I use the internet all the time. About 20% of my internet usage involves searching for some kind of encyclopaedic info (dictionaries included). Another 20% consists of mostly random funny or interesting things, like reddit, digg, links from friends. And finally, communication with other people makes up around 60%.

I sometimes do write emails, but mostly just use various forms of instant text messaging to talk to my buddies. I have tried voice over ip (skype, to be concrete), and I have to admit that it is very useful… that is, if you don’t need to talk to more than one person at a time.

Which brings me to my main point: when talking to my pals using instant messaging, I often talk to many (more than five) people simultaneously. Although this sometimes leads to delays (errm, nope, my 6 hour delays are not caused by communication overload but simply by me not noticing you ;-)), it is still quite manageable once you get used to it.

It is technically impossible to achieve the same level of paralelity in voice based communication. Sure, you could receive the voice messages one after another, and respond them, but it would break the flow. In instant messaging, you can see the last few lines of a conversation, which reminds you about what was going on. Also, in case you need to retrieve some info from the past, skimming through chatlogs is much easier than listening to all the voice messages.

Simply put, I don’t want to receive voice messages, I want to receive text messages.

Now how about the input? This is where many posibilities arise for the future. Voice input (transformed into a text message) seems to be the easiest and the most viable option for the near future. However, it does have some pitfalls, and I personally feel more comfortable using my keyboard.

Another option would be controlling input by thought. Or… maybe not. Imagine you are talking to a girl or… oh well, that was definitely a bad idea.

So to sum it up, I think the future of text messaging is still rather bright. I can’t imagine anything replacing text output. The input part is a bit unclear, but I don’t really care about it all that much anyway.

Discuss.
[…]

Please?
[…]

Pretty please?

I started the trip in Warsaw, where I came to participate in a tournament. I played against Seok-bin in the first round, and only lost by 7 points, which is probably my biggest go-achievement as of yet ;) In next two rounds I have beaten two 4d, and after that I lost to a 2d by half a point. That kinda sucked, but it still didn’t stop me from winning a 2gb iPod nano. So overall, the tourney was a success for me. I’d also like to thank vertigo and the sushi girls.

The following day, Azael took me and spirit to Warsaw Uprising Museum. It presented the war in a very raw way, which was rather frightening but interesting to experience.

After that we (with spirit and Azael) moved to Lodz. We stayed there shortly so I’ve just seen the center of the city and Jewish cemetery, but overall it left a good impression on me.

I don’t feel like writing about LSG events chronologically, so here are a few things in more or less random order:

• During the first week, the weather was horrible, it mostly rained and it was damn cold. :/ The second week brought a significant change, so we could spend a lot of time by the lake (and in the lake). :)
• I got drunk (vodka) to the point where I wasn’t able to walk or even stand up. :x This has never happened to me before, it is cool to have experienced it.
• I won the main tournament at LSG (Memorial Jerzego Sacharzewicza) by winning 6 out of 6. I got lucky several times, including the win against Merlijn by half a point. I won the Haengma book and it got lost/stolen >:-| (I know exactly on which table I left it and it just wasn’t there the next day).
• The latest time at which I went to sleep was quarter to seven.
• I might have smoked something illegal and I might have liked it. ;)
• I’ve seen several people jumping full clothed into the cold lake late at night for just three beers. o_O
• I played pairgo championship with a 24k and we beat a pair consisting of a 5k and a 1d. Pairgo sometimes really is unbelievable. :o
• I experienced something which hurt me very deeply, but managed to recover in about three days. I’m getting close to becoming an emotionless robot. B)
• Together with spirit and fiszu, we won the team tournament (handi -2, so it wasn’t that difficult for a strong team to win). I won Korean Fuseki book (the large red one).
• I went on several walks with several different people during the night. Night walks (and night talks) for the win. Somehow people are much more sincere and there is a better atmosphere, at least that’s how I perceive it.

My thanks to everyone who attended these events. Biggest thanks go to vertigo, Azael, Ela, Spirit, method, kotasza, Dorotka, fisz and soui.

PS: Photos so far: kamila (great photos, but just a few), kotasza (mobile photos: quality = 0, size = huge), sh/yapee (many photos, good ones) and finally great photos by ignus.

PPS: Oh yeah, in case you didn’t know: Spirit is totally NOT interested in underage girls. ;) :P ^^

PPPS: LSG 2008 starts in about 350 days, hope to see you there.

I’m going to spend afternoon with my ex-classmates, watching photos from Australia. After that I take overnight train to Warsaw. There I will attend a tournament during the weekend. The week after that is going to consist mostly of sightseeing Poland and just having fun. And then next two weeks on LSG.

Ideal vacations.

tasuki logout

I always thought Marilyn Manson was just an idiot. Shouting obscenities, trying to offend everyone in any possible way, etc. Then I saw few videos on youtube:
Marilyn Manson Bowling for Columbine
Marilyn Manson on O’Reilly
Marilyn Manson speech

While I am not going to start listening to his music (I just don’t like it), I started greatly respecting the guy. He is very smart and extremely articulate.

During the past few months, I saw several films, most of which are highly praised and widely considered as the best ones.

Here it goes, sorted by year of production, including my subjective score on a 1-10 scale (where 10 is best; I tried to be tough in scoring):

The Battleship Potemkin, 1925, 5/10: This one is really really old. And oh, it is full of propaganda. But I guess that considering how old it is (they made movies back then?) it’s not so bad.

Casablanca, 1942, 10/10: It’s a romance film, but very well set up. While I usually don’t even notice the (male) actors, Humphrey Bogart really made an impression on me.

The Searchers, 1956, 7/10: A western. Quite good, but I can’t say anything particularly remarkable.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966, 9/10: A western too. The three main characters are just unforgetable, they make it a pretty good story. And the music is just perfect, if it was only the music with black screen, it would have got 8/10. ;-)

The Godfather, 1972, 9/10: I liked this film a lot, although I can’t really point out a single reason why.

Pulp Fiction, 1994, 4/10: I give four out of ten just because I don’t want to infuriate fans of Quentin Tarantino.

Fight Club, 1999, 8/10: I really liked the ideas displayed in this film. innocent look ^^

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000, 2/10: Huge disappointment. This one got the two points solely for reminding me of a great sketch by Monty Python… I’m not on a wire!

I am planning to watch Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai and Schindler’s List. Any other recommendations?

The full title reads: The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology.

The Moral Animal is a book about evolutionary psychology written by Robert Wright.

I liked the book a lot, but I am a bit unsure what to write in here… The Moral Animal shows how our behaviour is primarily affected by evolution, how cold-hearted bastards we all are (yes, not just me – even you), and how even our deepest feelings are just a tool of evolution to make sure our genes succeed.

Desperately trying to write one more paragraph shows to be rather futile. So I will write no more. Now go and read the book! :)

You might have seen my crazy ticket folding gallery.

Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. :P

Here are some of the latest, greatest and bestest tickets:

This ticket is currently my favourite, but you’d have to see it as a whole to really appreciate it, seeing from just one direction simply isn’t enough. :)

Another view of the previous one, a bit of a rear view.

The part that you can see in the upper left gave me a lot of headache, and the more I try to do something reasonable with it, the worse it gets (the one thing that you should avoid when folding is making folds which tend to erase each other (ie. as you fold one the other unfolds and vice versa, that is exactly the situation in upper left))

This one has a lot of straight lines, but I still love it, the upper left contains one fold that shouldn’t have been there, but it can’t be really seen from this side :))

A very artificial one, cascading round folds (extremely difficult to do well, I succeeded here, although the pic might be a bit too small to see it properly.

Totally baroque ticket. It’s getting a bit old and I am afraid it will soon fall apart. Again, it has many features that need to be seen (and touched!) irl.

An artificial experiment that turned out very well. There is an annoying straight fold between the cascades which shouldn’t have been there.

The same, a bit less artistical lightning which allows a better view of the actual ticket.

Pure round fold. If you think that those tickets are easy to fold, try this. I made this one exclusively for the photo (I fold most of tickets just for the sake of folding, therefore they are rarely suitable for photos).

This is on the other end of the scale – 100% natural. I found it in the trash one day, crumpled and abandoned. Of course I saved it, removed some folds that needed removing and improved the good ones (and added a few of my own). I very much like it. It’s not very suitable for a photo though.

Round folds, one inside another. Quite photographable.

Wrapped up in itself – prolly needs to be seen irl to appreciate.

This is a rather big ticket (some 10x12cm) from Poland. Recently I added the leftmost fold (the one which can barely be seen), not a good idea, it disrupts the lower fold (as you can see).

Testing the boundaries.

Tight round fold, a bit tricky to keep it round, these tend to sharpen.

Just some cascades.

Am I crazy? Well yes, sure.

PS: Hello WordPress, could you fucking stop touching my html? Many thanks. >:-|

UPDATE: The photos are now clickable (use the middle mouse button in firefox to open in new tab).

I finished watching Neon Genesis Evangelion just yesterday.

I consider mecha genre childish, dull and stupid. No sane person can find a giant humanoid-looking robot suitable for fighting a war.

The way in which computers are “hacked” in Evangelion, is also rather weird. The defenders can see the progress the attacker is making in real time and in great detail (graphical representation). On the other hand, stopping the attacker is very difficult even when you know what exactly he is doing. This is like completely the opposite of how the real world works.

All in all, Evangelion is not a single bit realistic.

On the other hand – so much for the negatives.

The main characters are introduced gradually, so you are not overwhelmed. They all have dozens of psychological issues, which show in different ways (the director suffered from clinical depression, which makes it quite authentic). The story gradually shifts from action (I don’t really enjoy that much) to psychological, but still I think it’s a good idea to watch from the beginning, because otherwise you’ll be completely lost (well, in fact, you will be lost anyway…).

There are two alternate endings. I liked the original one, maybe because the end was quite optimistic although it didn’t really explain anything. The alternate ending (called The End of Evangelion) was created a year later, because the fans didn’t like the original ending. It is longer and explains much more of the details. The last scene left me puzzled though. Yes, I know that the famous last sentence “kimochi warui” is a bit unclear, but that’s probably intentional. What left me more puzzled is the scene before – this might be a bit of a spoiler – I don’t get the strangling. Why did it happen? It leaves me with a very uneasy feeling.

If you do have a clue, please leave a comment. ;-)

Empty Triangle is a great go comics by chidori.

My personal favorites are number 4 (I love it), 6 (how very true), 7 (touching), 8 (love the facial expression), 10 (hey, it’s actually me), 14 (the art in there is just great).

In my humble opinion, Empty Triangle beats all the other go comics (and I’ve seen them all, some of them (such as Almost Sente) are actually pretty good).

By the way, I’ve been to Visegrad tournament (no link to the results, not worth it :S) and master chidori herself drew a great picture on my fan. I am very grateful to her. :)

I’ve been to Animefest the other day. It wasn’t nearly as great as the last year’s one but I still enjoyed it. Here are my impressions:

Otaku no Video – parody of otaku (fanatic manga/anime fans), quite funny. I’ve already seen something similar and find it a bit surprising (in a good way) that these are popular.
Cosplay competition – people dress up as anime characters, some of them were really good.

Claymore – set in medieval times, half-demons fight against demons. Although this description might sound lame, I think it was very nicely done and there were some touching moments too.

Seirei no Moribito was probably my favorite one this year. It’s a fantasy adventure about a prince who is protected by a female warrior against bad guys who want to kill him (in fact these bad guys are not evil, they think they will help him by killing him – it’s complicated). I really liked the graphics and the overall atmosphere.

Kyo no Go no Ni – a school comedy. I bet that you can figure the rest out by yourself. :-)