for surfing the web. However, from a user end perspective, it's no Windows killer, sadly. I found this link, that says it all IMHO.

Visually I opted for a darker theme (see picture) since it's more aesthetically pleasing. If there's one thing that'll always make Linux feel better than other OS's is the way one can configure it, until you have a desktop tailored for your reflexes and habits.

Hopefully things will continue to improve gradually.

Also, a mandatory screenshot :D

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

2009-06-30T20:17:00.007+03:00

I just finished reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo (or Män som hatar kvinnor in Swedish). It's been a while since I read a good thriller, or any other type of fiction for that matter, and I can honestly state that the aforementioned book is a pretty good choice for a new beginning.

I enjoyed it mostly, and in spite of it being the first book I ever read fully in French, it kept me pretty much hooked. Unfortunately I had to pause my reading for about a month since my exam session had started. However, as soon as the final exam was finished I began reading again, until I finished the book.

It's the first book in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. Initially it was set out to be a series of ten books, however Larsson died leaving only three finished books and a fourth unfinished one. Millennium is actually a journal, founded by the main character, Mikael Blomkvist.

The story goes like this: Mikael writes an article in Millenium for which he is accused of slander. He has to spend three months in prison and also Millenium heads towards bankruptcy. An old and very wealthy man, Henrik Vanger, makes Mikael an offer he cannot refuse. It regards the disappearance of his niece, Harriet Vanger in the 60s. Mikael has to solve the mystery both for money and for insights on his sworn enemy, Hans Wenerstrom. In his quest Mikael is helped by a young goth hacker, Lisbeth Salander (the actual girl with the dragon tatoo).

In his quest Mikael finds out about the dark past of the Vanger family and evils that have not yet died. He is both under pressure and under threat as he digs deeper into the family's secrets. It's definitely a page turner, I can honestly say that I wasn't bored at any point in my reading.

The characters are well shaped, and I grew pretty fond of Mikael. Of course, they're not overly dramatic, this isn't The Catcher in the Rye or Men and Mice. But they're plausible. All except Lisbeth of course. I found the character of the young goth a bit over the top. Doesn't necessarily fit into the picture, and she's also too troubled. Throw in a goth, bisexuality, Asperger's, tatoos, ability to hack anything, abuse, and a propensity to sleep with older men, mix all that and you've got Lisbeth Salander. A melange that doesn't quite work. Not to mention that many times over, Lisbeth is given the role of the Deus Ex Machina, completely saving the day.

The thing that I liked most about the book was the atmosphere. Larsson managed to stage a pretty impressive thriller, and the scenery helps a lot. The island of Hedestad is a great place for the action, while the rest of Sweden too seems to add to the suspense. It really made me want to visit Sweden, or any Scandinavian country for that matter.

It's a good book, and I am anxious to read the sequels. They cost a lot, and I insist reading them in French (for practice). Hope I'll manage to get my greedy paws on them soon. Until then I'll have to find other things to read. I should also mention that the title actually means Men who Hate Women, I don't really understand why the title was changed in the English translation. Either way, if you find this book in a bookstore near you -- buy it and read it. It's fully worth it.

I heard Quentin Tarantino was thinking of making a film after the book, starring Brad Pitt as Mikael. I'd really like to see that one. Also there's a ~~Swedish~~ [update: I don't really think it's a Swedish film, the title is spelled different] movie based on the book. I haven't seen it, only a trailer in Swedish on Youtube and also some other scenes. The movie looks good, and it's a shame it hasn't yet hit the theaters in Romania (and I doubt it ever will).

PS: I also noticed that both the good guys, Lisbeth and Mikael have Macbooks while Wenerstrom (the guy who accused Mikael of slander) uses Windows. Funny -- however, good guys use Linux :)

Hitchens debates

2009-03-28T21:30:00.005+02:00

Today I watched a debate (here) between Christopher Hitchens and a certain Dinesh D'Souza I never heard of before. Hitchens' books have not yet reached Romania, so I never got to read any of his works (nor am I a reader of Vanity Fair). Still I watched a handful of interviews of his on the Internet, and I am quite fond of his stance on religion. Pretty much agree with him on many points. Of course, as a secular humanist, I don't have much to hold against the guy.

A few months ago I also watched Hitchens debate Al Sharpton ( link). The fight was ok, and I felt like Hitches was a clear winner -- even though Al Sharpton was right when he noted that Hitchens mostly debated Christianity and Islam when the fight was more about the abstract idea of God. Maybe Hitchens should have explained that the idea of God and religion are linked inextricably -- no belief in a certain specific god is possible outside the framework of religion. Anyway if you look at the questions asked by the public in this Al Sharpton vs Christopher Hitchens debate you'll notice they're in poor taste sometimes and always stupid, i.e. they're not specific, usually they're just rants rather than actual questions.

Dinesh D'souza is a better opponent for Hitchens. In the debate I mentioned above one might say that in certain topics he even outdid Hitchens. Especially with the old recurring argument that Stalin and Mao were both atheists. In my opinion this is probably the best argument Christians have.

It's complete bogus, yes, Stalin and Mao weren't evil because they were atheists, just like Hitler was not evil because he was a Christian. We'll perhaps never know the reasons for which they turned out to be the bastards they all were, but I'm certain that it was not the fact that they realized that there is no God above to chastise them post mortem. One can always find excuses for violence in the Bible, even excuses for genocide. Is it just me, one of the reasons give for antisemitism in Germany was "the Jews nailed Jesus"? Also this concerns the fact that mere atheism does not give you a set of morals. Saying that being atheist makes you necessarily good is equivalent to saying that understanding 4th grade geometry gives you a higher set of morals. Why? Because being and atheist means just realizing something really obvious about the world. Being good is a rational and logic decision itself (maybe that's why being an atheist gives you statistically less chances of ending up in prison) but by no means is it strictly linked to being an atheist. To being a secular humanist... well, i'd like to see statistics before talking, but I do presume that statistics would show that self-confessed secular humanists are way more altruistic than Christians.

Anyway, D'souza made some wrong points, but made them well. It's frustrating to see that due to the very way the debate was structured not every argument was attackable and not every attack was defendable. Basically for every argument D'souza I already knew the rebuttal, and I'm sure so did Hitchens -- yet he was not able to speak at all. This very fact made me think that the best debate is one in which two opponents are faced without a moderator in between, and they're basically allowed to tear each other apart (through words of course).

Alas, the biggest problem is that reason alone does not win a debate. In fact reason and logic itself almost never win a debate. It's charisma and catchy phrases. That's why perhaps the most convincing atheist of all times was George Carlin. Sure would like to have seen him debating.

Projects...

2009-03-23T13:29:00.007+02:00

One rather annoying thing about college is the existence of project papers. Whether you have to calculate something out of measurements performed at laboratory experiments or just bust your brains trying to make a Java simulation of the planetary motion, projects are just a dull and time consuming task. Not to mention the fact that always something must be wrong, no matter what.

So, how to write a paper. First off you need the initial data. Provided it comes from an experiment, hurray for you. In case you have to make a simulation -- you're pretty much f-ed. The results are next interpreted in Open Office Calc or Microsoft Excel, there's no actual need for Microcal Origin yet. Afterwards you migrate the results in Open Office Writer, write a couple of equations, do a bit of formatting, say your prayers, and watch a movie/drink a beer.

Also, you shoudn't leave everything for the very last minute, but who's to blame you (but the teacher) -- it's not exactly great fun you're having.

Maybe I should write a full tutorial about making such a project. But maybe later. When I'll actually do anything to get away from working on it.

Watchmen (the movie)

2009-03-09T22:32:00.006+02:00

I've read the Watchmen comic book when I was still in my first year of college. It was a very good comic, in my opinion Alan Moore's finest. So when I heard Zack Snyder was doing a Watchmen movie, I knew a must see would come.

Every once in a while there comes a film that I know I must see fresh and that I mustn't wait for the DVD version to come out. 300 was one of those films, and so was The Dark Knight -- and I was right in both cases, these movies ruled. And now came Watchmen, and I had to go watch it with a few classmates. Payed cash I don't usually spend for the ticket, some nachos and a Cola. I was quite excited, and even maybe a bit afraid that the movie wouldn't stand up to my high expectations. From the very first minutes of the film I realized I was going to have a great couple of hours and a half.

The movie was absolutely stunning, every few minutes a "WOW!" escaped from my mouth. It had everything I could ask from a film, great fighting scenes, great soundtrack, really cool special effects, good acting (with one notable exception), a superb story, lots of Easter eggs and to top it all, the directing of Zack Snyder. Dawn of the Dead was a damn good horror, 300 was a work of genius, and Watchmen is poetry in images. So Zack Snyder can very well shoot himself -- he did it, and it's impossible for him to outdo himself. There are no comics as great as Watchmen left unfilmed, nothing can be better than a watchmen movie. Maybe a Rorschach exclusive in which that Silk Specter chick dies in horrible agony... Sorry, I was fantasizing.

Guess I already made you figure out one of the movie's very few shortcomings. That Akerman (or wossername) chick is an actress so bad she shouldn't even had been allowed to carry the coffee for guys like Jackie Earl Haley (is it just me or does he look a lot like Clint Eastwood in this movie?) or Jeffrey Dean Morgan (again, is it just me, or is this guy a Javier Bardem look-a-like?). Well, Zack Snyder is forgiven for casting that whatever-she-may-be-'cause-she's-no-actress woman, for the movie is pure awesomeness. I wish there's a DVD 4 and a half hours Director's Cut, because I want more. Really, that was one movie I really wished never ended.

I could go on and rant about it on and on, but one things certain -- people who criticize it don't know shit about what movies should be. It's great, go watch it now. Really.

PS I heard Alan Moore put a curse on the film. Well, Alan is crazy

Probably the best video game in the world

2009-03-01T10:52:00.004+02:00

I just finished World of Goo -- and it's brilliant! It's definitely one of the best computer games I've ever seen, maybe even the best (I still have to decide between it and Curse of the Monkey Island). World of Goo has everything I could ask from a game -- puzzles, humor and simplicity. And adds sugar on top of all this with a good ol' dose of physics.

The mechanics of the game is astounding, thing that sometimes causes a good deal of frustration (after seeing your goo tower or goo bridge give up and crash in spite of having spent some good minutes meticulously crafting it). The puzzles are quite smart, and never repetitive. I had to work my brains on some of them, finally giving a big A-HA! after figuring out what had to be done. Major A-HA! moments:

Last level chapter one -- the eyes are usable

Last level chapter four -- burning the goo-support for the undelete button. Unfortunately I have to shamefully admit didn't figure it out myself, a friend tipped me as he was watching me play

That controlled explosion level -- in my opinion it's the hardest level in the whole game

The game is not long, yet again another plus, for it makes the World of Goo relaxing and also allowing each level to be unique in its own way -- otherwise the game would have gotten quite repetitious after the kzillionth level.

Another thing I liked a lot in World of Goo was the soundtrack. It's freely available, and you can download it from here. I am listening to it as I am writing this post -- and it's good music. It's one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard (and by that I don't mean just video game soundtracks). Really, download it! And listen to the Red Carpet Extend-o-matic song.

The graphics are 2D bliss. I think 3D is way too overrated. And that's how Lucas Arts messed up the Monkey Island series -- by making it 3D. Graphics ought to be judged by the colours and design rather than pixel shading and other such useless crap (when it comes to gaming).

Official trailer -- notice the 2D graphics!

The difficulty curve is non-linear, meaning many early levels will be tougher than ending levels. However this did not bother me at all. Also the very last level was a ludicrously easy -- and somehow made the whole thing more fun.

Saving the best for last -- it's been ported to Linux. I played it on Mint and it ran without any problems, even though I didn't deactivate compiz or did any tweaking. It's great to have cool games ported on Linux, and considering the game costs little (around 20$) and it's 100% DRM free Linux users should flock to purchase from here. You can also download a demo from the 2D Boy (the developers) webpage.

Dual bootin'

2009-02-25T17:26:00.010+02:00

Yesterday I spent a few good hours reinstalling everything on my computer. Not that I had to, I just felt like changing something. In over 7 months of using the same installation both the Windows XP partition and the Ubuntu one were filled with junk software. Plus I was curious about trying out Linux Mint for a while now. And with shame I admit I was a bit curious about Vista as well.

Windows Vista

So I burned a DVD for Windows and a CD for the Linux Mint Felicia Main Edition. Installing Vista was surprisingly uneventful and fast. Moreover I realized that I had no need of installing drivers for my soundcard or Nvidia videocard. A few months ago when I installed XP SP 2 I had to browse for a couple of days for the right sound driver (I found out what soundcard I have by looking in the Ubuntu sound applet). Anyway, in spite of an easy install I realized Vista just looks ugly. I changed the theme and shrinked the icons but still the borders dwarf the text and there's just something about the Aero interface that seems half-baked. And no, I don't want to switch to classic view -- I think a desktop should pe pimped enough to make me enjoy using it.

After installing Windows the next things had to be installed in order to make the OS useful:

Firefox web browser

Pidgin IM client

Songbird music player

RSSowl

Daemon Tools lite

Skype

VLC media player

SMplayer

OpenOffice.org

I'll also have to install Microsoft Office (i need it for school, otherwise I use Open Office as much as I can) and a few games. Also I noticed that Vista is way buggier than XP. And annoying when it comes to installing stuff. Keeps asking me to press continue and ok until I feel like having played 3 straight hours of Diablo II.

Linux Mint

Installing Linux Mint was more problematic than I thought. Though the installer is pretty ok, I don't understand why distros don't use Gparted for partitioning. It's one of the best tools Linux has, and it also comes with a straightforward GUI -- using it is much more OK than whatever half-baked partitioning programs major distros come with. I tried making a 256 Mb /boot partition, but in my n00bity I was utterly unable to. So I just stuck to a 10Gb / (root) partition and a 30Gb+ /home one. The first time I started the installer I chose to skip the "fetching date/time from server" stuff -- thus the installer abruptly stopped. I rebooted my machine and Windows started, meaning the Mint install was incomplete. Confused and a bit frustrated rebooted in Live CD mode once again and this time I only skipped the language pack external download. This time I was successful.

First problem was the sound. There was none coming out of the speakers. After being a bit scared I had to search the nets for Linux soundcard drivers I realized the sound was simply muted from gnome. Yeah, n00bity again -- but c'mon, it's not like it couldn't happen to anyone else. I think that by default all sounds should be turned up to maximum. Next problem was the Nvidia driver. Without it I could have no fancy desktop effects and no resolution of 1280*1024 (the optimal one for my 17" monitor). Due to external factors the internet wasn't working that well, so I just watched a movie and went to sleep.

This morning I installed the video card, set the monitor resolution from nvidia-settings (which had to be run with sudo btw, so I could save the settings to xorg.conf). Then I proceeded to install all the software I installed on windows (save for demon tools) and I also promptly started some pimping. Not too much pimping, just enough to make Mint more... cozy.

RSSowl doesn't really work on Mint so I installed liferea, an excellent gnome alternative. Also Songbird abruptly stopped working for some reason -- it keeps giving me the error "Failed to connect" and then just crashes. At the moment I'm listening to music on Rythmbox but I'll have to do something about Songbird. No way it stays off my desktop.

There was some stuff I installed and needed a little meddling in /etc/apt/sources.list (this helped a lot). Mainly I'm refering to the latest versions of Wine, Gnome-Do and SMplayer. Gome-Do version 0.8 has this great mode called docky. I never consistently used a dock on my desktop, and this docky thinie seems to be a great little tool. It's definitely staying.

So...

Vista is so... Windows. Buggy, intrusive, I only use it for running apps/games that I really can't run on Linux. Mint is ok. It's not much of a change from Ubuntu, but by having some stuff preinstalled it almost forces me to try new stuff. Yes, it has it's share of headaches -- but it's Linux. And is free, as in free beer. And it has Wanda the Fish.

Pictures

So this is how my fresh minty desktop looks like. Not only that it looks good but it's also useful and very responsive. So I forgive Linux Mint the few minor glitches it made me put up with.

Revival

2009-02-20T10:38:00.002+02:00

I started this blog when I was still in highschool. Somehow I never managed to continue posting due to my epic-scale laziness. So I'll give it a try again. I've re-read a few old posts -- they weren't that great. Realized this blog never actually had any readers (unlike its now defunct y360 counterpart).

So, maybe this time i'll do it better.

Castigat Ridendo Mores

2007-02-19T18:41:00.000+02:00

The following two vids are made to make you laugh. If you're offended by them it means you're simply ignorant (and fundamentalist). If you're not such a person, enjoy :)

Bucharest

2006-11-28T19:15:00.001+02:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to see the capital city of my country, Bucharest. Being born and raised in a town with a population of some 120000 I was rather taken aback by the distances of Cluj (the city in which I study at the present time). However, Bucharest was simply BIG. I haven’t visited Bucharest since I was six, and I can state that it really changed from the way I remember it, the way I saw it, with the eyes of a small child, some 14 years ago.

I got to Bucharest and it had this great train station, the biggest I’ve seen. I kept my hands in my pockets at all times, because I heard many stories about the infamous thieves of the capital city. Rumors which do not completely lack a foundation of facts. I finally got to the subway, and for the first time in years I got to take it. There are no subways in any other city in Romania.

The subways was simply disgusting. It had a certain charm, being all covered in graffiti, and SF-like, yet it left me disgusted. And the reason for my utter disgust were the beggars. Imagine:

Subway beggar number one: a man with three gnarled fingers at one hand. I doubt that his deformity was the result of a mutation or an accident. In fact I incline to believe that he chopped his own fingers just to make more money begging.

Subway beggar number two: a woman with an infant in her arms. The infant has burn-marks all over his face, grotesque patches of burnt skin cover more than half his scalp. That will never be a normal child. Now again, a stranger might think his burn-marks might be the result of an accident. I would bet anything his drunken mother or his drunken father burnt him with a blow torch, so the child would be a better income provider. Nobody loves you like your parents, right?

Subway beggar number three: a child of six or seven sitting on his knees and begging. At first I saw nothing wrong with him, until he turned his back to me. The back of his head was burnt entirely and his right ear was chopped off. It turned me sick. How could anyone do this to a child? How will such a mutilated child grow up to be? Why did no one take him away from his abusive parents? The fact that he will grow up to be a vile and abusive man as well is almost axiomatic. Society can sometimes be awfully cruel. Either way, I don’t know if any amount of therapy could ever transform that poor boy into a decent citizen.

Also Bucharest has a very motley population. It seems to me that it is more like an oriental city like Calcutta or Beirut rather than a western metropolis such as London or Paris. You can buy just about anything legal and illegal from the ubiquitous merchants. Also the average person seems to be a bit belligerent and unfriendly. However this is far from being a rule. Bucharest has many good-willed people. I just believe that the average is somewhat lower than the average in a Transylvanian common town, for instance.

Of course, as a young man I could not miss some of the capital’s plenitude of pubs and bars. Of course, I could only visit very few, meaning Club A (nice, though I’m not really into experimental theatre), Mes Amis (absolutely love the music, but I dislike the lack of space and high prices), Philos Pub (good food, good proximity to the dorm in which I slept, bad manele), Laptaria lui Enache (good music, nice bohemian atmosphere, nice girls, yet prices a bit too high) and B52 (ok music, nice people, nice interior design too bad it was too crowded and I had to place to sit).

Also I went to a book fest (the Gaudeamus). Of course, Bucharest’s no 1 remains the Bookarest, but I had to settle with the Gaudeamus, which was not really bad. A bit to crowded by wannabe intellectuals (just can’t lose’em unfortunately). The books weren’t as cheap as they advertised, yet I was tempted to buy one or two. It’s been a while since I read fiction, unfortunately…

Last but not least – the dorms. I was rather concerned by the precarious sanitary conditions in the Cluj dorms (I happen to be an inhabitant of dorm 16, one of the worst in the campus), yet the Bucharest ones (or the one I visited) are simply…. uuuuugh! when it comes to showers and toilets. Still, they started renovating, so I suppose the students of Bucharest will soon have decent conditions.

Still, my trip to Bucharest was fairly exciting. It was an adventure and a trip to remember. Also I felt very nice meeting some of the former high-school classmates who study in the capital. It was really fun, and I hope I’ll be able to revisit Bucharest soon.

Terry Pratchett -- Guards! Guards!

2006-09-17T12:07:00.000+03:00

Guards! Guards! is the eighth Discworld novel, and perhaps the second best of the series right after Sourcery (so far it remains my favourite). I skipped Wyrd Sisters and Pyramids (volumes six and seven of the Discworld saga) due to the fact that I had previously read the Guards! Guards! graphic novel and I was quite curious about the book I already new it’s story, so it couldn’t possibly be a spoiler for the previous two stories.

The story of Guards! Guards! is quite funny, it’s a parody of… well of many things. The story the following: a secret brotherhood wants to summon a dragon upon the city of Ankh Morpork so they can overthrow the Patrician. The young boy Carrot finally learns at sixteen (and six feet) that he is not a dwarf by nature only by adoption and that he should join the city watch. With only his law-book, vitals protector, ancient totally not-magic and not-shining sword he goes to the city of Ankh to join the city watch and fulfill his destiny. Captain Vimes falls in love with the dragon breeder Lady Ramkin yet the arrival of the LARGE dragon ruins their best laid plans o’ swamp-dragons and men.

The panoply of characters is moderately extensive and it covers quite a few figures we stumble upon in our daily lives. Here are a few:

Constable Carrot – a righteous yet naïve boy, also very strong in battle. Raised by dwarfs in the spirit of justice he just refuses to do anything outside the book of law he has been given by Varneshi. The all corrupting city of Ankh seems to be unable of corrupting this young man. His naïveté is quite a source of humour. I can’t even remember how many times I burst into laughter due to his perpetual confusion and reactions.

Captain Vimes – the Discworld’s own Clint Eastwood. With a loaded swamp dragon he’s not afraid to use, punk!

Caporal Nobby – a supposedly human being (the species he belongs to is unknown even by the author himself). Corrupt to the marrow of the bone, trying to impress the rich (aka Lady Ramkin), occasionally trying to teach young Carrot a thing or two about real life.

Lord Vetinari – the true leader in the vision of Terry Pratchett. He pulls all the strings in the city of Ankh, because there is none more cunning than him. He likes to rule, he’s meant to rule, and no force on the face of the disc can stop him. How about a dragon? Will that put his reign in peril? You’ll only find out by reading the book.

Lady Ramkin – a big lady who loves dragons. And since she’s of noble blood she’s likely to be offered as a sacrifice to the dragon (whether she’s a maiden or not is not that important in modern Disworld times).

Of course there are more characters in Guards! Guards! But I’ll let you discover them yourselves.

Also there is a Guards! Guards! graphic novel. Of course it’s not even half as funny as the book itself, but its drawings are well done and I consider it depicts the world of the Disc much better than the book-covers for instance. Try not to read it before the book like I did. It’s a spoiler.

Also I couldn’t leave you without a few quotes from the book :)

All dwarfs are by nature dutiful, serious, literate, obedient and thoughtful people whose only minor failing is a tendency, after one drink, to rush at enemies screaming "Arrrrrrgh!" and axing their legs off at the knee.

People who are rather more than six feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulders often have uneventful journeys. People jump out at them from behind rocks then say things like, "Oh. Sorry. I thought you were someone else."

Lady Ramkin's bosom rose and fell like an empire.

The three rules of the Librarians of Time and Space are: 1) Silence; 2) Books must be returned no later than the date last shown; and 3) Do not interfere with the nature of causality.

The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication.

He looked up at the hooded figure beside him. 'We never intended this,' he said weakly. 'Honestly. No offence. We just wanted what was due to us.' A skeletal hand patted him on the shoulder, not unkindly. And Death said,
Congratulations.

Book Tag

2006-09-12T11:22:00.001+03:00

Reading blogs, I’ve noticed this new book-tag and I found it rather funny. Not that I’ve been tagged or anything, but I decided it would make a good blog entry, therefore I tagged myself :) So here it is a minor guide to me and books.

A book that changed your life

The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov. Hari Seldon was my childhood hero, a man that used his brains instead of an exceptional physical condition to save humanity. I guess that Seldon really was the best childhood hero a person could ask for. Beats the crap out of Superman and Batman...

One book you have read more than once

I’m not really keen for reading a book twice, and there are only a handful of books I gave a second read. My philosophy when it comes to reading books is this: there are many many many […] many books worthwhile reading in this world, and life is awfully short. So read as many as you can, and reading a book twice can be quite superfluous.

A book I read twice is The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin. I read first a Romanian translation and after I was given the English version I read it again. The book is marvelous and that makes me feel that my time has not been wasted by reading it twice. It also poses some really interesting questions about what it is to be human. A must-read for everyone, SF/fantasy fan or not.

One book you would want on a desert island

Well, if The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Surviving on a Desert Island has not been written yet I wouldn’t hazard into taking something like Robinson Crusoe or The Mysterious Island (Jules Verne).

I’d take something really BIG instead, I could read for the rest of my life and not finish completely. Like Encyclopedia Britannica – this would also be pretty useful when it comes to knowing the plants around me. And I don’t know if I’d have the life span of reading it more than four times.

One book that made you laugh

Read the previous blog entry.

One book that made you cry

I never cry – still, Mordecai Roshwald’s Level Seven nearly pulled a few tears out of me. Nearly, but not there.

One book you wish had never been written

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Pissing off Eric. Oh wait, it never was written :) I just hope there will not be a moron to write it and a second even bigger one to print it.

One book you are currently reading

Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett. Review soon.

One book you have been meaning to read

T he Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About the Ultimate Fate of the Universe by Paul Davies. Hopefully I’ll get my hands on it pretty soon.

Terry Pratchett - Sourcery

2006-09-10T12:52:00.000+03:00

I was quite ecstatic when I found Terry Pratchett books (in English!!!!) at the local library. I already read the first four novels of the Discworld series (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites and Mort) and I was really keen to read the numerous sequels. Also recently I read Guards! Guards! the graphic novel, which I found rather amusing. So the books I borrowed from the library were Sourcery – the fifth book of the Discworld series and Guards! Guards! – the eighth book. I read Sourcery surprisingly fast, first because I really enjoyed it and secondly because a friend of mine (who’s as much of a Terry Pratchett fan as me) wanted to read it asap.

The main character of the first two novels was the clumsy wizard Rincewind, who unfortunately disappears completely in Equal Rites and Guards! Guards! And since the first two books of the series were absolutely hilarious Terry Pratchett really had to use his entire humoristic wit to give our beloved Rincewind a proper comeback. And what a comeback it is… I kept on laughing like a maniac, Terry Pratchett really outdone himself with this book, it’s the funniest I’ve read so far. I’ve always said that there is no literature harder to write than humoristic one (the kind that really is funny, not just attempts to). And Terry Pratchett is a master of the humoristic art, he can make fun about modern theories about the conception of the Universe or subtly lecherous remarks upon the typical city inhabitants. His stories are roller coaster rides through the land of humour (a.k.a the Discworld), and Rincewind is the funniest coward on the face of the Discworld.

The story behind the book Sourcery is this: “There was an eighth son of an eighth son. He was, quite naturally, a wizard. And there it should have ended. However (for reasons we'd better not go into), he had seven sons. And then he had an eighth son ... a wizard squared ... a source of magic ... a Sourcerer”. Such a Sourcerer is a threat to the current state of affairs on the Discworld, and the fate of mankind lies in the hands of a party formed by Conina – a rogue who wants to be a hairdresser, Nijel – a wannabe barbarian warlord, Luggage (a large wooden luggage), a Seriph whose kingdom is about to be wiped out by the magic of the Sourcerer, and of course, the one.. the only… Rincewind! – the clumsiest “wizzard” on the face of the Disc. The result – one of the funniest adventures. Ever!

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates a good joke. You don’t need to like fantasy literature in order to enjoy this book, but be warned – after reading it you’ll never be able to hold back a chuckle when reading any fantasy book (Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter included!)

If I didn’t yet convince you to read the book, here are a few quotes that might do the job:

He did of course sometimes have people horribly tortured to death, but this was considered to be perfectly acceptable behaviour for a civic ruler and generally approved of by the overhelming majority of citizens. [footnote: The overhelming majority of citizens being defined in this case as everyone not currently hanging upside down over a scorpion pit]

Of course, Ankh-Morpork's citizens had always claimed that the river water was incredibly pure. Any water that had passed through so many kidneys, they reasoned, had to be very pure indeed.

The vermine is a small black and white relative of the lemming, found in the cold Hublandish regions. Its skin is rare and highly valued, especially by the vermine itself; the selfish little bastard will do anything rather than let go of it.

It wasn't blood in general he couldn't stand the sight of, it was just his blood in particular that was so upsetting.

"I'm not going to ride on a magic carpet!" he hissed. "I'm afraid of grounds." "You mean heights," said Conina. "And stop being silly." "I know what I mean! It's the grounds that kill you!"

The subject of wizards and sex is a complicated one, but as has already been indicated it does, in essence, boil down to this: when it comes to wine, women and song, wizards are allowed to get drunk and croon as much as they like.

Some people think this is paranoia, but it isn't. Paranoids only think everyone is out to get them. Wizards know it

Trainspotting

2006-09-09T13:21:00.002+03:00

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life: I chose something else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who need reasons when you've got heroin? (Renton)

Even now, while thinking of it I can barely hold back a chuckle. Trainspotting is for sure one of the funniest books I’ve ever read, Irvine Welsh's novel really amazed me. While reading it I kept on laughing continuously at the adventures of Rents, Spud, Sick Boy and Begbie, and at the less important stories, that gave a certain depth to the Scotland of junkies portrayed by Irvine Welsh. The translation I read was pretty accurate, and it had a lot of footnotes in which explanations were given about the original expressions – the Scottish vernacular makes as much sense as Chinese in for me ("Ah suppose man, ah'm too much ay a perfectionist, ken? It's likesay, if things go a bit dodgy, ah jist cannae be bothered, y'know?"). I even found it hard to find a proper subtitling for the movie on the net. If I’ll ever get to Scotland I wonder how the hell I’ll cope there (hope they speak plain simple English). Also I wonder if they’re any English-Scottish dictionaries…

I don’t understand why the author chose the particular title for his book, the Trainspotting word might have some secret meaning I don’t get. So far, from what I understood from the translator’s footnotes a trainspotter is either an eccentric person or a bloke who just sits in train station and stares at the trains. Who knows, it might suggest the dreary of the modern world (the fact that trains aren’t that used in the modern days in UK – from what I understood).

The book is basically the story of lowlifes the inhabit the city of Leith, addicts to heroin, cocaine, methadone, valium and many others (“Fuck it, we would have injected Vitamin C if only they'd made it illegal”). It’s filled with profanity; honestly I’ve never read a book with so much cursing in it. Hell, even I don’t curse that much, but I guess the cursing is part of the book’s charm (I myself am totally against any form of censorship), I can’t imagine it without them. The writer makes no compromises, the book is dark, and its humour is as sadistic as possible. Also it has its rather spooky scenes, for instance at one point Renton (the mainest character of the main characters character of the book) hallucinates that Allison’s dead baby is haunting him. I found that passage really well written, more psychedelic that all the Fight Club book + movie.

Trainspotting is quite a peculiar narration, for it has a multiple point of view and each character has its own typical verbal clichés (for instance Spud say “likesay” an awful lot of times) and also the style itself changes as the author shuffles the narrators. It’s the first time I encountered this style in narration, which makes Trainspotting the most original novel I’ve read recently (it definitely beats Fight Club when it comes to the originality part).

The movie is based on a screenplay written by a certain John Hodge. Usually I prefer movie adaptations in which the writer of the novel/short story/novella/comic is also the writer of the screenplay (like Interview with the Vampire for instance), screenplay which changes the initial story a lot. Also the director adapted the characters to the actor intead of doing it exactly the other way around. All the movie’s actors are very good at what they do (especially Ewan McGregor), but the movie’s Renton is not the book’s Renton, and the same goes for Sick Boy and Begbie. Even Spud seemed a bit exaggerated. However, the movie itself is great. Danny Boyle chose a very original way of directing it, and unlike Requiem for a Dream it’s quite fun, you just can’t stop laughing during it.

John Grisham's Rainmaker

2006-09-04T13:33:00.000+03:00

Since I came from Roşia Montană I didn’t really do many things besides sleeping, spending time on the Internet and reading. I didn’t get to read much over there – I was way too busy carrying things around. So when I came home I devoured John Grisham’s Rainmaker. I finished it a few days ago, but I didn’t much feel like writing a review of the book before now.

The book was pretty good, no doubt about it. I do not feel much spiritually enriched after reading it I’ve got to admit – meaning I haven’t learned anything from it, save for a few things about the American law, but still I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The subject of the book isn’t that original though. It’s about a boy named Rudy Baylor (also the narrator), a student at law school, who wants to sue this big insurance company named Great Benefit (the classic David versus Goliath). The problem is he hasn’t yet passed his bar exam and he’s flat broke. And unemployed. He also falls in love with a young girl who’s married to an abusive ex-high-school baseball star. So basically poor Rudy has a lot of problems up his mind, and he’s not the superhuman Mitch McDeere (from Grisham’s first novel The Firm). Actually I really the fact that John Grisham did a novel about a guy who is totally different from his precursor Mitch McDeere – the guy who was handsome, hard-working, sporty and completely lacking any flaws. Rudy is just a normal guy, one of the least glamorous members of today’s (actually the 90’s) society. And his battle is quite inspirational; since none of us is Mitch McDeere it’s much easier to identify with Rudy, the young loser.

One of the flaws of the book is that it gives a lot of unimportant details about Rudy Baylor’s life. Not that they’re boring to read or something, but some of the books incidents could have been easily left out – like anything that concerned a character named Miss Birdie, a character that I found superfluous for Rudy’s Baylor evolution as a character.

I really liked the end of The Rainmaker, due to its moderate realism, yet that is as much as I’m gonna tell you about it – I’ll let you read the book and have the pleasure of reading it yourselves – it’s really worth it.

I’ve also seen on the net that there is a film made after the book. Unfortunately I haven’t seen it, you I’ll make sure I’ll see it one day. Especially since it’s directed by Francis Ford Copolla, a film-director I really like a lot. I just need to find it at a local video store.

FânFest

2006-09-01T14:33:00.000+03:00

I returned back home on Tuesday, and ever since I’ve been doing nothing but sleeping and fumbling around in front of the computer. I didn’t even get out drinking a beer in a bar (yet!). I was way too tired even for that – to tired even to write a blog entry earlier. My trip to Roşia Montană really wore me out I guess. However it was more than worthwhile.

The Road

Getting to Roşia Montană implied taking a train all the way to Cluj and then take a bus that left me 15 kilometres from Roşia Montană, and hitchhike (first time in my life – I’m not really into hitchhiking) all the way to the central square of the village. From there I had to climb uphill of a rather muddy road all the way to the plateau where the FânFest festival would be held in two days. The road took me some ten hours (waiting in the bust station at Cluj included), but the clean air and the breath-taking sceneries of Roşia Montană were really worth it.

The Preparations

They implied a whole lot of work, work that I – a genuine couch potato – am not accustomed to. Still, I soon got the hang of it, and though not being one of the top workers in the camp, I really tried to help around as much as I could. It was tiresome of course, yet it didn’t feel that bad when having a lot of interesting and cool people around to talk with. And it was quite healthy for me – I never work out at home. Since I won’t ever be joining the army I guess that volunteering for FânFest is the next best thing to make you work out for free (without having to pay at a local gym).

The Festival

It was undoubtedly very loud, but that was just the whole point of it – to make noise in order to make ourselves heard. Unfortunately there were some who misinterpreted the whole purpose of the festival. For instance there was a group of young men who kept waving the flag of Romania and shouting “we do not sell our country!”. You see, FânFest is aimed against the destruction of the Roşia Montană valley and not against foreign investments – which are exactly what my country needs desperately at the moment.

Also I ought not to mention the ubiquitous punks. I’ve developed quite a repulsion towards them lately, I’ve got to admit. And I thoroughly despise punk culture per general. It’s not even anarchism it’s all about, just plain stupidity being paraded. And all these young kids do is get drunk and brawl all the time. Sometimes they even use drugs, thing which made the life of the First Aid volunteers tougher. One of these poor-witted specimens even decided it was a wise thing to pull out a blade at three persons he did not know, thing which resulted in him being left unconscious with four broken ribs and a broken jaw. He has no one to blame but himself for his complete stupidity.

The concerts were mostly good, despite the fact that the budget was smaller than last year, and also many bands quitted due to the fact organizers could not accommodate them at a hotel. Some bands are just into music for the money I guess...

The Aftermath

As expected there was a lot of dirt left after the festival (which ought to be eco friendly). And of course the dirt had to be picked up entirely by the volunteers. Picking up cigarette buds was quite a nuisance, but someone had to do it. At least after we left we left that entire plateau (commonly known as Jig Vădoaia) clean.

Also Monday all of us volunteers had a party. We didn’t get to have much fun during the festival, but we sure made up for it at the after-party. It was really fun, and we did our best to fend off the cold with alcohol and cigarettes. Also it meant even more socializing with the other volunteers, people that made working actually fun.

The Volunteers and Organizers

Perhaps I would have disliked all that hard work quite a lot if it weren’t for the other volunteers. All of them were really great people, whom I hope I shall meet again soon.

Also the team of volunteers was not strictly Romanian. Of course there were volunteers that did nothing all day, but they were eliminated from the volunteers’ team on Friday, so only the hard working ones were left.

We had people from other countries as well, such as France, USA, Canada or Hungary. Unfortunately both my French and Hungarian are to poor even to practice, so basically I talked to every non-Romanian person in plain English.

There were some organizers that did nothing but give orders and do nothing but sit on their bottoms all day long, yet there were also a handful that worked side by side with us, organizers that were basically volunteers with a badge of a different colour. It was guys like these that gave inspiration to the common volunteer.

Next year

If the bastards from Gabriel Resources Ltd won’t start mining those beautiful landscapes and if there’s going to be a FânFest I’ll be glad to volunteer again. It was an experience worth repeating, and I’m actually looking forward to go there again, put up some military tents, eat the food we were served daily in a canteen-tent, listen to the dirty jokes the guys said and many such small things that add up to the charm of volunteering for the FânFest.

Roşia Montană

2006-08-22T11:23:00.000+03:00

Tomorrow morning I’m leaving home again. This time I’ll be going to a place known as Roşia Montană, a rather ancient settlement (Latin: Alburnus Maior), a quiet town that is soon going to be depopulated entirely, due to the fact that a mining corporation paid the right people, and it’s now allowed to destroy the environment wantonly. For three years now a festival (Fan Fest) has been held each year in support of all those who oppose the obliteration of the Roşia Montană.

I filled in an application form to volunteer for a month ago or so. I was rather surprised when I got an acceptance e-mail, and even now I’m rather enthusiastic about going there. Of course, I’m not that ken on working, and the following days will resemble a boot camp, yet I’ll meet new people, I’ll listen to some good concerts and I’ll get informed better about the actions of Greenpeace and other environmental organizations in my country. After reading John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up I’ve became very interested about the problems of our environment. My own town has been severely affected by gold and lead mining. At the outskirts of my town many children are born with severe malformations due to high amounts of lead in their blood. I would not like for another town to suffer the same fate.

I know that my individual actions will not do much. Sticking a few posters in my town will not fight a huge corporation that has millions of dollars to throw around. Yet I desire to more intimately acquainted with volunteering for a good cause (and I wish to see the concerts). I am somewhat doubtful about the efficiency of Greenpeace (their methods strike me as thoroughly ineffective), and the Roşia Montană is a battle they already lost. Next year Gabriel Resources Limited (the big bad wolf) will start mining for gold – the government gave its approval. The war between young idealism and corporatism has been won by corporatism. It’s sad, but idealists will find another battle to fight. Sadly, in Romania, there is such a disregard for environmentalism, one can do nothing but quixotically fight the windmills.

The war so far was quite fierce. There were many posters that accused the exploitation of Roşia Montană, there were two editions of Fan Fest so far, many flyers were handed, many walls had the famous graffiti with a bleeding mountain (seen in the picture above) that said “Salvaţi Roşia Montană” – Save Roşia Montană. Gabriel fought back and released a very heartwarming commercial in which they showed how much they’re going to help Romanian industry and help the poor people around Roşia Montană with their mining activities, forgetting each time to pronounce the bad word – cyanide, tons of it that are used in the process of extracting gold. Also Gabriel Resources Limited opened this site on the net, in which they explain how much good they’ll do for our crippled economy. I’m surprised nobody had the common sense to hack it so far.

Well, I’m eagerly waiting to see what waits for me at Roşia Montană. No, I will not chain myself to factory doors or trees, and neither will I let myself be tread upon by brutish Gabriel thugs. Instead I’ll help cleaning up the place, help tourists with directions, hand some flyers, help put up the stage, and other such activities.

My impressions in a week or so – I don’t know how long I’ll stay there. Until then – See you!

Frank Miller's Sin City

2006-08-21T12:39:00.001+03:00

Frank Miller’s Sin City – the best comic book series I’ve read so far. Yesterday I finished the final issue. I haven’t read them in order (I started with Family Values and I finished with The Big Fat Kill), yet it doesn’t matter much, since they stories are not linked temporarily one to another. About a year ago I saw the film and I absolutely loved it. It was superb, but I’ll talk about it in another paragraph.

The comics are undoubtedly original. And they’re a surprisingly n easy read. In many comics the lines are very cramped, and the drawings are filled with speaking balloons – thing that is rather uncomfortable, because the drawings are an essential part of sequential art (otherwise they would not differ at all from regular books). There were Sin City issues that had quite an amount of text, yet it never covered too much of the drawings, they were given attention as well.

A thing I adored in Sin City (both the comics and the movie) was the way colours were used to emphasize certain traits of characters or certain elements of the surroundings. Colour was used seldom in the comics (though there was a full-coloured issue), yet the drawings kept a lot of vitality. The spirit of the film-noir was very well preserved through the narrative especially. Of course, it’s much more violent, much darker and much more grotesque. One might even consider Sin City to be a parody of the noir, though I’d rather take it as an update. Sam Spade isn’t a thing of today no more. Violent Marv and Hartigan are the new lawmakers – for in order to fight evil, one must be personally acquainted to it. Today evil is not synonymous to a golden falcon dyed in black or a couple that tries to flee from a hostile Casablanca. Now we’re dealing with perverted sons of senators, vile men of the cloth and mobsters that think they can do just about anything. And salvation does not come from the highly virtuous citizens, but from the scoundrels that have been ticked off, from men that have nothing to lose and from sociopaths. This is the world of Sin City – a parody not of the old noir, but of the world of today. Drawing a parallel between the good old days of the 40’s and 50’s (in the case of Americans) and the modern world, Frank Miller manages to emphasize the filth and corruption of today’s world. A warning in black and white, a warning we ought to pay heed to.

The film is absolutely fantastic, almost flawless. The cast is wonderful – Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and Benicio del Toro are just a few of the great actors that play in it. The director is Robert Rodriguez also known for Desperado and Spy Kids, having help from his friend Quentin Tarantino (Sin City resembles Pulp Fiction more than a bit!) and Frank Miller himself (!). I can find no reason whatsoever not to recommend it to everyone. Ok, perhaps it’s a bit too violent for the taste of some, but we have to accept the fact that violence is the main problem of our modern world, and simply ignoring it will not make it go away. Also I heard that Sin City II will one day be filmed, and I sincerely hope that it’ll happen. There are plenty of other good stories in the comics, plus I’m sure Frank Miller has another yarn or two up his sleeve.

Frederico Andahazi - El secreto de los flamencos

2006-08-19T14:44:00.000+03:00

Well, before going to the seaside I promised I would write a review for Frederico Andahazi’s El secreto de los flamencos. In Romanian it was translated as Secretul culorii pure and I don’t know if there’s any English translation for it, yet I guess that a less verbatim interpretation of the title would be The secret of pure colour -- sorry, but I’ve got no idea what “flamencos” might mean, save for inhabitant of Holland or a Northern European state (?). I didn’t find much on the net about Andahazi either, save for the fact that he’s a South American writer. Personally I dislike this trend for South American writers – really, has no one noticed how for a few years now everyone talks only about Marquez, Llosa, Borges and of course, the extremely trendy Coelho? I guess I wouldn’t have borrowed the book from the public library if I knew that Andahazi is South American, but ultimately I guess I did a good thing – the book was quite good. I might actually be driven to read more South American writers, despite the fact that I hated Marquez’s One Century of Loneliness.

The plot is fairly simple – Pierto della Chiessa, the disciple of Fernando Monterga is brutally assassinated in the outskirts of Florence. Nobody knows exactly why and by whom, and the story of his murder unfolds itself page by page. The narrator even drops a few hints, letting us know who is to die, and what things are the key to solving the plot. However this makes the book an even more interesting read, for the hints are insufficient to draw a conclusion before one reads the end. Basically the conflict is caused by the existence of a compound that can make every colour look divine. The Italians seek it desperately, and the only person in possession of it (a certain Northener) wishes no to use it at all.

The end is quite supernatural, a thing I had not expected at all. It endows the story with a certain lovable flavour, yet it also somewhat ruins the whole pace of the story. Undoubtedly the story has its flaws. For instance one of the characters solves the central puzzle due to the fact that he had myopia and he could distinguish a certain pattern in a drawing thus. Well, I don’t know whether it was a mistake of the author or a mistake of the translator, but myopia is near-sightedness, an affection (if it might be called thus) from which I suffer myself. However the symptoms of the character describe him as being far-sighted, affliction which is called Hyperopia. Either way, I tried looking in all the possible ways at the mysterious drawing and I could not distinguish the pattern of numbers from that of letters at all. Of course, there is a light possibility that the print was not that good.

Per total, it’s a pretty good book, not a mind bender, but definitely beats many of the books I wasted my time reading. Also reading it makes me want to try a more popular Andahazi book, namely The Anatomist.

I found out that it’s quite hard, almost impossible to read at the seaside. I carried a book with me there, William Gibson’s Neuromancer, but a mere 3 hours of sleep per night did not allow me to read more than 20 pages of it. When I returned home a fried lent me John Grisham’s Rainmaker (English version – YAY!!!) and Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting. So I left Neuromancer aside, and started reading the Grisham book for the moment. No biggie, since I read fully Neuromancer a couple of years ago. I just wanted to go again through all the adventures of Case. Maybe some other time. There are many books to be read and unfortunately there is so little time… Only a month ‘till college starts… Oh, hell, guess I’ll have to make the best of it :)

My Trip to the Seaside

2006-08-17T17:30:00.000+03:00

Yesterday at precisely 5:05 am I got back in my beloved hometown of Baia Mare, having returned from the seaside. I was dead tired and really starved, so yesterday I mostly spent eating and sleeping. Of course, I could not help myself from going out for a beer with my friends during the evening. Just had to tell ‘em about my adventures. It had been one of the greatest weeks I’ve ever lived.

Per total my journey covered 3 major locations: Costinesti, Vama Veche and Constanta (where I lingered for just one day).

Costinesti is a seaside resort, commonly known to be an attraction for the youth. It has three major night attractions: the Ring Disco, the Tineretului Disco and the White Horse Rock ‘n Roll café – which is the only place I bother spending my nights in Costinesti, since the other two places are filled with people I do not want to socialize with. Ever.

However, the White Horse itself struck me as a little bit dull. The play list is the same it was last year. I swear that they ought to change that DJ, for it is quite annoying to listen to exactly the same songs every night. Also there are some concerts once in a while in White Horse. Unless they’re unplugged the concerts are ok. The only dull ones are the folk concerts – those are pretty damn dull – you just sit down, sip on a beer and listen to the music.

Still, on regular nights, there are a few good songs one can actually dance, head bang and jump around on. Also White Horse swarms with nice people worth socializing with (of course there are exceptions).

Constanta is the second largest city in Romania, an attraction for tourists and sailors (since it is also Romania’s main seaside port). Also right next to it there’s the resort of Mamaia, a place where all the rich of the country spend their holidays, a town which the bohemian writer of this entry disdains thoroughly. It’s not even that fancy, just expensive.

Personal advice – don’t visit the Pizza Hut in Constanta. The menu is almost indecipherable, and you’ll spend ages trying to figure out why the bill is so high. Mainly you have to remember every ingredient you asked for and if you felt its taste in the pizza, if you want to make sure they did not overcharge you (thing which is rather common on the Romanian seaside).

Still, the Mamaia part of the beach is excellent; I’ve got to admit, much better than the Costinesti beach or the Vama Veche one. It’s the only beach on the Romanian seaside that is actually clean and constantly taken care of.

Vama Veche is considered to be a sanctuary for rockers in Romania. I was somewhat tempted to visit it later, during the Stufstock festival, but I was thoroughly advised not to. People say it’s overcrowded and filled with pickpockets during that time. So that’s why I chose to go there half a month before the Stufstock fest, and I tell you – it was great, heavenly almost. Really, life can’t get more bohemian than Vama Veche, and no clubs I’ve ever seen before beats dancing on the beach in front of the Expirat club, while the orange moon rays reflect upon the surface of the calm sea. I needed to constantly pinch myself just to remember I was not dreaming.

Most of the people were fairly ok, with certain (few) exceptions of course. Still, I since I was with a large group of friends, I did not have any conflicts with the rather menacing looking people.

I thoroughly recommend Vama Veche to all the young people who don’t really like a fancy and expensive life. For those who aren’t keen to feel constantly the beat of electro and rock music they can always choose 2 Mai, a rather peaceful and hippie style resort, at some five minutes of driving from Vama Veche.

Of course, I did not bother sleeping at hotels or hostels. They’re just a bit too expensive, and my budget for the trip was fairly low. So I convinced a very good friend of mine to borrow me his tent. The camping in Costinesti cost me some 2.50 Euro per night and the one in Vama Veche some 2 Euro. Both camping sites were fairly ok, though I rather the one in Vama Veche, for it was filled with People from my hometown, and I rejoiced hearing the beloved accents of the Maramures dialect, for after three days of camping amongst Southerners, I was starting to sound like one (well, almost :P). Anyway, in both camping people were fairly hospitable, and I had no trouble whatsoever leaving things unguarded there, knowing that there is no one to steal anything (especially in the Vama Veche camping).

What else remains to be said? I could go on and on about the fun I had this last week. Now I’m in a really good mood, though my trip was quite tiresome. Often I was hungry, often the heat in my tent made it insufferable and there was not a single night during which I slept more than five hours. I’m making up for it right now, by sleeping and eating continuously.

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

2006-08-06T11:55:00.000+03:00

I’ve finished reading Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club yesterday. I was compelled to read it after watching the movie a couple of times – for I really loved it. The itself book is pretty good, though I did not find any of the ideas in it appealing. I’m not self destructive and I’m far from being an anarchist. Still, I haven’t read it as a Bible, I read it as a simple book, and nothing more.

The summary of the book (for those who have not yet seen the movie) is rather simple. The unnamed main character is a very frustrated person, thus he develops a split personality, meaning his own deeply hidden Mr. Hyde gets out to the surface, only this time Mr. Hyde is named Tyler Durden, and he wants nothing more or less than spread anarchy throughout the world, for the world is decadent and one can build nothing stable on an improper foundation. Therefore all history must be wiped out and the system as well, in order to make the world a better place. Tyler has no remorse, Tyler has only a destructive love for Marla (the desired woman), Tyler will even kill himself to achieve his dream. And our unnamed narrator can do nothing but witness Tyler taking over his life and over his body. The final liberation can be achieved only through death.

The literary devices are quite original. Or maybe not that original, I just haven’t read anything of the kid yet, I’ve got to admit. It was a fairly easy read, and overall quite expressive. The author frequently talks at the present and the book is does not follow a thread of time. Reminded me somewhat of this movie I’ve seen, 21 grams. The book follows the same way of showing the causality – at the beginning it shows a scene from the end of the story. Then it takes the story from beginning to end, yet not in a direct manner. The narrator allows himself to return to previous events quite freely, without the use of flashbacks. It’s mad and incoherent, just like the events lived by the main and nameless character. In fact reading the book resembles a montagne-russe ride. And the end is quite good, though a little but confusing (it does not resemble the one in the movie!)

I was surprised to see that the book contained many advices on how one could make napalm or assassinate someone by the use of a clever bombing device. Of course, all these tips sounded like they were taken out of the Anarchy Book. Still, in case I’ll ever want to assassinate anyone, I’ll know a thing or two >:)

As I said, a movie was made after the book. A pretty damn good movie also, starring Edward Norton (splendid actor - haven't seen one part in which he didn't play well or brilliant), Brad Pitt (in one of the few roles in which he was actually good, besides Meet Joe Black, Army of the Twelve Monkeys and Interview with the Vampire) and Helena Bonham Carter (depressive as always). The film is directed by David Fincher, who does a much better job than he did with Panic Room (which overall was not such a bad film). What can I say? It’s a must see.

I’ve seen at the news that people in America have started making Fight Clubs. Stupid, if you ask me. It ought to be read as a book and not as a manifesto for generations to come. My advice – try to make this society better, salvation shall not come by the complete obliteration of all foundations yet existent.

Che Guevara

2006-08-03T10:07:00.000+03:00

Over a year ago I bought my first Che Guevara t-shirt. Of course, unlike many, I know who he was, where he died, how he lived, having read a few articles and having watched a few documentaries about him. I was deeply fascinated by this character and quite eager to read more about him. However, in Romania his Motorcycle Diaries and Bolivian Diaries (with a foreword by El Lider Maximo)have not been published yet. In fact nobody seems to care about this modern Don Quixote, he’s only seen as a theme for t-shirts. Quite a shame, since perhaps, as J. P. Sartre stated, he was the most complete human being of our days. A dreamer having the courage to die for his dreams, that’s definitely something you don’t see each day. A man willing to leave a comfortable and well paid office in Havana, just to fight in the hostile jungles of Congo – quite a rare thing, never seen before.

You may understand my curiosity when on the shelves of bookstores throughout my town appeared a book written by Richard Harris and entitled Death of a Revolutionary: Che Guevara’s Last Mission (in translation: Che Guevara Destinul unui revoluţionar). Of course, I did not dare read it back then, since I couldn’t afford wasting time to read for my own pleasure due to the exam that was waiting ahead of me in a matter of weeks. After my exams ended, as soon as my sisters went to the public library I asked them to borrow me this book. I was deeply thrilled when I finally laid my hands on it.

My reading of the book suffered a break, during the time I went trekking the midline of the country. It’s utterly impossible to read when hungry, thirsty or fatigued from deprivation of sleep and walking.

The book itself isn’t much of an artwork. In fact it’s basically a research on the circumstances in which Ernesto “Che”Guevara died. I trust Richard Harris’ analysis to be very pertinent, since fortunately he does not give us the American view of Che (meaning a cold blooded terrorist) and also he points out CIA’s involvement in Che’s death. Artwork or not, the book pleased me a lot. Richard Harris has a very clean and precise way of writing (despite the almost obsessive repetition of the word “revolutionary”), and his ideas are structured quite well. It’s an easy read, and moreover an enticing one. It begins with a summary of Che’s life, and it concentrates mostly on the Bolivian misson, the place he found his death. Also it gives a few details of what happened after Che Guevara died, like the way his diary was sold to the Cuban government, and the way he became an icon of rebels throughout the world.

Also I found out some very interesting ideas about the guerrilla warfare. I like many, do not like war, yet I incline to think that at certain times it is the only solution (pace para bellum). Guerrilla warfare however cannot be effective no longer in the world of heat seekers and landmines. Maybe that’s what killed Che Guevara – his military wit was outdated. He had too much faith in his ideas, and that’s what finally brought him down. Indeed, he is a modern Don Quixote, and just like the old man, the harsh realities and lack of honour of the real world finally got him.

A very interesting passage was one in which he gives a possible reason for which his famous portrait is now world-famous. He says that it does not appear to be of a certain race, in fact it mixes trait of all the races, from the European nose and eyes to the rather Negroid curvature of the mouth. Indeed, Che fought and died for all races and all peoples, not just Latin Americans. Therefore he deserves to be an icon of bravery to everyone. I cannot find a better example of a man dying for his beliefs than the South American comandante.

In a world where idols are either belligerent, intolerant and rather outdated deities, or perpetually drunken rock stars, I’d much rather choose and idol who was human, who lived, who loved and who truly died. Whether his goals were utopian or not, that remains to be discussed. I firmly believe that they were the best for the countries he fought in and the times he fought during. And instead of wearing dumb t-shirt with Jesus you I’d much rather wear the portrait of the noblest man of modern times, yet still a very human being: comandante Ernesto “Che” Guevara, liberator and martyr.

2006-07-27T11:48:00.000+03:00

It's morning and I am in the city of Brasov, some 400 kilometers from home. Yesterday was mostly spent walking about in Cluj until midday and then I had to spend some 7 hours on a really dirty and really old train, which I'm surprised it managed to bring us here, some 300 kilomters away from Cluj. I took the cheapest one, which made a stop in every station -- meaning it was really the slowest train I could possibly take. And the cheapest of course.

It wasn't as boring as it sounds though. I'd much rather be in a traing travlling about the country than stay home, bored out, drinking a beer in a cheap terrace or having a chat about all those Baia Mare people whom I know all (well, the noteworthy ones at least:) ).

As we got close to Braso the scenery starte to get more and more awesome. The plain became a hill, and the hill became an enforested montain, and I just love mountains. Also the accent of the people changed slowly as we got further and further away from the heart of Transylvania. I could no longer mingle with the crowd that well:)

I and my companion stepped on the terra firma at about ten and a half. A friend of his waited us at the train station and led us to her apartment. She as more than willing to lest us sleep overnight. Very hospitable of her, I've gotta admit. I've only seen her once in my life and I'm treated like a vey lose friend over here. Even this very entry I'm writting at her personal computer. Both her and her family gave me and my companion and friend, Calin a warm welcome.

Such a warm weclome I am now somehow reluctant of leaving this place. But it's decided -- some four hours from now we take the train to Sighisoara, some 20 of 30 kilometers from here. There we'll camp and probably by Monday we'll be back home. Though I'd really go to the seaside, but only if I find some good companions to go there with.

2006-07-25T18:21:00.000+03:00

Well, I'll be gone for a few days (or weeks), so I don't think I'll be able to write any more blog entries for a while, though I hope I'll be able to access my net account from a net cafe or something.
Yesterday I got back home from the nearby town of Seini, where I witnessed a tentative of a rock festival. I didn't even have enough time to write a proper entry about the East West Fest 'cause this morning I was back on the road. I had to go to cluj to apply for college. Now I'm at my cousin in Dej, and tomorrow I'll hitchhike to Sighisoara, where there's some sort of rock festival. Theoretically I ought to be back by Monday, but odds are I'll got to the seaside afterwards, so I really don't know when I'll be back to my net life. Two days of tenting and deprivation of sleep already left some marks on my complexion, so by the time I return I guess few will be able to recognize me.
It's all rather impromptu, so I really don't know what will follow. But what the heck, I'm young, healthy and and a whiz kid overall, so I think I can handle the unforseen. There's always the phone in case of emergency, so I'll be able to call my parets, just in case s*** happens.
So wish me luck, for I'll sure need it, since I'll most likely hitchhike. Hopefully no serial killer will pick me and the two friends I'm travelling with. The sky (and my rather modest budget) is the limit. Unfortunately I will not have my digital camera with me, so I won't have any photos from my biggest adventure so far :) But what the heck, I hope I'll count on (my rather poor) memory. Hopefully I'll live moments I'll never forget.
Well, I'll try to keep you up to date with my trip, so don't forget to visit my blog from time to time ;)

Frank Miller's 300

2006-07-21T15:57:00.000+03:00

I’ll write about my recent passion for comic strips in some other entry. This on is dedicated to a graphic novel I just finished reading today, Frank Miller’s 300. It’s really the best graphic novel I’ve read so far, and I guess I’m starting to like Frank Miller even more than the god of the graphic novels – Allan Moore.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed his Sin City series, the only two stories out of it I’ve still got to read are That Yellow Bastard and The Big Fat Kill. Not to mention the fact that Sin City remains one of my favourite all time movies. Robert Rodriguez did a fabulous job of adapting Frank Miller’s Sin City. I’ve first heard of 300 in one of the letters written at the end of a Sin City comic.

The comic series was better than I’d expected. 5 extraordinary numbers about my favourite battle in history – the battle of Thermopylae. The drawings were quite well done (though I haven seen better drawn comics than those of Alex Ross yet). Basically Frank Miller completely threw out the concept that sequential art must be limited to one page. On every two pages an ingeniously done tableau reveals before your eyes, each tableau one step into the extraordinary story of King Leonidas’ 300 Spartan warriors. There is little text to it, since the drawings are quite expressive, but the little writing done is surprisingly witty.

Frank Miller’s graphic novel is also quite historically-correct, and I was pleased to be lead into the world of Sparta once again. I admit not to have given it any extra attention since the 9^th grade at history. I’ve been to Thermopylae myself, when I was 13, with the occasion of a trip to Greece. I was really touched by the statue of King Leonidas in a warrior's fighting stance. Now I would really like to visit those almost sacred lands again. Hopefully one day I will.

I’ve read on the net that the graphic novel is going to be made a movie. However I was quite disappointed when I saw that the actor playing King Leonidas will be Gerald Butler, and actor I consider be lacking talent completely, and after I saw him basically make a complete mess out of the characters Attila and Beowulf, I find myself quite worried he’ll do the same to brave Leonidas.

But no matter how bad or good the movie will be, remember:

ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε

(O xein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti têde)

κείμεθα τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.

(keimetha tois keinon rhémasi peithomenoi.)

Meaning:

Go tell the Spartans, passerby,

That here, by Spartan law, we lie

Platon - Politeia

2006-07-20T10:10:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I’ve finally finished reading Plato’s Republic. Actually the term Republic is somewhat improper, since the original title is Politeia, the first translation (Latin) was named Res Publica, the German on Der Staat, the French and the English giving it the somewhat improper and confusing title of Republic (or Republique). Of course, the Romanian translation followed as always the French direction, so the book I read was entitled Republica. It was very good translation, by a certain Andrei Cornea with the support of Constantin Noica, an icon of Romanian intellectualism. The translation was rather academic, meaning it had an abundance of endnotes, which I did not bother reading entirely. I’m not getting a doctorate overall. Also it had an 80 pages foreword. Meaning a small treaty upon Plato’s work. Of course, I could not hope of understanding the book without reading the foreword. Even so it was a very tough read, having some concepts that simply eluded me.

Basically The Republic is a dialogue between Socrates and a group of aristocrats from the city of Pireus (Polemachos, Glaucon, Thrasymachos, Adeimantos, Cephalos and Cleitophon). All the characters revolve around Socrates. I found them somewhat poorly portrayed, and I didn’t manage to have an individual profile of each while I was reading, though the foreword clearly pointed out that their opinions were quite linked to their social and financial status. I guess that Plato had a certain inexperience, due to the fact that Antiquity lacked the modern literary devices, that make reading an actually pleasant experience.

My math teacher once said that some people, who are not well taught with mathematics, have a very sluggish and inexact way of thinking. While reading this book his words resounded continuously in my head. Instead of having a clear discourse, getting from A to B in an elegant manner, following the basic principles of an argumentative speech, Socrates (or to be more exact, Plato in a Socratic impersonation) keeps asking all sort of more or less sophistic questions, confusing his audience, and after that getting acclaimed for his wit. You just can’t help getting lost in that avalanche of arguments, not seeing any finality to it. I believe that a dialectic conversation ought to follow the following structure:

MAIN IDEA (THESIS)

ARGUMENT 1 --> counterargument --> counter counterargument-->…-->conclusion 1

ARGUMENT 2 --> counterargument --> counter counterargument-->...-->conclusion 2

…

ARGUMENT n --> counterargument --> counter counterargument-->…--> conclusion n

RATIO CONCLUSIONS IN SUPPORT PER CONCLUSIONS OPPOSED TO THE THESIS.

IF RATIO > 1 THEN THE THESIS IS TRUE.

IF RATIO <1 THEN THE THESIS IS FALSE.

IF RATIO =1 THEN THE THESIS IS NOT WELL ARGUMENTED.

The work itself is nothing but a huge dialectic conversation on the theme of justice. I understood that Plato considered that the concept of justice is highly relative, and it’s related to society. In modern days such a thing is a truism. Therefore in search for defining justice Socrates tries to build the perfect city, for perfect justice can be found only in a perfect city. This city is an artificial means of fighting decadence. Plato’s view upon the world differed from the evolutionary view of it we have today (ineffective à effective), he saw time as something degrading, leaving it’s marks upon society the way age leaves it’s marks on a human body. In his view a better society cannot be built on the foundations of a more imperfect one (rather anarchistic I’d say).

The book also seemed to lack a conclusion. It ended in a parable about the way souls migrate, a parable different from all the others, that seemed to spoil the whole rhythm of the book, giving it a hue of mysticism.

However this book remains one of the pioneering works of philosophy ever written and its concepts helped build the modern world. Of course it influenced doctrines such as Nazism or Marxism-Leninism, but such mistakes always happen. I do not believe that Plato ever considered that his work might contribute to the genocide of millions of Jews.

The Weltanschauung of the book is quite different from modern day views. Let us not forget that Ancient Greece was a deeply civilized land, untainted by the unmerciful doctrine of Christianity and Islam. It was an age that gave birth to the glory of Rome, to the art of the Renaissance and to our modern brave new world.

Before I end, I wish to give you this really funny Ancient Greek riddle I read in the book, at the part when Socrates talks about imprecision (!):

A man non-man seeing not-seeing a bird non-bird, sitting on a tree non-tree hits it not hitting with a stone non stone. Translation: A myopic eunuch sees a bat on a reed and aims it with a ponce stone but misses. Funny wordplay, eh?

Midnight Voices

2006-07-10T17:35:00.000+03:00

Since I finally got rid of the exams, I did a thing I promised myself to do a long time ago: read a book with flat characters, of no artistic value whatsoever, written by a commercial writer, and having a rather typical plot. I did so and the first book that fell into my hands, was John Saul’s Midnight Voices. It has been given to me as a birthday present a few months ago, but due to the BAC exam I never got to read it. The last book I read only for my own pleasure was Mordecai Roshwald’s Level Seven. And quite a brilliant book it was.

Anyway, I’ve got to admit I missed the feeling. Only few books compel me enough into reading them that I constantly forget the page I’m at. Midnight Voices was such a book. The rhythm of the action was very well kept, fast paced, and the mystery kept revealing itself one step at a time. The book was written well, not being boring at all. From the first page I kept being curious what would happen next.

The book had certain flaws, there’s no doubt about it. For starters I found it somewhat inconsistent. I mean the whole action took place I a single building of New York, and suddenly the main character arrives in Romania (!) during the last chapter, the writer of course knowing nothing of this country, and making out names that I as a resident simply consider ludicrous (Gritzli as a name for a village for instance). Of course, I bet that Mr. John Saul considers Romania to be some fantasy land trodden by dragons and vampires – though I can honestly tell you that in over 19 years of living here I did not ever see a supernatural thing. Also the character Ryan was way too bright for a child his age (and a baseball player), and what really bugged me was that there was no explanation for the condition of the inhabitants of the Rockwell residence. I mean it, does John Saul want to write a sequel, or he just found it superfluous to offer the most elementary and typical explanation (they offered their souls to the Devil). No explanation is given whatsoever. We don’t even know who killed Brad Evans and Andrea Constantza (was it Andrew?).

However, I thoroughly recommend the book to all of you – it’s an very light read, and some other of the things I pointed out in paragraph two. Not like the book I’m reading now (Plato’s Republic).

Thirteen

2006-06-30T11:09:00.000+03:00

Though in the middle of the exam fever I allowed myself to drink a couple of beers (actually three) a couple of days ago and indulge myself with a movie. Of course, all these after the first exam.

The movie was called Thirteen, and the only famous actress that starred in it was Holly Hunter. Anyway, the film is about a thirteen years old girl who starts using drugs and hence her life goes on a down slope. Though I don’t find the film to excel through directing or acting, I still consider it to be fairly good, since it made me think a little. And because I have a tangency with the subject, as an (almost former) teenager.

Though I don’t say no to a beer and I smoke quite a lot sometimes. Still I found it appalling how a thirteen years old could do all the things (and even more) I started doing at about seventeen, which is after all, an acceptable age.

But I notice a lot of young children starting to do all the misdeeds I did in my past (and I continue doing). Really, it is quite disturbing to see twelve and thirteen year olds getting drunk like Russians and smoking like Turks. And with this new emo trend, things get even more worrisome. Seeing young boys kissing among each other is quite disgraceful. Really at their age I used to play with Lego, and now they’re trying out homosexuality.

I firmly believe that the way youth is becoming more and more corrupt is a major social problem. There ought to be more counseling, and parents ought to look after their kids more.

Yes, there is an age for intense parties, an age to try out alcohol, cigarettes, tattoos and other such extravagances. But there is also an age called childhood, and it might become a thing of the past, if we don’t pay attention.

Intro

2006-06-30T10:46:00.000+03:00

So this is my blogger diary, the twin of the Yahoo 360 one. Hopefully you'll find it compelling, though I doubt I'll able to continuously write interesting entries.

Since I am in the middle of some very important exams I wount be writing many entries during the next two weeks, but afterwards I'll try to be more active :)