in case of fire [real photo of emergency protocol]

flight

what always amused me in air transportation is that you can travel to another part of the world in several hours.
it feels kinda weird to be in one region in the morning and arrive in another in the afternoon.

epic fail

"Когда они пришли..."

Когда нацисты пришли за коммунистами,  я оставался безмолвным.
Я не был коммунистом.

Когда они сажали социал-демократов, я промолчал.
Я не был социал-демократом.

Когда они пришли за членами профсоюза,  я не стал протестовать.
Я не был членом профсоюза.

Когда они пришли за евреями, я не возмутился.
Я не был евреем.

Когда пришли за мной, 

не осталось никого, кто бы заступился за меня.

(c)  Мартин Нимёллер

the genius of a sleepy person

today I woke up, went to make myself a cup of tea, sliced the lemon, put in a spoonful of sugar, went to fetch hot water, came back, opened the kitchen cabinet again and added instant coffee on top of all that... something like that haven't happened to me in years.

...

"у наших людей с утра лица как будто им с самого волосатого места отодрали пластырь" (с) Задорнов

#4 - on ergonomics

 Ergonomics is... hmmm... well, something people forget these days.

I've been suffering from eye pain for a week or two, before  I understood what's wrong.

I - myself - remember that my stupid monitor has auto-adjust button right next to power switch (who the hell came up with that setup, really?) and if not me, someone else would accidentally push it while trying to switch monitor on/off. AND auto-adjust forces changes on top of everything you had set up.Strange thing is, auto-adjust can never quite decide which changes to make, but it knows one thing - that it must set brightness to 100%. Because it thinks everyone needs that extra-bright and colorful image, right? Like they promote in ads...

So, of course, someone pushed that damned button and it decided to switch full brightness mode on me. And I didn't recognize it at first, due to my overall tiredness - thought eyes are playing tricks on me. 

Urgh.

I went as far as setting up 20% brightness in my video card drivers, which overrides monitor's 100% (let it have it on auto, as it wants). But it seems that it won't do, after all.

Video card drivers force that setting on any application, meaning that if an app has its own brightness setting, it sets it to 20%, resulting in 20%*20%  brightness in some cases (4%). Too dark.

-.-

It all started with the one who decided having auto-adjust button right next to power button is fun. 

Damn you.

#3 - Android 4.0

As a [proud? no, not that...] well... somehow satisfied owner of Android 4.0.3 device, I can share my thoughts on the OS. 

First description I had for it was this: 

"A bastard of Frankenstein and Snow White: pretends to be good-looking, still an abomination inside". 

Most of its brand-new features won't work unless you have wi-fi connection. For a mobile device that is too much to ask for.

Also my personal opinion - Samsung has better pre-installed software. Oh to hell with software. 

OS itself didn't match my expectations in many things, like:

a) not multitasking when it comes down to working with file system, copying big file - go fetch yourself a cup of coffee; 

b) switching between apps proves to be a pain - they just lose your app state randomly, say good-bye to saving a position in the document you've been reviewing, if you fancy switching between music tracks that you listen to;

c) not intuitive enough for mobile device, many tasks require 'thinking for a while' before understading how to do it or where to click;

d) very small buttons and active zones, hard to hit even with my small fingers.

The device... 

the biggest issue is: 

screen with 'guerrilla glass 2.0' produces heavy glares under any lighting, which is a pain if you use it indoors under some lighting meant to spread, the only solution is to hold it so it won't catch light, right... like that would be comfortable enough in many circumstances.

Also speaker is very silent. I mean, very. You do need headphones to listen to it play something. 

Oh yeah don't forget that the same guerrilla glass gets dirty just from any touch and you have to clean it like crazy if you want to see something. 

#2 - SID - Rain

Have been listening to this often:

A nice song, isn't it? I kinda fancy piano version more than original, therefore won't post original here.

 If I had a lot of free time in the nearest future, I'd try to learn to play it. Not that it'd be easy with my basic skills.

「雨は、いつか止むのでしょうか

ずいぶん長い間 冷たい」

but sometimes when I listen to it I hear 「ずいぶん長い秋が冷たい」

Updates... #1

Ok, here's short update on what I've been up to recently.

[had no time / desire to try and morph my thoughts / feelings into written words]

Starting with the smallest thing, eh? 

I've got a new keyboard, and the slightest differences in form-factor, button layout, etc. is driving me crazy. Not that I wanted a new one. It's just that no one ever saw a keyboard that would work long enough for warranty to actually EXPIRE. 

You know, how it happens.... tea, coffee, spilled and voila - it's dead. 

Laast one served me almost two years. Almost reached its warranty's limit. Almost.

Vindictus II

Two new screens of Vindictus.

First shows the raid of 16 people killing one 'small' bear. He has 30 health bars, while normal boss has maybe... 3.

Here we have a screen that I find funny: my char in sweetie bear armor set and karok character in 60+ armor set.

Vindictus

Mostly because I needed a way to get rid of strange thoughts on my mind I started to play Vindictus Online.

It was meant to be a free 'small brother' of upcoming Guild Wars 2, I guess.

Nevertheless, so far the game amuses me to a certain extent.

But I know from past experience, that this would pass soon. Thankfully, I am not the one to be sucked into games.

Basically, Vindictus Online is a hack-n-slash hub-based game, meaning that you have action-oriented missions meant to be completed by a party of people. You gather your party or head out alone, choose mission and gear, push start button... and here it is, the hack-n-slash, thankfully it's more intelligent than just 'click-until-you-die'.

Bosses also usually present some sort of challenge, because you need certain strategy to defeat each of them. 

Another good point - most missions can be completed under 15 minutes, so it's not really a time-eater. 

All character classes present variety of play styles and battle animations.

Of course, my main character is a magician. Who'd guess?

That's how she looked at character creation:

And below I've added some random screens from ~lv.20

  

Kalafina - Progressive

I like Red Moon performance of 'Progressive' very much, better than studio version of the song.

video is on youtube and can be found here: http://youtu.be/aOV_ehXTaaQ
 sadly, some people still think it'd benefit them to disable embedding of their youtube videos.

on relatives

had an interesting conversation today. ofc half of it was said jokingly

we've discussed who can be considered a relative, and my opponent said that only a person related by blood is considered a relative.
i indicated that by this logic children would be considered relatives, while a husband wouldn't.
my opponent said, well, then husband is considered a relative too, but only he and people connected by blood.
then i asked what if one had several husbands?
it appears that the one you love the most is considered a relative :)

such a relative term it is, 'relatives' :)