Postcard size painting is not for me!

Well, you saw the result of the other one (look in the previous post if you forgot)..

Today I tried to make a flower painting for mothers day. Bad idea!!

I don't think I should paint on a small canvas again, it requires too many details to be interesting. I believe that if people see a small painting, they will try seeing it closer, while people watching a gigantic painting don't mind watching it from a few meters away... This of course makes it easier for the painter in the way that he/she doesn't have to concentrate on smal strokes with brush, and you don't have to worry about small errors ;)

Good visit! Nice visitor! Great Hair color!

I would say that this is a very nice photo :). Actually I think all the photos I took in Copenhagen today were really good, but I would probably be assasinated if I published too many ;)

A week with a "guest" which belongs here can go either way. This week I think we had more good than bad times. The mornings are impossible as alway, lunctime sees a smile or two when madame/princess Hunni-Bunny has finally woken up, but has deprived me of most energy the process. The afternoons are usually ok, while the evenings are nicer and nicer :)

Hopefully moments of anger without reason can be avoided with the use of simple logic - even though we haven't always been great at that in the past...

Today I created a dinner where the main ingredients were chicken and rice. Other ingredients included vegetables such as Zucchini, Red onion, green peas and broccoli, while the spicing was made of red wine (Cape Bergedorff), ajvar, soy, curry and sweet chili in modest amounts. Of course I added some apple slices in the end...

Soon I'll start painting something for mothers day. I'll make some kind of flower, inspired by - but not tied to - the sketch I got from milady. I will of course post a photo or two here :) I really enjoy flickr as a source of shapes and colours. Simply writing "purple flower" actually gives a lot of result - which is helpful since the only flower names I can always remember are 'rose' and 'tulip'..

Speaking of my paintings, I haven't posted the latest here, so be brave when looking ;)
Of course I can't publish this post without adding another photo of Bunny (k). I hope you had a good trip home, despite the annoying children..

Gained or lost? Brother Grad!?! Swede against Swede!!!

I think I lost a kilo since last - or maybe gained one....

Every time I weigh myself, I do a couple of "test jumps" to see so it didn't get stuck somewhere. Today it showed three different values :D The first one was 2 kilo before 'point zero', then I got 0.5 kilo below, and last (after a few extra jumps) about 1 kilo above. I must say: "We are not amused!" ;)

We have to remember finding a really nice present for my younger brothers graduation - and I wouldn't mind some help in creating a speech for the occasion...


Tonight I'll be extra healthy - football, nacho cheese, beer and pizza... Just to be sure maybe I'll celebrate with some... errr... milk... ;-p

The application (why are software programs and the papers you send to try to get employment called the same?) we're creating for the thesis is getting along pretty well on my side. I believe my part is mainly done, while M is 50% done (but he'd only confess to 20-30% I think). Today I created an interface for calibrating a camera, which I'll implement most functions for tomorrow. Since the plan is to integrate a lot of options to save the project state, it'll take some planning before implementing - but I think I have most of that part done :) I'm feeling a bit sorry for M if he's right about not being done on time though - especially since I can't really afford to wait for him to finish...


The drilling earlier was from the basement. To be closer, it was from the laundry drying room. Someone was putting up new lines for hanging clothes on, and it seems like they also put up an electronic "laundry time booker"..


Some days are simply different than others! Some days are simply more important than others!
Some days come with a Champions league final or perhaps a World Cup final! Sone days you find balance! Some days are completely unbalanced! For a happy life the number of days must be balanced - at least in how important and the nymber of days of care...

Now, I'll look forward to the greatest football match so far this century. I hope my expectations of the greatest playing teams come true :)

Oh, by the way, Matthäus believes Germany doesn't stand a chance in the World Cup. The only chance they have depends on playing at home. Germany will play Sweden or England if they go through from the group stage. Personally, I hope Sweden won't have to beat Germany until the final, but it's not like there's half the quality from Brazil, so realistic is it that Germany could reach the final?

There's less than 45 minutes left now - until the grand finale!!!

How time flies - now it's 30 minutes left, and no word from my bunny yet today...


Some days I miss myself - but that's a story for another day

In other news, I've decide to learn spanish by learning the Barca anthem

Cheerio, hope your favorites win tonight :)

The Final! Norwegian National Day!

Tonight, there will be a match between the two teams who play the most beautiful football in the world. The greatest artists will be there - Ronaldinho and Henry will finally go to the edge of dreams. It's a shame only one team can win, because in my opinion both are greats, and in this special case there should be the possibility of a shared trophy if scores are even after 90 magical minutes. The questions tonight will of course be if the mighty culés Puyol, Eto'o, Larsson, Messi and Valdes can beat the gunners Lehmann, Ljungberg, Gilberto, Hleb and Fabregas with the same kind of magic we've seen against lesser teams ever since the greatest of them all arrived to Barca?

I accidentally read stupid crap on the internet like this "article" thing of some retard's thoughts on a retard statistic. I hate the internet.
- Unknown (Proof of some people having too much time on their hands? I wouldn't mind getting some free seconds once in a while myself)

17th of May - the norwegian national day - sometimes I wish they had taken parts of Sweden with them in the "peaceful revolution" a hundred years ago. However, I think I enjoy the danish mentality more, so that would've been the best option for my part of the Sweden ;-) Too bad we're stuck with the strict and boring swedes, just because they invaded us a few hundred years ago, almost completely destroying my town in the process...

According to a survey, joking during sex prolongs the experience with at least ten minutes. According to myself, saying anything at all shortens the process...

I was planning on working all day today - combining work on the thesis with some paid work parallell. So far, I haven't been able to concentrate, since I woke up at 6 and since then there's been a lot of drilling going on in the building. Hopefully it doesn't more than 1-2 hours longer, so I can at least get work done after working out, showering and having lunch. Maybe I'll get rid of the headache until then as well....

Todays workout: 381 calories in 45 minutes.

Recipe of the... errm... week (?).. month(?).

While starting my cooking tonight I realised that I haven't eaten lunch or dinner at home for a week. Every day I've eaten on the ferry, at the university or somwhere else on the way, but never at home. Commuting every days tears down the small but sometimes important things in life, and reduces people to "quick-sandwich-on-the-road-almost-human-beings", instead of the relaxed beings we should be...

Today I instead had a lot of time to relax, to workout (30 minutes, about 300 calories in a cardio workout), to sit down and think, and now to cook a dinner :-)

I hope the photo is good enough to show what it is - instead of making it look like a very weird mumbo jumbo.. The main ingredients:

Broccoli, Corn, Fish (called Kummel in swedish), green olives, cayenne pepper, swedish summer vegetable mix.

Well met :-)

Freedom

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
- Frank Tibolt

So I finally have a "free day". At least free from doing the same thing I've been doing every day for a week - i.e. working on my thesis - so I'll use this day for doing some useful things like go to the store, work on crossword-site to earn some money, maybe do some testing on the thesis software (I'm not sure I can stay away from it ;p) and actually have some relaxing time with a book or two and maybe even watch some tv to shut my brain down.

I'll probably start writing a plan on what to do in the next part of the thesis as well.

By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.
- GK Chesterton

I still can't help myself with pushing ctrl+s (save) on the keyboard after writing a long passage or editing something, even though I'm not done with the post. Too many years with text editors?

So, todays news roundup includes the following:

• IT professionals have the most stressful profession.
• Companies in Germany are being told by the head of the employers association recommends companies to let workers watch the World Cup.
• In Saudi Arabia, there's a problem for women wanting to buy lingerie. Is that the biggest problem there?
• There's a tutorial to show you how to delete your usage history on a Windows machine. I use EasyCleaner to get rid of things like that myself - since there's no reason to keep it, while the program is good for cleaning other stuff as well. Of course, on some systems you can still recover the history, so don't think you can hide anything completely by deleting it...
• Learning how to paint is a great way to relax :-)

I'll do some workout in a while - hopefulöly something fun for an hour.

Thesis Results

I don't have the energy to write much tonight, so I'll just post a couple of resulting images from my thesis application. The house/box was made in 3D, and is supposed to have the same orientation as the ground in the background, and look like it's placed on top of four dots on the ground, with appropriate size. The red lines below are supposed to continue in the same directions in the house wall corners - which they are obviously not, even though close for now...

I basically started again from nothing at the start of last week, worked 6-10 hours a day and came up with this... It's great progress for just a week. This week I'll make a new part of the program, after "resting" from it (actually doing my study job) for two days...

Miracle allergy pills! Football time!

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Tonight I'll go to my first football game of the year. It's warm and sunny, just a little windy but no risk of rain (pepper, pepper; *throws salt over shoulder*). After 7 matches played, the home team has 11-11 in goal difference (2won, 2 draws). The away team has 1-2 in goal difference (yes, they scored one goal - in the last match before this. Before that they set a record in number of matches without scoring ;D). I believe in a difficult match, but the true reds will win :)

After 3(4? 5?) weeks I finally got the delivery of "chinese magic anti-allergy pills" which were supposed to be here 1-2 days after I placed the order. Hopefully they can lower the allergic reactions. I have no real hope of getting rid of those completely. I also got some multi vitamin pills that I felt like trying - I really needed a boost of energy at the time. I'll try them anyway, but I think my main boost will come from exercise. Today I climbed the stairs at the Uni three times, and ran all the other stairs on the way :D Acording to the scales yesterday, I had lost 1.5 kg.

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
- Pablo Picasso

We created a movie of our own with a video camera today. I quickly made my algorithms work with the new circumstances - easily creating what looks like a "3D box" on top of the coordinates we're tracking... The only reason I didn't get further was that I had to find a computer with firewire, since we didn't have a usb cable with the video camera. Suddenly it feels like we're on the right track, and that we could actually finish some of the most difficult parts within a week or two :) Since we have a meeting on monday, we'll have to do as much as possible until then, and will therefore meet every day for programming, planning and discussing...

Beam me up

sunburns , football and hiking in spain

hey sugar

today our school had a "hiking day" nobody hikes though - well if you call walking from the harbour ferry 5 minutes to a free spot on the beach hiking we did hike a little.
There after everyone had finished there fika a few of us started to play some beachfootbal - it was more like sand kicking though . Well sand , glass and barbeq-cole unfurtunetly , which did mean things to my white pants.
All-in-all it was nice school day / if just all where like that *sigh*

"Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it." – Irving Berlin

Interesting man btw - he played the piano , but only on the black keys :o) , that little weirdo .

Anyway got the idea of going hiking in spain for some time in the summer :
Maybe in June already - after all I am free after that.
Just 2 weeks or so , and after that I still got time to spend a month with you.

Live rules

Happy Europe Day!!!!

Did you know that today is Europe day? I found out in the morning - and have only seen signs in one other place since, in another newspaper with the same angle. Both newspapers basically had the same story, saying that the May 9th, 1950 was the day the European Union was concieved - although in the shape of the coal and steel union which was formed to avoid european wars. This has evidently been a success. I'm not surprised that there's no celebrations here in Sweden, since the swedes are among the most negative toward EU in the Union, and has the highest percentage of people who claim that EU has done nothing good for them...

Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.
- Carl Sandburg

I went shopping twice today, mostly to get out of the apartment. First time for groceries (I had decided to only buy water, but came home with 10-15 things) and then for clothes (decided to get a pair of summer pants/shorts, bought three pairs of "short pants").

Blogger is really extremely slow today, I hope it doesn't last too long... Of course, 2-3 minutes after posting, the response time went down from 10-15 minutes to 30 seconds, which only makes it "a bit slower than usual".

I could continue the football ranting which I've had a few days, but I know you aren't really interested. Either way, I'm happily surprised about the english world cup squad, and looking forward to finding out about the swedish in a bit more than half an hour.

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.
- Howard Aiken

At this moment I see two old men arguing about the weather. At least it looks like that's the topic:

• One looks worried about possible rain, while pointing at the sky.
• The other sticks his hand out to feel if it's rainging (in extreme sunlight...)
• The first points up, now a bit red in the face. He looks like he wants to convince the other "it will rain soon, look over Denmark"
• The second replies, again with the hand out to feel for rain: "I think I'll at least make it to the car without a problem"
• The first one says that he should be careful of the sun-glares while driving and is then pulled in the door by a younger woman
• The second old man hurridly says "g'day to ye", swings his jacket (25-30 degree Celius in the sun now) over the arm and walks away...

I don't think it will rain for another 2-3 days at least (4-5 according to some weather forecasts, but since when are they better than I am at football?)

A few days ago I found out that my thesis partner, M, is trying to make .net work with linux, using the mono project. This gave me a bit of new fuel to switch to Linux on at least one of my computers. Since .net is part of my work, and probably also will be in the future, I need to be able to use it at home, in the ofice and "on the go"...

The ancient sages said 'do not despise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say it will not become a dragon', so may one just man become an army.
- The Margin Waters-series

Allergies, football and work

Today I'll be working from home, on the quiz site where we made the design last week and the week before. Now I'll start programming some functions, like simple login and registration, accompanied by more advanced pages which need higher security, such as credit card check etc.

For once, I'll be working from home tomorrow as well, since S has a meeting until 11.30 it's not really worth the travel to only work about 3 hours...

As you may or may not know, the amount of pollen is record high this year. However, according to the experts, it will be a short season. I really hope they're right, because it's not always a lot of fun not being able to breathe. Around every fifth swedish adult has allergies against birch pollens, resulting in a lot of sneasing, itchy eyes and noses, and of course the constant tiredness. According to the news the levels are very high in Denmark, but they're still about five times as high in some parts of Sweden - which I find a bit odd for neighbouring conuntries.

Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons.
- Will Cuppy

So, tonight there's finally the biggest match of the year. The number one derby of Sweden. The so called football club of Malmö will be welcoming the heroes of Helsingborg. There's a good chance of the good triumphing against evil, the red-blues crushing the baby blue, and Malmö fans walking home in shame afterwards :) The reds of Bayern won the German league, the reds of Arsenal clinched the Champions League spot in the last match of the season and the last match ever on Highbury, and the heroes of Barca are completely superior to most others. This can of course only mean one thing: HIF victory tonight!

Realism...has no more to do with reality than anything else.
- Hob Broun

Random thoughts, football and history.

History has it's place anywhere and anytime. I you don't know about any history you don't know about any thing. History icludes all the people from Ceasar, Alexander and Columbus to Henrik Larsson, Harald Schmidt and Mother Theresa. It doesn't matter if you're famous or not. It doesn't matter if people remember your name. It doesn't matter if you're an office clerk, a chemist experimentitian or the prime minister. As soon as you're born, you are a part of history in the making!!

History includes the people you heard of, and the people you will never hear of. We are all part of history, from the day we are born until the day we die, and in some cases much later than that. In a few cases, people were a part of history even before their birth. Even such a thing as this blog is a part of history at the moment you read it.

The point is, that you will make a difference. It's up to you which kind of difference...

"The judgement of popular culture is merciless. There is nothing more nerdy than a technician. Who has the patience to work on foundation research to get a pat on the back in 20 years, when a docu-soap gives instant fame."
- Niklas Ekdal (translated from editorial in a swedish newspaper)

I made some progress in my programming today - now I just have to apply the stuff I already know. If I can just get some small details from M... Since those details are his biggest challenge, I'm not expecting to be done with it tonight.

The history of high heels may be a bit surprising to some. It all began with noblemen who wanted to sit secure when on horseback about 400 years ago. The first documented woman to use took 50 years, and then said "I want to walk better" - well, then please don't run with those shoes ;p

I'm both happy and surprised that my brother had only positive comments about my paintings. In a way, I shouldn't be surprised, since I've really noticed the positive change he's gone through since meeting, and moving in with, his girlfriend L :)

It seems like a TV channel will actually show "The Hulk". As a nerd, I feel quite obliged to watch it.

So, I'll leave you with some history. Did you know:

• Napoleon was extremely jealous when married to Josephine - he actually sent a letter to her just a few month after the wedding, to say that "he knew she was cheating and had never loved him". They did divorce in 1809 - 13 years after the recently discovered letter.
• Archeologists (spelling?) have found an asian Pompeji. An entire asian civilization was buriedunder a volcano on the indonesian island of Sumbawa, in the year of 1815. Now, it's being dug out...
• Dutch scientists believe that the plague caused a "short" european ice age starting in the 14th century. In short, the deaths of a third of the european population caused a drastic downturn in agriculture. This in turn led to the lands turning into woodland/forests. The trees took so much oxygen that it became like a reversed greenhouse effect.
• In the late 19th century, "wild humans" were put in zoos. One of those was an eskimoe, who had learnt to read and write. He wrote a diary while in the "animal park". It's called "The diary of Abraham Ulrikab".
• As you may or may not know, the Germanians stopped the Romans from going further north. Their main tactics was guerrilla warfare - which worked with inferior numbers in at least three attacks in the years 9-16 a.d. After those attacks, the romans gave up any major attempts to conquer the north.
• Even though the molotov cocktail was named after the Soviet foreign minister in 1939-40, when Soviet was trying to ("friendly"?) invade Finland, the idea comes from the spanish civil war, were the fascist nationalists used it against Soviet (yes, again..) tanks.
• The red carpet used to be a carpet for the gods. This is due to the fact that red color was extremely expensive to reproduce in the old days. Industry found a way in 1897, and since then we can use the color whenever we feel like it. Long live Capitalism ;p
• The canopener was invented in 1810, 15 years after the can itself. The can was invented as a result from a french competition, to find the best way to store food. In the 15 years between tin can and can opener, they used hammers and chisels.
• 1947, the biggest plane so far lifted for the first, and last, time. It was just one of those american inventions which didn't matter in the long run of history....
• The solar king, Louis XIV (I think that's the english for Ludvig XIV), had such an extreme daily schedule that he "had to" let people talk to him while "doing the toiletry". On the other hand, L XIV was the most fashionable person in Europe (and of course the world), so there was no shame from either side. Noblemen found it an honour to be part of a human chain which gave him shoes or other clothes. L XIV also decided fashions for Europe such as wigs and shoes. I have for example seen pictures of him and other men playing pool while wearing high heels....
• The Da Vinci Code book has many errors. For example, they have corrected a few in the french version, since the original contained a car chase that was impossible in reality - the street names and buildings were mentioned in an order which would make the followed car follow the follower. Does that make sense? There are many other 'facts' in the Da Vinci Code which have no roots according to historians and other experts..
• The series 'Shogun' has its root in reality. Around the year 1600, a british captain of a dutch ship finally came to Japan. William Adams was one of the 24 survivors, and one of the six people still being able to walk and talk, after an extreme journey. Many parts of the series are true, since Adams was the first white Samurai, and also helped the Shogun build western style sea faring ships for the ability to go over more than the local waters. Adams was however forced to stay in Japan for the rest of his life, and was never able to return to his wife and child (he did send money and other things home though, and the wife and child were in no other harm - according to the mag/history).
• Ceasar was extremely lucky to survive and conquer France/Gallien/The Gaulles (not sure about how to write that). He luckily (for himself and his army) saw that gallic reinforcements were attacking at a weak spot in his double walls - while being attacked in many places at once. 52 BC Alesia fell, and eight year the recently crowned dictator was murdered.
  

Going on to viking history, and focusing on Gotland, we find that:

• Gotland (biggest island of the baltic sea) gave us two thirds of swedish viking treasures so far, even though the land mass is less than one percent.
• The great days of this northern european center of trade ended in 1361, when the danish king Valdemar invaded. Only the peasants stood as defenders, while the wealthy germans hid inside the city walls.
• In a few cities, most of the coins found were of arabic origin - they can be traced back to for example Iraq, Iran, Syria and Egypt. The rest of the found treasures were mostly from scandinavia, France, England, Spain and Istanbul.
• The island lost its influence when new technology in seafare was invented. This of course needs no explanation, since every "superpower" in history has lost their power when someone lese invented something better (flight, faster ships which don't sink after 20 days on sea), more threatening (bow, nuclear w*ap*n) or just the better trick (war/battle tactics, use of intelligence to stop killing).

The history parts of this post have been taken from a swedish history magazine. If you want to know more, please read it (if you don't understand enough swedish, it's easy to learn - or you could ask me

Football and random thoughts? Well, that's short and easy :)
Arsenal took fourth place - replacing Hotten-Botten-Bam-Ham for qualifiers place to CL :)
Bayern won the German league - and cup - of course not surprisingly, but extremely happily!
Barca won La Liga - and will soon meet Arsenal in Champions League Final.
No, I don't know who I want to win... Henke is part of the current Barca dream team, but Arsenal never had a CL final. Henke deserves a gigantic title before coming home. OK, I'll be a little bit partial toward Barca that evening, since there's a Ghod from the neighbourhood in the team....

Paintings - signed and done :)

New jacket, finished painting!

Crouching tiger - hidden dragon... errm... just had to :)

I got a new suède jacket instead of the one I got for birthday. I had to pay a little extra, but it looks great so I don't mind :)

The painting is actually not completely finished, but I'm guessing the details that are left will be barely visible in photos if I post them. So I'll probably wait with posting new photos until I have both paintings on the wall....

For some reason, the spot in the backyard just below my window has become very popular for anything to do with smoke. People sit there and smoke a few times a day, and now it seems like some kids decided to make it a barbeque place. Weird how people care more about their own enjoyment than about mine...

By the way, I just found a great book - it's like it's about me! See the image to the right :) Hopefully it will be a popular book, so people finally understand what I'm talking about. Maybe someone can even explain it to me then..

Another day, another.. what?

Sanity is a madness put to good use.
- George Santayana

I'm getting somewhere with the second painting. I know it doesn't look too charming at the moment, but I hope for that to change after giving the tree som (pink/white) leaves and the silhouette it's (blue) contour. Then I think it will look nice together with the first painting. I don't think I'll take photos of them togethre again until their done though - too much work with setting them up...

I'm going downtown today, with hopes to exchange the too small jacket I got for my birthday - hopefully I can exchange it here even though it was bought in another town...


Seeing a murder on television... can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.
- Alfred Hitchcock

New art post

I just logged in to one of the university computers. It greeted me with a warning saying that I've exceeded my profile storage space with 186.254 kB. The space is limited to 30 MB, so that's pretty high I guess. I'm happy that I have admin rights on that machine ;) There! The program warning me is now shut down :D

"Someone's boring me. I think it's me."
- Dylan Thomas

Even though I thought I wouldn't touch it today, I "kind of" finished the first painting today. I can't be certain that it's finished until I'm at the same stage with the second one, but I think it's ok by itself as it is now, and I'm happy about it considering it's my first ;)

I'm getting a hang of the application we're programming now. It took 1-2 hours of sitting with it, but I'm starting to understand the structure and thoughts behind it :-) I'll start with the simplest things possible, like for example drawing some lines depending on some values I get from a previously saved text file. In other words, nothing fancy yet ;)

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something."
- Robert Heinlein





So, another day another color...

Tourists, other amateurs, dog-owners and child-owners.

So, I finally got home, today as (almost) any other day.

The metro and the coast train were full of tourists and other people who have no clue. I kept hearing talk about the amusement park and other drunken things all the way (yup, the amusement park was halfway on the train, but I think some didn't notice).

The ferry was full for the first time this year (I mean the first time that I've been on). There were people with gigantic backpacks, some with a lot of alcohol they got "cheap" in Denmark, and way to many of the small people. This brings me to part of my post header.

Dog-owners and child-owners (also called parents, if you're politically correct)
I started a thought while on the ferry. I was listening to a podcast, and had to turn the volume up at least twice (without lowering it in-between) while listening. This was due to the nature of parents (the child-owners) not considering that their child must be the loudest on the planet, and in the process having no consideration for other people in the ferry cafeteria, from which at least half left because of the child nerving noise. I can understand that children are children etc., but this was extreme, and even though "children are children", there must also be parents in the equation, not just "child-owners"...

This brings to mind the behaviour of dog-owners. To many of the people who own dogs, it doesn't matter how their dog behaves to guests and other people, it's still the cutest, nicest and most well-behaved pet they could have (according to them, not me). This reflects in when the dog jumps on another person, and the person doesn't exactly enjoy the behaviour. Then it's easier for the dog-owner to blame it on the person who was assaulted, than on the dog - the family member.

Often, it seems like dog-owners think of their pet as if it was their little baby instead of an animal. When the pet is almost as big as you are, and actually stronger, then I would consider what to teach it and how much it should get away with...

The same is of course true for the child-owners (I'm not saying parents here, for obvious reasons if you read from start). They most often don't care that their child is behaving in a way which causes great discomfort for others. They do nothing to stop it, and would never think of walking away to a place away from the crowds. Just like in the case with the dog-owners, they think they are right, and the 50 persons walking away are of course overly sensitive.....

Where is the world going?

A wasted month...

... or maybe two.

We saw our thesis supervisor today. He said that the way I was thinking of implementing my algorithm wouldn't work, since the asumptions I had made weren't true. This basically means I wasted one month of the thesis on something I can't use - except maybe for 1-2 pages of the report... My thesis partner, also got some news meaning he will have to make a lot of changes and learn a lot of different things compared to the direction he's been going so far. I'm guessing he was set back a month as well... Comnbining this with the fact that our supervisor will be on vacation most of August, and we have the deadline on September 1st, there's a lot of time to make up for. We basically need to be done with implementing our theories before July 1st, and then take a month to write the report. The implementation should be good enough to cover about 4.5 months work (now to be made in about 2 months), and that kind of report is usually finished in about 1.5 months - plus some writing while implementing. Well, we have 2+1 month left to be at least 95% done with both now - and then we have a month to fix everything while the supervisor is on vacation... Have a happy summer, I'll be staring out the windows of my uni building (if I get time for doing that even ;p). I've rearranged my calendar a bit, since I'm planning on going to ITU a bit more often in the close future. I'll adjust a bit while you're here, but keep it standing like that anyway, since it's too much work changing in that calendar...

Instead of me doing all the DirectX stuff and M doing all the OpenCV (computer vision c++ library), I will also do some of the OpenCV stuff to make my part completely work. We'll still have about half the work each, it's just that there's simpler methods from their to use for some of my part :)

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
- Douglas Adams

By the way, when I was at L's place working this week, he said something puzzling. It seems as if the danish actually do have 'kind of' a holiday on May 1st, but maybe not all. There were gatherings at the parks where some politicians held speeches, but it seemed to be more about having some beer, holding some flag (just traditional, not protesting flags) and taking it easy than noticing what the politicians were talking about or about protesting or other such common May 1st things. Well the danish protest and discuss these things all year around, so why have a special day for such things? I like the relaxed attitude :)

Sweatlog update - with sweat and art talk!

Horray! I'm sweaty! 345 calories after 45 minutes in workout 118 with Maya. It was a core workout :-) My hair is dripping with sweat, so I'll sign off right away ;)

As can be seen on the photo, I did some painting. I made a silhouette to the right of one painting, and sketched a horizon and a "glass cube" as well. What I'll do next is to figure out the direction of the shadows from the cube (and objects in the other painting). There's a possibility to have the light coming from behind/above the silhouette, but then there's a risk of the lines being "too perfect" in following the lines of the cube... I'm also considering having light coming from above/left of the image - giving shadows toward the bottom right in the painting. We'll see how it goes :) Either way, it's always good to put your thoughts down before making decisions...

So I painted a bit more...

I think it looks a bit better on the photo than in reality, maybe it's because it's a low qality photo, or maybe because the sketch lines aren't visible in the photo. The white parts you see in the photo are full of sketch lines in reality, so I couldn't leave it like some "winter landscape" :)

It's difficult to stop once you really get started ;D

I added some grass on the ground, a bit of color on the cube and some shadow from it. The remaining white part will mostly be dark green... I'm currently considering adding some splashes of red, but I'm not sure where...

Instead of the typical quotes, I'll end this post with a video.

Sweatlog

Well....errrm.... well..... hmmm... what to say....

I can't really say that I worked out today...

Well..... I walked 1.5-2 hours total - does that count? It includes walking up to the third floor in an apartment building....

I did almost sweat when I saw the pizza L got me. So, this past week (counting from monday last week to today/tuesday) , I've had two pizzas, about 12 muffins, some birthday cake, some birthday cookies, about 4-5 glasses of wine,2-3 glasses of coke and a number of healthbuns (special bun with a lot of vegetables on the ferries) and a couple of salad meals. I don't feel like I'm making a healthy statement here....


I remember January 18th 2002. I quit smoking and started working out. I continued working out, going to the sauna and eating relatively healthy for more than a year. I didn't have a single smoke for at least 2.5 years (3.5?), and was able to concentrate on my studies without a problem for most of that time. Lately, it's not exactly the same. I have one thesis project and two jobs (jobs for two different companies, with at least two projects at a time going on). My mind often feels shattered. My mom and stepdad cares more about their dog than about me, and if I say something they'll probably forget it within a day. Well, I could complain, but I have a really great girlfriend who listens to me once in a while, and really cares about what I think :-)

Well, maybe I can find a way back to my state of mind on the 18th of January 2002 - as I walked down the hill and threw down my last cig, walking towards the gym and a new life. So was that life temporary, or will I find the strength again?

Peopleocity

"I love acting. It is so much more real than life."
- Oscar Wilde

I think I'll start my first painting tomorrow. Of course meaning I'll sketch a bit, first on paper and then on the canvas I intend to use. I explained the general idea in my previous post, so I won't go there again. However, I am now considering a few ideas to change the idea slightly. One of the paintings will be a bit darker, mostly with red, orange and a bit of yellow colours. I'm considering putting a cherry tree in the middle of that one, as the only object besides the "ground, sky and silhouette" combination which is the themes of both paintings. For the other painting, which will mostly be in lighter blue and green colours with a dark/black silhouette, I'm considering a big glass cube - of course difficult to get right, but with some luck it could be nice :)



"He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met."
- Abraham Lincoln

I'm listening to a football match on the web radio (can't stay away [in the middle of this sentence the first goal of the match came, and it was a jamaica man doing it in his first match from start] - [Before finishing that goal comment the home team scored another - I wish I had gotten home earlier, so I could've gone there]), and the commentator is rrrreally boring. It's like the guy has no training at all. He doesn't alter the pitch of his voice at all, speak slow and low, and seems not to care about what's happening at all.

I had promised myself to stop listening to the match if the first half of the game didn't end with a home lead. The goals came in the two last minustes of the first half... I guess there's no workout for me today (except for the 1.5 hour walk I've already had, but that doesn't count does it?)

While walking from L (I don't write full names online without asking the persons permission) today, I reflected a bit on the difference of people. The thoughts went on the road of comparison, looking at L and S - the both I work with/for, making web sites, database solutions etc. I came to think about how L always looks very proper, with expensive looking clothes, greeting by shaking hands and basically "going to work" looking like a business man - even though he works from home. However, instead of being what he looks like - the business man - he is a very relaxed man and easy to talk to. As an example, you could see him get excited about a new computer game he got (he got one today that he had ordered, and was pretty happy, to say the least), or probably even a board game.

As a comparison, we have S, who basically dresses like a sportsman - always being ready to go out for some disc golf or other sports. Sometimes when I get to his place (also working from home, so there's not only differences), he simply opens the door when I buzz downstairs, and I'll let myself and setup my gear while he's putting on coffee. So they are opposite in the greeting part, where both basically act the way they look. However, when it comes to work, S is less relaxed, talking to his computer and doing a lot of administrative work. This is all ok of course, but what makes him the opposite of L, is for example that he keeps a weekly schedule for major activities, which also includes a dinner plan for the week. At the same time he (S) often ask how many hours I've worked on certain projects to update his own numbers, while L basically never asks, but instead makes up an estimate (which I guess he updates after getting the invoice)...

I could of course find examples from more people - but I simply found these two very clashing, since they sometimes work together and seem to have known eachother for a long period of time. Even though the advanced knowledge they posess is in slightly different fields ('ms access databases' versus 'asp questionnaires and other sites'), it's still commonly seen as "programmer/developer/computer geek" fields, meaning one would expect the same kind of people, at least when knowing eachother....

Either way, today I sent an invoice each to them, amounting a nice little sum which I'll be happy about getting :-)

Signing off with kisses and a squirrel who misses Hanni!