November

On holidays part two - Cambodia

2012-01-17T08:22:00.003+01:00

The real reason we went to Cambodia was - quite obviously - Angkor Wat. The whole complex consists of countless temples. Beautiful. But there I observed the same mechanism I noticed when I was in Petra in Jordan. Namely - sensory overload. First temple you see is awesome, second great, third is nice, fourth is OK, fifth is also OK, and then by sixth you start asking where's the beer? So I guess this is why the program is designed to rush the visitors through the most monumental of them. And I can't get rid of the feeling there are somewhere nearby hidden in the jungle some gems I am missing... With less tourists and more of Indiana Jones experience. Do not get me wrong - this is amazing place. Just too much in too short time.

What I found striking was the emptiness of the halls and chambers and courts and alcoves and rooms and... everything. So what you get today is just a pile of stones. Beautifully designed with awesome carvings and all, but empty inside. And the contrast between the richness of all those reliefs with the empty halls makes you wonder how much stuff must have been stolen from here and how rich this place must've been at its prime...

Personally I find the Ta Prohm temple the most amazing. I imagine it must've been amazing to see something like this while struggling to walk through the jungle. Again - a real Indiana Jones moment. Unfortunately whole Angkor Wat complex is a very important source of revenue for Cambodians so the whole thing is prepared to accommodate old German ladies with walking sticks (if you catch my drift ;-). So no - no creeping through the jungle with machete in one hand and rifle (the tigers!) in the other... The place feels ancient. I know Petra was a good millennium older, but Ta Prohm felt like it was being consumed by jungle...

Of course you can not have Angkor Wat experience without the famed sunrise. It was really social event. We were one of the first to arrive on the scene and then the crowd slowly grew to around four - five hundred strong. Lots of Chinese, Japanese, French, Germans, Dutch, Polish, Americans, Russians and only one Kenyan ;-)

Since we were there quite early I had lots of time to play with my camera's settings (sensitivity, shutter speed, colour balance, etc). The sunrise is not an instant so I went all the way and took well over a hundred pictures...

I put more pictures here

On holidays part one - Thailand

2012-01-16T11:32:00.000+01:00

Yes, I know, I have been in Bangkok before. But it is always nice to go there. A bit hectic, but it is such a multi-layered city that you can choose to do what you want, not just what is on visible offer. You just need to know where to look ;-)

I am still in the process of uploading the pictures, but some are here:

Royal Palace

My favourite Buddha

My favourite temple - for the bells, the bells!

Once I upload all pics I will share the link ;-)

On how Dr Dre and Apple killed music, or: some thoughts after Thailand visit

2012-01-15T12:57:00.001+01:00

So first of all - why headphones?The answer is pretty simple - they are cheaper. I can buy very good headphones (note - not top-of-the-line) for about 500 US$. These will give me very, and I mean very good quality sound. And to match the same quality with speakers you need to spend over 4000 US$ on speakers alone, then you have to have proper amplifier and these are the cheaper parts of the equation. Because next thing that you need is good listening room that will not introduce standing waves, distortions, unwanted reflections and resonances. This thing called acoustic room adaptation is an art in itself. Or you can delegate this to DSP machines like TacT RCS, but some purists would argue, besides there is problem with hi-def FLACs (like those sampled at 192 kHz at 24 bits). Bottom line is - if we want to replace headphones with speakers then we're talking here about increasing the price point tenfold to achieve comparable sound quality.

Then Apple came along and with their ipod and white in-ear headphones made using headphones fashionable. And suddenly hardware manufactures realized people want headphones and the market was flooded with headphones. Mostly very crappy. If you listen to 128 kbps MP3s you will not benefit from 500 UD$ Sennheisers HD650 because you are listening to signal already distorted before it even reaches your Bose (or whatever you'd be using).

And then some people realized that most of headphones on the market are crappy and the marker was saturated with awesome products like Beyerdynamics T1, Sennheiser HD800 or Denons 5000, HiFiMans, etc...

And we had funny situation - there were headphones available for 12 US$ which were not worth their 12 US$ and there were headphones priced at 1000+ US$ worth every penny if - and only if - you were able to utilize their potential (read again: no 128 kbps MP3s ;-).

And then poor Dr Dre realized he's lost it when it comes to creating music, so to make some dough for his new Lamborghini or pink R'Royce he branded his line of headphones - the Beats. Unfortunately most of them deliver just... amazingly poor quality of music. I know it's hype, especially here - in Kenya - to be black and walk around the 'hood with new Nike Jordans and Dre's Beats (and preferably in tight gay'ish yellow t'shirt). But the Beats, apart from the name, design and show-off price tag, have nothing to offer when it comes to sound quality. All of them are just very, very badly designed. Beats Solo (and Solo HD) are probably the worst sounding headphones you can buy for over 100 US$. Or - perhaps the other way around - anything you buy for 100 US$ or more is almost guaranteed to sound better (I know Beats Solo HD are listed for 200 bucks, so what?). All of them Beats are this bad or worse, except... the very first ones - the Beats Studio. Somehow the original Beats are... actually pretty good headphones. For its price. They are distinguishably better than many other headphones at this price point.

So how does Thailand come in? Well, if you walk around Khaosan or Phatpong in Bangkok you will notice some dudes selling Dre's Beats. Starting price point is 3000 Baht (roughly 100 US$), but if you push them a bit they will go down to 700 Baht (yup, about 22 green ones). Of course these are very low quality copies.

And then you will notice a lot of white dudes with long dreds walking around in flipflops and wearing the very poor quality copy of Beats Studio feeling dope for they think they are in the know...

Travelling is fun ;-)

Pmasz & Co.

2011-12-25T20:48:00.000+01:00

So Piotr visited me here in Nairobi. We went to Hell's Gate and Magadi. A couple of pictures...

More pics here.

On unavoidability

2011-12-05T07:34:00.001+01:00

In the live of every man there comes this moment that you can not postpone certain things any further.Yesterday was mine.

I have this katana. It is a good, healthy blade. Heavy. But it is not in this class ow weapons that you would spend 1500 US$ just to have it sent to Japan to have it professionally polished (read: sharpened). So yesterday I took my sharpening stone and retouched the edge.

Now batto-ho is scary again...

On Google Music

2011-11-25T14:12:00.001+01:00

I used Tor to get relocated to US (at least as long as Google servers are concerned) to initialize Google Music. And there... A bummer! 320 kbps MP3 only. Seriously? No FLAC? Sheesh... Was hoping for a way to run away from iTunes (and its limit of not supporting FLAC) but seems Google Music gets me not any further...

On Quality

2011-11-21T14:03:00.001+01:00

So as a part of preparation for holidays in south-east Asia I decided to get International Driving Permit. And that was legen... wait for it ...dary.

I went to AA Kenya and they said it would take 15 minutes. I thought Wow, that's faster than in Poland!. So I left all of my documents with the guy and went for a walk while he was processing...

I came back after 20 minutes and it still was not ready, he's not even started. Oh well, after all T.I.A. So I went for another cruise around neighbouring shops. After 50 minutes it still was not ready for the guy was unable to print something... Yet the document was ready and I saw he made mistakes and he tried to white-out them and re-write over that. Seriously? It was Saturday so he was unable to confirm with his boss if he can re-issue another one so we agreed I'd be back on Monday...

I came around today and he had a new one re-issued (without white-outs ;-) but as he saw me he jumped to his boss and she had to issue third one for he had made more mistakes there! Seriously!?

On scary movies

2011-11-07T12:44:00.000+01:00

As my birthday was last week I allowed myself to be dragged into this whole Halloween craze. Not too much, but a bit. I went to the Web and searched for list with rankings in the mood of top 50 scary movies. Why? Just to see perhaps I have missed something. Well, I have. So I spent last 10 days watching thrillers.

And honestly? It is difficult to make a good thriller. So far I liked The Exorcist (of course ;-), The Ward was OK (though predictable), I really enjoyed Invasion of the Body Snatchers (there's something awfully fascinating in classical B&W sci-fi movies from '60s), I was disappointed with The Signs (again - too predictable), the really worst one (so far) was The Ruins. Was positively surprised by The Fire in the Sky, though this one is hardly a thriller... I also really enjoyed The Fourth Kind.

Oh yeah - I do not like gore movies, so I skipped on the Midnight Meat Train, all episodes of The Saw, Hostel, Frailty and the like. I prefer ghost / daemons / aliens... Meat is just yuck...

The funny thing is - there are 13 more movies in the pipeline... Including Omen, Rosemary's Baby, In The Mouth Of Madness and many, many others...

Boogy Boogy Boogy...

On aerial intercept

2011-10-25T14:59:00.001+02:00

So we were at Msambweni at my favourite spot, I was sitting on the beach during high tide and letting the ocean waves put some sand in my ears when a shadow passed over me. And I saw this huge bird circling above, making passes at something farther down the beach. So I grabbed my 70-200 and tried to shoot it...

Beautiful...

But then this majestic bird seem to have upset a hawk who regarded this as his territory... And the hawk tried to chase it away...

Well, perhaps one fighter jet could've chased this bomber away, but why take chances? Local ground control actually sent two interceptors to protect their territory.

And eventually the invader has been caught up with and forced to abandon his mission:

Fighter kept patrolling for another half an hour...

You can see the pics in bigger sizes here.

On age

2011-10-15T02:33:00.002+02:00

When your PESEL number starts with 72 you know you are pretty old. Another hint is - I wanted to write here something sharp, interesting and inspiring. And I forgot what that was...

On teasing one's ego....

2011-10-13T12:46:00.000+02:00

Why? Because there's my name next to Piotr's. Of course this only works if you do not know the facts and are somehow led to believe I am any good...

And just BTW - there is no such thing as ego... it's all smoke and mirrors illusion ;-)

On evolutionary learning

2011-10-12T14:18:00.000+02:00

It all started in around 2003 when I started to learn snowboarding.

See, ever since I passed the age of 12 I have always been afraid of winter sports for they seemed so injury-prone. I have had this vision of a small skiing accident where left ski goes too much to the left while the other one goes too much to the right... You make one small, stupid mistake and you end up with twisted out knees and not attending Aikido classes for at least three months. But then Beata convinced me to try snowboarding. It looked more safe, at least it seemed difficult to fuck your knees up... At this stage my Aikido was at the point that I was confident to fall anywhere on anything so I tried snowboarding and loved it ever since. As I was making my first steps Beata was already advanced enough to show me good and bad snowboarding. And we both embarked on journey for perfection. For beautiful half-circles in the snow, straight back, chest forward, not exposing your butt and for gentle skimming the snow with the tips of your left glove... I spent serious amount of time and conscious effort to polish my technique and eradicate obvious errors. We were lucky enough to meet some good teachers who gave some tips and gave us something to work with... And then there was just practice, practice, re-assessment and again practice and practice and practice... Very, very Zen

And then it hit me. I grew this idea that given enough amount of time and proper mental attitude your body will naturally find the proper, correct way of snowboarding. The assumption here is that if you learn proper technique you will not only gain total control of the snowboard (and thus - yourself), but also the flow will be effortless. So if you loose control due to something in a bad style - you will remember - do not go there. If you get in tight corner and you do not loose control because you were doing things right - you will remember - that's the way to do it. Of course our bodies are lazy - if you find more efficient way of snowboarding - with time you will have tested if while relaxed you still have control of your board... So given sufficient amount of time and exercise (and I mean - mathematically sufficient) you will learn the proper technique even without the teacher.

Admittedly having a good teacher is a great shortcut - you do not have to re-invent the wheel, you are shown the proper way right from the beginning. Just try to copy ;-)

I guess the question is - how much longer would it be without the teacher?

And what about Aikido?

Only thing I miss in Kenya...

2011-10-12T09:15:00.002+02:00

Apart, of course, from good aikido teacher....

On why I want Nikon D800

2011-10-10T08:36:00.001+02:00

Why? No, not the gazillion megapixels. There is one simple reason - according to all rumors circulating the Web it - supposedly - will have 100% viewfinder coverage. Can't wait...

Left elbow down

2011-10-04T07:52:00.001+02:00

Well, I guess if you play with fire you get burned. Yesterday at Aikido class I broke left elbow...

Second take on Mt. Kenya

2011-09-12T15:59:00.000+02:00

This was my second attempt at Mount Kenya. This time women were left behind and there were only four of us, guys.We took Chogoria route. We did not find anyone at KWS station at the mountain foot so we just drove in. The route took us through equatorial jungle, later becoming bamboo forest.

On our way to park gate we met some guys in old Land Rovers (like seriously Out Of Africa old) going down and these guys told us there was no way we'd make it to the gate in our car. We just laughed at them and Bartek even said Whatcha mean we won't make it? Of course we will! I will have a sandwich while we do. Admittedly we got stuck like four times in the mud, but I have seen enough Camel Trophy documentaries to know what to do. We cut some bamboo, dug some mud from under the tires and we stuffed the bamboo there.

Thus we got out of mud and ploughed on uphill, soon reaching Park Gate at altitude 2950 m, as you can see here:

From there another seven clicks - no mud there, just some creeks:

and kinda uneven road:

and we reached Road Head at altitude 3300 m. Here we camped, drank and sang next to camp fire (we brought our own wood and charcoal ;-)

And all of us slept in my trusted tent: Bartek on the left, then his dad - Piotr, then my bag and Father Arek on far right

Next morning I had a moment catching spider webs lit by morning sunlight from underneath.

Oh well... We all have our idiosyncrasies, don't we? Soon we packed our stuff and moved up towards Mintos Hut.

Mintos Hut (altitude 4290 m) was actually a shed made of metal sheets, kinda windy and cold. I was kinda tired so I excused myself from the rest of the evening.

I could not sleep much this night. I would think this was the altitude - when I tried to sleep I would try to breathe through my nose, and there would be not enough oxygen, so I'd wake up suffocating, only to recover by breathing through my mouth. Then I'd try to sleep again but I'd wake up from the same sensation. Funny. We got up at 01:00 and set off to reach Lenana Point. Here just before setting off:

It was kinda funny to walk - practically on Equator - in the night in sub-zero temperature only with headlamps... We reached Lenana Point (altitude 4985 m) just before sunrise:

The scenery was beautiful:

Here's the view for second highest point in Africa - Batian (altitude 5199 m)

As it was freezing cold (no, not the temperature but the wind chill factor) we did not dwell too long at the peak - just a few photos and we were off. We reached the hut at 0930, greeted by some Hyraxes.

We reached the car at 1345 and set off back home. Unfortunately while we were climbing up it has been raining down here and the mud we experienced on our way up got even more tricky. We got stuck once but I requested for a try and managed to pull the car out of the mud. The second time we got stuck we hanged on the floorplate in the middle of the jungle, only some 6-7 km down from the park gate. It was about 1500 hours.

At 1700 we decided this is beyond our ken. Of course - no cell coverage ;-) So we send our people to get some assistance. While Piotr and Bartek were walking 17 km downhill in all this mud, Arek and I still tried to move the car. We dug the hole from behind to free the rear axle, then from front to free front axle, then from the side to remove the mud from underneath the car. But the thing would not move. So I lifted the car on a jack by some 20 cm, put some tree branches under the wheels, then let the car down... I gained like 5 cm, but there still was not enough weight on the wheels - the car would not move. At about 2000 hours it started raining again and we gave up. At 2210 Piotr and Bartek came with the rescue - there are a bunch of guys who make their living by helping cars out of the mud on this very road... The moment Piotr and Bartek got into the car they just passed out ;-) The mud rescue team tried (in pouring rain) for two and a half hour, but at about 1230 they gave up. This was beyond their ken as well... They promised to come back at sunrise and disappeared into rain... We slept in the car. Not very comfortable...I woke up at about 0700. No rescue in sight... You know - T.I.A. - these guys might as well have given up on us. Uncertainty was the worst - you just do not know if you are being rescued or not...

They arrived at about 1200, altogether 12 people, some rescue guys, some priests and a lovely Polish nun who brought hot chocolate and clean towels and ham sandwiches... Call for help worked - 10 people just pushed the car out of the mud as if it was a toy... We've been stuck there for 22 and a half hours. Soon we reached the lower gate near KWS station:

I have never been so dirty in my life. I did not sleep properly since Wednesday (I managed to hit myself on my ear with a jo on Wednesday Aikido class to the point that I bled and I could not sleep Thursday night), I did not eat properly, I got running tummy from drinking water from stream up there (and later pooed all over the mountain). I was exhausted, dehydrated, sleepy but very, very happy.

And I will never eat Mars bar again. Ever

More pictures here

On wisdom...

2011-08-25T08:25:00.002+02:00

Years (literally) after TKC told me that ai-hanmi is omote and gyaku-hanmi is ura I slowly begin to understand what he meant... It's amazing how certain things need to grow and mature inside you for you to be able to comprehend them... Or - if you prefer - how you need to grow up and mature to comprehend certain things you already have ;-)

On chicks and aliens - edited

2011-08-23T13:54:00.000+02:00

I go to the bar and there are loads of beautiful women here in Kenya, and most of them - sadly - chasing after white dude. It feels a bit like being a rock & roll celebrity... Of course all of this is fake, but it still is there nonetheless, all of it right at your face. And they can be very persisting. Unfortunately sometimes it gets to the point that unless you tell her in the face to fuck off they will not let go. And I do not like being this rude...

So I am sitting at the bar sipping on Corona and thinking of the good old times in Mexico when this really beautiful girl takes a place next to me and tries to strike a conversation. Agenda is obvious - to get the white guy. But after very few words I realize that - as getting laid would be easy - getting to actually talk would not. Even though she did actually try. These people, especially those who were brought up outside Nairobi (or Mombasa) have such a different view of the world that makes any conversation impossible. It's not just that they do listen to different music and do not know who Pink Floyd or Franz Kafka were. Apart from biological similarities some of them are as alien as dolphins. Apart from drive for sex there is no common point. Their culture, education (if any), tradition, language, set of values... it is so different from ours that it actually put you in a very weird spot. I looked at this beautiful girl and thought that she being there at the hand reach and so willing... this made me feel so alien... All I wanted was to talk. But talk is not possible. Understanding is not possible. Sex? Sure, that has no value here (unlike for our culture). Money? Sure, people were forced to learn. But talk? Discussion? Exchange of thoughts? Forget it...So again - quite predictably - nothing happened...

But then it struck me - if communication with our own kind is so difficult - how can we ever hope to communicate with Aliens? We can communicate on this very superficial level, but can we hope to ever understand them?

And also - the same I guess applies to Arabs, Chinese, Indians, all of those who were not heavily exposed to Western culture. It is a cliche, but unless you experience it yourself you will never understand how deep and dramatic this divide is. And all these cultures co-exist here in Kenya parallel to each other, meet on very superficial level but do not mix, do not exchange thought, values, ideas...

And then we - Europeans - are surprised the Turkish live in Germany in their enclaves... Of course they do. Same shit, different place...

Longonot: take six

2011-08-22T11:03:00.001+02:00

I have been to this mountain / crater already several times, but it is always nice to re-visit this place.

And yes, I am wearing Cebe Supermarks ;-)

Dangerous skies

2011-08-18T15:46:00.000+02:00

So we sit today at the canteen enjoying (not so good) lunch. Table just next to us was deserted, but plates were left there with some leftovers. And as we eat - a huge (and I mean - huge) eagle swooshes by and picks up some of them leftovers.And this reminds me of a time I was in Mamba Village and had food there and I walk with my plate from the bar to hide from the sun under garden umbrellas when another of those big ones flies by and rips food off my plate. Not at empty table, but from a plate I was holding in my hand. Then I looked around and I saw that natives were shielding their food with another plate or just with their elbows so that the big birds can see they can't fit in there...But that was close to National Park. Today we were in the city centre and still your food was not safe. Today one dude brought his plate to the table outside and then went back to collect cutlery. As he was gone the bird flew in and picked up a piece of meat and flew away without stopping. One smooth swooosh of giant wings - said birds were at least 1.2 meters wingspan. We were there perhaps 20 minutes and this monster flew by at least 8 - 10 times...And this reminds me the other day I was doing iaido on my roof and was attacked on the back of my head by one of them monsters... Just a pass by - it flew away before I realized what was going on... Good for him, I had already my katana in my hand...And now seriously - where else are you forced to fight your your food (which already is on your plate) with eagles? How cool is that...

no title...

2011-08-16T06:48:00.003+02:00

On Japanese swords and guitars

2011-08-07T00:25:00.001+02:00

So after a lot of dreaming and bitching and moaning I finally got my first wah-wah. This one:

Thanks, Rado ;-)

And this is where the work begins... It's just like iaido. In playing guitar you first have to coordinate fingers on fretboard with fingers strumming the strings. But when you add wah-wah then you have to add coordination of your foot. You want the wah to be in right position when you touch the strings, open (or close) it as soon as you play the sound and you want to return wah to starting position before you string another chord. First strings then wah... Strings then wah... and so on.

In iaido it's first step then cut. Not: cut while stepping, not: cut before step... First step then cut. Step then cut...

Same shit ;-)

On classical music vs. Karajan

2011-08-03T08:51:00.001+02:00

I like HvK, I might have stated it far too often. It all started with Karajan Gold collection by - of course - Deutsche Grammophon. One of the series is Mozart's Requiem, this very one:

Very, very, very nice performance. For many years I thought Karajan Gold issue was the pinnacle of what can be achieved with Mozart's Requiem. Now, last year DG issued 55 CD album commemorating their 111th anniversary:

I have access to this material (do not ask). 7th CD is Mozart's Requiem, this one under Karl Böhm with WPO, recorded in 1971. Of course Böhm is different from Karajan, but it is so different... So the question is - do I enjoy Böhm so much because he is not Karajan (like as if I have had too much of him?) or because his performance and interpretation is superior? So I went back to Karajan Gold CD and... find Karajan superior ;-) More smooth and sleek, more consistent, music and singing somehow complement each other better, closer...

But the conclusion is - sometimes it's good to drift away from the best (in whatever field) just to be able to appreciate it more. Like we have here this Chilean Merlot - Ventisquero, which is - so far - the best wine you can buy in Kenya. But once in a while we get something else just to reconfirm the validity of our choice, then we can happily stick to it for another month or so...

Now, extrapolating this line of thought - does it mean I should have sex with someone else than my wife only to be able to appreciate her more? ROTFL

On revisiting old statements

2011-08-01T08:00:00.001+02:00

My D-SLR history was like this Nikon D70, then Nikon D200 and then Nikon D700. I was really, and I mean really happy with D200. This was the best camera I ever had, it had perfect balance of pro functions with acceptable price point and pictures were silky butter smooth...

I think that in photography (but not only) people tend to compensate for not having time for it by buying newer, more expensive equipment. I also wanted to take better pictures but had no time to play with my camera, lenses, filters... So I bought better body (read - more expensive) even though the previous one was just perfect. Of course my photographic skills have not improved but for some time I quenched my thirst for new toys ;-)

When Nikon announced D700 it initially looked like natural evolutionary step forward from D200. Yet there were some things I did not like about it, I think I wrote on that like 2 - 3 years ago... One of those functions I dismissed as unnecessary gimmick was LiveView. I seriously thought I would never use this function. The same is ability for movie making - if I want to make a movie I will buy a movie camera - for me D-SLR is for taking still pictures. The other day a friend asked me if he can use my camera for some MPEG encoding tests (don't even ask) and I realized I didn't know how to make a movie with my D700! BTW - I still do not know...

Yet yesterday we were camping at Naivasha lake and I dug out Hoya R72 infrared filter and I put it on AF 50mm f/1.4 and tried to take some pictures... I set exposure compensation to +2.0 EV and snapped some test pics... The filter is so dark that even in full equatorial sun I could see nothing in viewfinder. The way forward is to set the camera on tripod, compose pic, find focus points, etc. and then put on filter and then snap pre-composed picture. But I had left my tripod back in Nairobi... That left me snapping frantically random pictures without any idea of what the outcome would be... Pure example of hip shooting ;-) Then, after a while I played with menus and knobs and so on until I reached dreaded LiveView function... And the camera translated picture with +2.0 EV and showed it to me on the screen! I could aim again! Not through optical viewfinder, but though camera rear screen. It was difficult in full sun - you do not get to see much, but with shading the screen with your hand you do get the idea of what image composition is and so on... So I take all my bitching about LiveView back - if you shoot IR - it does come handy... Some samples below.

P.S. I know I should've swapped red and blue channels in Photoshop, but it just choose to crash yesterday evening...

Old one...

2011-07-27T08:41:00.000+02:00

Was testing new Microsoft RAW codecs and their NEF performance when I stumbled upon this one... Taken in Mombasa during last Xmass... Guess this was when we got drunk and collected a backpack full of crabs that Pmasz later deepfired... And yes, this is moonlight ;-)

On real and perceived value of things

2011-07-20T12:43:00.002+02:00

One of the best lessons in capital management was given to me by my dad. It was at the time when I was at the university and then in the early days of the Internet boom I read about those two students somewhere in the States who came up with this search engine they called Yahoo... So this thing was installed on PC workstation stashed somewhere under the desk in their dorm, and these guys sold it for 2M UD$. I was shocked. So I asked my dad - you know - how? And he replied with philosophical question - what determines the value of things... I tried to give him lots of smart-ass answers but his point was simple - the value of things is defined by how much someone is willing to pay for it. So even if it is just a PC with some software of it - if someone is willing to pay 2M - this is the real value of it... If you have 200 carat diamond stone but nobody wants to buy it for more than 1k US$ - what is its value?

So... there is this thing. It is a small, short cable which allows you to connect your iPad to your TV via HDMI. If you choose to go to US Apple store you will see it is seriously overpriced at 40 US$. Seriously? 40 bucks? Oh well... but I use my iPad to play music via TV speakers (I know, lame, but T.I.A.) so I decided to get one... My friend went to South Africa for a weekend and I asked him to get me one... And I was shocked that he was charged 100 US$. I refunded him the money and happily took it home only to find out the functionality with original iPad is somewhat limited... Anyway - today I was at the store that carries Apple products (looking for replacement for my dead Linksys wifi router) and overheard Apple Digital AV Adapter? Sure, 140 US$

So what is the real value of things?

Me...

2011-07-12T15:09:00.000+02:00

On Karajan

2011-07-06T14:03:00.000+02:00

I like Herbert von Karajan, I like yellow covers of Deutsche Grammophon discs. I like good quality content, well engineered and played on nice hi-fi in good, quiet environment...
Now, admittedly I never cared enough to actually read Karajan's biography, I definitely prefer to listen to his music. It's just that as an engineer I know a thing or two...
He was one of the pioneers of new medium (in early 1980' CD was a major step forward from vinyl), he also was the first one to introduce all-digital recordings, where even master copy was digital. On the other hand - Ken Ishiwata (the guy behind Marantz) said Karajan was placing the microphones too close to the instruments (in so-called near field) which introduced distortions and his recording are not as good as they could've been... But to the point.
In vast bowels of the Web I have found this...

As I said - I don't know much about his bio, but... anyone cares to explain?
I mean - on one hand Herbert fuckin' von Karajan, and on the other.... Somalia? WTF?

It reminds me a bit Robin Williams' rant on Easter: on one hand you have history of betrayal, crucifixion, death, resurrection and on the other... Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies... You clearly see the connection there, right?

On those poor losers who do not know what they are doing...

2011-06-29T13:22:00.001+02:00

This entry will be on audiophile aspirations and their dramatic failures.

You can not rip SACD layer of SACD disk. Let me repeat - you can not. Again? You can not.

You go to some content search engine and you search for SACD content and you get... hundreds of results. Poor buggers... I mean - it is possible to get the music out. But it is not possible to rip it. Yet there are torrents which claim the content is 24/96 SACD rip. It is not.

Admittedly - it is possible to do it like that:
SACD disc > SACD player > analog out > A/D converter > PC with digital input
Here we have ADC and then DAC - quantisation errors, jitter, all hell breaks loose...

Or another interesting option:
SACD disc > Oppo SACD player with internal DSD-to-PCM conversion > digital PCM out > PC with digital input
Here we do not have direct rip but DSD converted to PCM. It is - AFAIR - limited to 96kHz, and this requires mentioned specially modified SACD player...

But it is not possible to rip SACD in such way that you get a file with DSD stream. You can not copy SACD layer content on your hard disk. So all those poor buggers trying to upload SACD rips... They copied CDDA layer of SACD disc... This you can rip beautifully. At 16/44 only...

Awesome...

2011-06-27T13:41:00.000+02:00

Have you seen this?

Rant on some movies and cheese

2011-06-24T08:24:00.002+02:00

So yesterday we tried to watch this:

Really, really tried. I got full-HD version, dimmed the lights, some Tusker Malts, beautiful girl by my side... Nope. Didn't work. The movie sounds like it either a disaster or a success - zombies, vampires, Nazis, swords, lesbians... Well, I gave up after like 40 minutes. I really tried... Now - do not make my mistake - AVOID IT AT ALL COST!

Then we tried to save the evening and switched to this:

It was my take two at this movie, this time in full-HD. Alison liked it. For me - watchable, nice entertainment, very eye-candy... Sexy babes, yet no nudity (boooo!!!). Anyway - evening saved ;-)

BTW - we watched also this recently:

Not as bad as I was afraid it'd be, actually quite good. Alison liked it (without having read the book). Two comments here...

Primo - I like the direction Matt Damon is going with his choice of roles. BTW - have you seen this song by Sarah Silverman:

If you find link to unedited version - please share. And also since we touched the touchy subject of Sarah - there is another one...

And this is the best cheese you can get here in Kenya...

Secundo - I think it takes great visionary who has very strong position in Hollywood (like Ridley Scott or Stanley Kubrick ;-) to fully utilize potential of Philip K. Dick stories and create something as spectacular as Blade Runner. Someone who has his vision and does not give crap about anything else. Do not get me wrong - Adjustment Bureau is a good movie, but not ground breaking. Just good entertainment. I think the problem with Dick's stories is - there are so fucking twisted that mianstream Hollywood target audience (free, brave and dumb Americans) will not understand them. This is why we are not likely to ever see anything as spectacular as mentioned Blade Runner... And continuing this thread - there are following movies based on PKD stories: Total Recall, Blade Runner, Screamers, Impostor, Paycheck, Minority Report, Next, Scanner Darkly, Adjustment Bureau. I do not think I missed anything important, have I?

Why?

2011-06-22T10:13:00.004+02:00

Why is it called the Land of the Brave and Free and not the Land of... Well, you decide...

On Facebook, blogging and Zbigniew Wodecki

2011-06-05T12:05:00.002+02:00

Some friends of mine moved out of blogging into Facebook status updates. Supposedly its easier and faster. But - you might know or not - but Facebook is the evil empire now and has been like that for some time now. So I happily deleted my FB account over a year ago and I never had any regrets.

So back to blogging... Ideally - me think - I should be such an inspiring and interesting person that I should have something to say every day. But - unfortunately - I am not that much hype. My life is simple - daily dose of sex, drugs, rock'n'roll, pain, food, work and Aikido... So - unlike some others I know - I try to avoid spamming others with irrelevant and boring updates (likes of OMG, I pooed and feel great now or I just bought a new LV shoes)... So I blog only when something has actually happened.

So, trying to avoid Zbigniew Wodecki look (the transition phase of growing long hair) - how - do you think - does that work for me?

On this damn hair...

2011-05-26T15:39:00.000+02:00

So the growing process continues... Now my hair is too long for some non-destructive chemical warfare agent to keep them in acceptable pattern... At the same time it's still a tad too short for hairband... So now I just walk around office looking like Zbigniew Wodecki in his prime ;-)

Just a little longer, hang in there, man...

On inevitability...

2011-05-24T09:19:00.000+02:00

On putting your fingers between the door...

2011-05-23T11:07:00.000+02:00

Heh, that's a good one...

Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has put me on the list of their resources available to all Japanese embassies in Central Africa countries as an Aikido teacher. So now I can get a call anytime from any Japanese Embassy and be asked to go and demonstrate...

Never thought my Aikido would become official like that.

On music recommendation

2011-05-15T17:59:00.000+02:00

If you are into weird music like Aube or Ellen Fullman or - even a bit into EN then I can recommend Jon Iverson's Alternasia. Good production quality, inspired by Indonesian folk music. Best part? Jon offers free high quality download (FLAC, of course) on his page for free.

On Chinese nuclear weapons program

2011-05-06T09:34:00.001+02:00

First read some theory here (Wikipedia link). Then, armed with new (or not so new ;-) knowledge, go to this article.
What is interesting is not only the rare view into Chinese nuclear weapons program but also question of why they allowed for program's disclosure?

On Buddhism

2011-05-05T14:27:00.000+02:00

I just finished listening to audiobook History Of Western Philosophy written by Bertrand Russel. It was kinda long...

And I found it very interesting how inferior (at least logically, which can be easily judged) all of these trends are compared to Buddhism. And even philosophers exposed to Buddhism (Schopenhauer, Nietche, Hegel, etc) seem to totally misunderstand it. I know it's not an easy matter, but c'mon, these guys were supposed to be the brightest minds of their time. So where does this problem arise from? Lack of teacher? Lack of practice?

On the Way

2011-04-29T03:11:00.000+02:00

Have just watched this. Well, good entertainment. Having been disappointed by Skyline and (a bit) by Sucker Punch - this was nice change, perhaps due to lack of expectations?

On Apple's quality... or rather on HTC quality... yeah, whatever

2011-04-20T20:26:00.001+02:00

So I have been usin Apple iPad for over 8 months now. As I am here in remote corner of middle of nowhere in central Africa I have been using my iPad as primary music listening device. And soem time ago I started using my Nexus One (gingerbread ;-) as in-car audio source...
But lets stick to chronology.

Shock one
My kick-ass Denone headphones broke (literally - into pieces) about a month ago. So I had to go back to my old crapy Sony in-ear 'phones. And I was shocked how crappy my Denons were. These cheap Sony offer much more clarity, presence and stage...

Shock two
I got this Android app that automatically starts playing music as soon as you plug something into jack. Cool, especially if I use this funny cable to connect to my car stereo. So I started using iPad for real music listening and Nexus1 for car. But I had to select my music (only 8GB uSD). So I played some music on N1 in good conditions (home, quiet evening) and I was fucking shocked how good the audio quality was. I was using mp3 files with Android port of Winamp. And my jaw dropped. So I went back to iPad and listened to the very same file... Quality-wise Nexus One beats Apple iPad flat down. OK, I admit - I dunno if it is iPad that sucks so much or if it is Nexus One that is exceptionally good.

Next thing I want to do is to listen to some FLACs on both and compare...

Heh, I knew not to buy iPad2 ;-)

On graceful beauty

2011-04-20T09:56:00.003+02:00

My dream is, of course, to do it off C130 in the night with fins on... Of course. But still - it is beautiful even during the day...

On being a vegetarian

2011-04-19T09:25:00.001+02:00

For all of you out there who think beef or pork instead of cow and pig...

On data security

2011-04-13T09:58:00.000+02:00

Please read this. Get it? Let me repeat again:
care in choosing secure passwords and applying encryption techniques to avoid leaving file fragments that could aid code breakers are more important in maintaining security than the algorithm a code maker chooses

On aliens... again

2011-04-11T08:16:00.000+02:00

So I had to wash my hakamas. I try to avoid doing it as much as possible, but once in a while you just have to do it. And yesterday I decided I can't postpone it any longer... So I was ironing these two blue hakamas (I did the black one like a week ago) listening to old David Bowie album... And there was this song there titled Starman where Bowie sang that he (the Starman) is out there willing to meet us and party with us, he's just afraid he's freak us out...

Now, looking into Bowie's performance in The Man Who Fell To Earth this is interesting line for him to sing... But I digress.

For I believe Stephen Hawking is right - we should shut our mouths and sit quiet here until we invent super-duper defence weapon systems far beyond what Death Star was capable of. Because you never know... And the stakes are a bit too high to take chances.

On course - you have to make up your own mind...

2011-04-09T09:54:00.000+02:00

Read FBI report here.
Honestly? This still means nothing. Just a report, not a confirmation. But sometimes output of 2+2 gives even number. Sometimes...

Awesomeness in a nutshell...

2011-04-05T08:07:00.000+02:00

Or - if you prefer - why did it take so long? Anyway - take a look at this.

Some pending reviews

2011-04-05T07:54:00.000+02:00

I guess if you are hard core fan of Japanese cinema, especially of samurai movies you will need no special encouragement to go and see 13 assassins. This film is nice. Not mind-blowing, there are several less-than-subtle parallels to - among others - 7 samurai, but it's very passable. Nice play of actors, acceptable plot, etc. The only complaint I have is that half of the movie is slowly unwinding the action and the second half is action only. This makes first part a bit dull and then you are hit with this bloodshed in the second part. Director tried too much to be Hollywood-like and missed the suspense and drama of Harakiri or Samurai Rebellion. Sword fighting without major hick-ups and faults. You even get to see Innyo-shintai being practiced ;-) Generally I recommend it.

Second one is a tougher nut to crack. I am talking here Sucker Punch. Saw it yesterday and still can't make heads or tails out of it. I mean - on basic level there you get sexy chicks with swords, guns and assault rifles shredding samurai, dragons and zombies. On the other hand you get insane asylum turned into whorehouse (funny enough - no nudity there, even though chicks are hot and plot allowed to spice it up a bit). But at the end... you are left with nothing. I really dunno what director wanted to tell. Is there a second bottom? Am I missing something? Recommended for eye candy, especially if you like pale girl with crimson-coloured lips and hay-coloured hair in various impossible combat situation. Please feel free to explain to me what this is all about. This movie has been bashed over the Internet enough, but I think it's worth to see just to make your own opinion and put it here, on this very humble blog...

On situation in Poland

2011-04-04T08:05:00.000+02:00

Being detached in remote corner of Africa I only can know what is happening in Poland from Internet. So I read the news and think to myself - what the fuck are you doing there guys? Does Poland really have to be this country with mindset of someone brought here directly from middle ages? Why can't someone just kill the brotherfucker and lets move on. Damn, it's scary to see what is happening there...

New music warning

2011-03-31T12:40:00.000+02:00

Went through new album by PJ Harvey

Sorry to report this is not the same level of musical experience she got me used to coming from her. I can tell the workshop is awesome, quality-wise its very nice. But musically... disappointment. Just to make sure I listened to it for a couple of days, had it on like 7-8 times. With breaks. You know - sometimes music needs to grow on you... Sorry, not this time. Which is kind of funny, for all her previous albums just rock, including White Chalk. Oh well, maybe she lost it...

There Be Dragons...

2011-03-30T07:58:00.000+02:00

One day I am starting grill to destroy some fish and I see some doodoo on the wall. Small, high up there... I almost ignored it, we get to see some strange insects every day here... But there was something odd about its shape that inspired me to take a closer look. And then I shouted Alison, Alison, we have a baby dragon!
She came from kitchen and gave the look you usually give to very damaged people... I pointed at the thingie, Alison climbed the table to take a closer look... OMG, it does look like baby dragon...
I had the wrong lens on the camera so picture does not do it justice...

On Chopin

2011-03-29T13:16:00.000+02:00

See, I grew up in country that - at the time that I was growing up - had almost nothing to boast about (at least not legally). And one of those few things people were allowed to enjoy was Chopin's music. And it was everywhere - radio, TV, newspapers, tuna sandwiches - everywhere... OK, in those days few knew what tuna tastes like ;-) And canned tuna has exactly nothing to do with the taste of tuna, no matter what your cats tell you.

But to the point - since Chopin was everywhere, I kinda was growing up unwittingly being exposed to it. Constantly. Perhaps this is the reason why after I started shaping my music taste I - sort of - neglected his works. I have well over a hundred of classical music albums bunkered somewhere in a safe place and only two of those are Chopin music.

Now, in remote corner of Africa I am cut off from all means of legally enjoying anything. Well, except wine, free sex, Cuban cigars, marihuana (if you are into such things), food, etc. But anything we (Europeans) would call culture is non existent here. There virtually is no theatre (just cheap, stupid and not-so funny comedies for the crowds), very few concerts of classical music, many concerts of jazz and r&b (but all African-flavoured - not digestible for anyone who has any kind of taste), no good movies (by good I mean something outside the stream of crap coming out of Hollywood), there is nothing here! So what I did - I obtained a lot of this music that I grew up listening to. I was just a kid then when my father exposed me to Pink Floyd or Alan Parsons or Van Halen. So now, after I grew up (musically) and entrenched myself within several carefully selected music trends, I decided it is time to face all those artists I am haunted by in my childhood dreams.

The first one to tackle is the big one - Fryderyk Chopin himself. I had high expectation, especially that I love good piano (Petrucciani, Jarrett, Możdżer). So I just finished going through Rubinstein Plays Chopin - eleven CD set.

I like it. There are some very nice pieces there. Generally it's slow, peaceful and melancholic (I'd rather avoid word boring), but several of pieces are just amazing. Make no mistake - this is eleven fucking hours of piano, all in very similar style ;-)

Next thing I will do I will go through Deutsche Grammophon Chopin Complete Edition. Yes, yellow covers rulez!

On lucky number 13 ;-)

2011-03-29T09:34:00.000+02:00

Seen this? Could be a winner... I certainly hope for a movie that finally does not disappoint (yeah, I am thinking now Battle: Los Angeles and Sucker Punch)... Trailer is here.

On Robbie Williams

2011-03-28T16:43:00.001+02:00

Whoa... Long, long time ago I watched Robin Williams on Broadway from 2002. Now I found his stand-up from 2010. Amazing, 8 years later this guy is still super-energetic. Even more energetic than before. Seriously recommended (if you're into this kind of things).

On why sometimes you have to hate Google

2011-03-28T00:33:00.000+02:00

See, most people do not know the answer to the question: what does Google make money on? Google has gazillion services (I am using many, many of them - GMail, GCal, GTalk, Picasa, Blogger, etc, etc, etc), but these services do not bring revenue. What Google makes money on is... ads.

I hate ads. One of the reason I do not watch TV and do not listen to radio is those annoying ads. Now, the dudes at Google are pros, they know their stuff. And one of the inventions straight from Pandora's Box is targeted ads. I have heard about it for quite a while but it is only now that I see it in practice... Yes, it has reached me here - in equatorial Africa...

I like canoeing. Back home (in Europe) practically every year since I joined University I would go for at least a week of canoeing... And I have been thinking of buying a canoe for last 5 years. And one of those days (like a month ago) sitting at the computer in the middle of the night I made a mistake of asking my dear friend Google about canoe producers and prices. Admittedly I got the answer I was looking for. But...

The motherfucker remembers I asked him about kayaks and canoes. And now Google tries to target at me the ads of kayaks, canoes, etc. So every page, every service which has advertising contract with Google pushes these canoe ads to my screen. Many different US canoe producers, UK kayak producers, Scandinavian sea kayak producers, various distributors, sport and camping stores, practically every Internet page I visit now has some kayaks or canoes to offer. Enough! I am sick of kayak and canoe ads. Enough! Please do not make me hate canoeing, for if it goes like this I will. Damn, it's like in the old joke - I am afraid to open tuna can...

BTW - I want this one ;-)

Dear Google - please gimme a break. Please advertise something else... like fake Rolexes, penis enlargement services, wonderbra, baby powder, Viagra, Russian wife candidates, Nigerian banks, real estate in Buenos Aires... Please, advertise anything but kayaks...

On proudly kenyan...

2011-03-21T07:04:00.000+01:00

Yeah, you might have noticed that I like bitching about this country. There is a reason for that, it's more than the grass is greener on the other side attitude.
So today I went to the music store (the only one I know here) to buy wah-wah pedal... And of course they did not have any Cry Baby, in the whole shop they had only one from some shady manufacturer. So I asked the clerk how much it was and she would slowly stroll around the shop to find out the price from someone else... after the 20 minutes I just got tired of waiting and left without getting to know the price.
This reminds a bit of '80s in Poland when you go to the post office and the lady behind the desk says Don't you see I am having my coffee now? How rude of you to request some service when you can see I am busy...
Unfortunately here this attitude is everywhere, this was not isolated case...

On hair

2011-03-18T12:14:00.001+01:00

Nope, not the Hair. On my hair ;-) I always wanted to be lean, mean fighting machine. And that involved either crew-cut or being bald. But then... Just out of sheer curiosity I grew my hair to shoulder-length. I think it was about 2006... A sample is here

Yup, it's me having Piotr Masztalerz at spoon point...

And just then, for some odd reason I allowed myself (admittedly - quite consciously) to be manipulated into position where I had to shave my head and waste all that effort... I have regretted it ever since. I have tried to grow it back a couple if times since then, but always unsuccessfully. You see - these transition phases are what is disturbing. Not only it looks bad (I couldn't care less), but it is annoying. Too long to try to control it with some hair gel but too short for hair pin or band...

Now I think I have a chance, even though I just got to another one of those annoying points. But I see it will be another 3 - 6 months before I am able to use hairband. Still - it's furthest on the hair quest that I ever got since 2006. Please keep your fingers crossed ;-)

On Wah-Wah

2011-03-16T12:46:00.000+01:00

I have been thinking for at least 6 months to get one of those... Now this came up.

On movie comics

2011-03-15T13:37:00.000+01:00

In case you developed liking for comic-style movies I want you to salivate in expectation of new film by Zack Snyder Sucker Punch. Click poster below for a trailer.

On Battle: Los Angeles

2011-03-15T02:59:00.003+01:00

Yup, seen it.
It is beautiful. Lots of shooting (where can I get my hands on those never-ending Hollywood mags?), helicopters, tough soldiers dying here and there, some stupid civilians who turn heroes, aliens... everything is there (except - surprisingly - boobs). And graphically it is truly awesome.

I seem to remember it has been advertised in some places as Black Hawk Down only with aliens. Well... unfortunately it is BHD with aliens. The movie suffers from being exactly like the 2001 Mogadishu flick. There are scenes just copied-pasted there. Not similar but truly copied. And this is such a shame... The idea, execution, performance of actors, all of these things are fine. But is it really impossible to make a different end? Do you have to have exactly the same scenes (like scene pictured above vs. Delta and Rangers flying into action in BHD)?

The other issue I have with B:LA is that the conflict was solved by brave Marines far too easy. Look into War of the Worlds (any of the different iterations including Independence Day)... Same stuff here. All too easy...

Do not get me wrong - it is beautiful. But it is beautiful blonde you happily make out with in a bar (next to condom dispenser), but you do not want to take her home... She's boring.

...20 minutes later

Now that you come to think of it - there have been very few really original sci-fi movies. There always are obvious... lets call them - inspirations ;-) But in B:LA these go far beyond there. Ridley Scott with his BHD did not avoid some obvious American heroes are dying pathos, but besides that his work was fresh, perhaps even standard-setting (I've kinda liked that dude since Blade Runner). Here? Same pathos, same scenes... Nothing new. Old, good, dependable, boring Hollywood pre-digested pulp. Beautifully wrapped and packaged, but... no substance inside.

But just for its visuals - worth seeing...

Signum temporis

2011-03-07T16:17:00.001+01:00

Read this.

Just in case you think grass is greener on the other side... Yes, babe, it's a war out here.

On why - sometimes - Kenya is better than Poland

2011-02-16T07:29:00.001+01:00

See for yourself internet freedom

Source is here.

Of course what this means is that these countries are too poor or illiterate or too torn internally to care or be able to control the Web. I would presume with time they will...

On Swans

2011-02-15T13:04:00.000+01:00

So in the last pursuit of some music I might have somehow missed I found several albums by Swans. I went through Filth, Greed and Holy Money. Yuck, I still have this bad aftertaste in my mouth... Amazing that the same people who did these albums also made White Light... and The Great Annihilator.

On good laugh

2011-02-10T09:29:00.000+01:00

See this. And I thought I was funny ;-)
Still the guy could use a hint or two on how to perform noto.
And do not forget to put your speakers on to hear the soundtrack...

So far this is the best 5 minutes of the day.

On breaking the rules

2011-02-04T09:12:00.001+01:00

Every once in a while I see something which is so obvious in its simplicity but has been missed just because it would require thinking outside of the box. Like this:

It is just beautiful! By reversing the limbs Horton made the crossbow smaller and balance better. Lifetime warranty! I want one!

On Google maps...

2011-02-03T07:52:00.000+01:00

Google Earth? Cool
Skymap? Check.
Moon, Mars? Dunno why, but OK...
Now this and this. WTF? I mean - why? Just because you can?

In case u missed it...

2011-02-02T09:40:00.002+01:00

On reality of things

2011-01-21T10:06:00.000+01:00

What things? Like safety of life in Nairobi.
Let's face it - I am realtively rich mzungu (read: white man) here and most of problems that affect many Kenyans do not affect me. So I live in a - sort of - bubble. I can easily convince myself that I am safe and life has no threats. But you know - 19 years of Aikido training, plus family traditions (grandpa in Polish Underground Army - AK) makes me that kind of person who trusts noone. Additionally there are these things that sometimes pierce this bubble of illusion of safety. I have written about it here and here.

And now this. I am just speechless...

On expectations

2011-01-12T08:24:00.000+01:00

Most of Philip K Dick novels are very difficult to be put into a movie. They are just too multi-dimensional, too complex and far too weird. The feeling and the mood of hes works are nearly impossible to express in the movie. Blade Runner, Impostor, and Screamers are the only titles I can remember that actually manage to transform written word into a movie without loosing too much of this thing.

Now there is Adjustment Buerau coming. Hope it will not be too flat and shallow... Trailer... trailer looks OK. I will b waiting for the final product.

On more personal note

2011-01-07T12:25:00.001+01:00

So yes, I have been in love before. but I have never experienced it with such magnitude before. Never. It could be a long story to tell but seems like it ends here. The love of my life has left me and I feel I am so sad, emotionaly drained and empty... Like never before.
But as I was driving through Nairobi with beautiful sun outside, Nick Cave's Let love in played in the car, a Montechristo cigar in my hand... And I realized life is beautiful. Why? Exactly because I am sad and hurt. Because it is possible for me to experience such things. The very fact that they can appear...
And then I remembered what the Teachers always used to say: these just ripples on the surface, and ocean runs deep below.
And a thought - perhaps I am not getting older but also wiser?

On American

2011-01-05T21:08:00.000+01:00

So there is this movie with George Clooney. I liked it. Why? Because it managed to show emptiness of life. And building mistrust against women, relationships... How desperately he needs that and how every time it gets more and more difficult...

New Year recommendations

2011-01-01T00:12:00.002+01:00

I am not big fan of paintings. At one point in my life I was being dragged through many museums and galleries and unwittingly got a sliver of education in the field. To the point that I developed my own taste. I do not like Picasso, but I like Klimt, Tamara de Lempicki and Pollock. And I have had wanted to watch the move about Pollock for a long while. I managed today. Very recommended. Not only because it stars Ed Harris (whom I like very much), but the movie is... good. Powerful. Made me wonder on how some people have the thing and this thing makes them go over and over the edge to the point of self-destruction. I do not think it's talent, rather certain sensitivity, fragility... dunno. Thank gods I am dumb and plain and do not have this thing... Still - I have met such people. Like Icarus flying too close to the Sun...

The second recommendation is newly released Radiohead concert. It's available for free as a download on the Net. Am watching it now. Amazing. I have all their CDs, but even if you are not a fan of their music I still strongly recommend you watch it. If you have big screen with big sound it will give you one magic evening...

On big business

2010-12-28T11:21:00.000+01:00

When I was with der Konzern there was this big, big scandal with bribery, executive heads rolled (read: were relocated to safe but less exposed tasks) and whole company went through moral shake-up. Not that it changed anything...

Now there is this.

I know this is how things are done in Africa, but seems like NSN problem was not an isolated case...

On fun with Polish......po polsku ;-)

2010-12-08T07:20:00.003+01:00

W czasie moich studiów na Politechnice miałem przyjemość mieć wykładowców którzy byli w stanie wychwycić różnicę pomiędzy h i ch. Nie tylko potrafili to usłyszeć, ale ich wymowa była na tyle wysublimowana, że potrafili to też wymówić. I faktycznie ich h i ch było różne.
I tak sie ostatnio zastanawiałem... Czasem jak się nażrę czekolady z orzechami (jakaś Cadbury, Ritters czy nawet polska Terravita) to mam potem w nocy problemy z dziedziny mniemanologi teoretycznej... I tak zastanawiałem się dzisiaj (w okolicy 4 nad ranem) nad różnicą pomiędzy u i ó. Tak naprawdę to pomiędzy nimi jest różnica. Ó jest takie... bardziej z dzióbkiem. Trzeba tak usta wykrzywić w dzióbek. Spróbujcie sami. Takie słowo jak kura... nie da sie powiedzieć kóra... To znaczy - powiedzieć się da, ale to brzmi inaczej niż pierwotna, ortograficznie spójna kura. Kóra to już brzmi prawie jak q-ra. Nie wiem, czy tą subtelną różnicę słyszycie... Rumianek ma u płaskie, twarde i drewniane, pióro już jest z dziubkiem - dłuższe i subtelniejsze... U jest otwarte, płaskie, plebejskie i toporne jak młotek, ó z kolei jest subtelne, szlachetne i dźwięczne niczym ostrze ze stali damasceńskiej... Nie wiem, może nie odkrywam tu Ameryki (nie chce mi sie guglać), ale po prostu uświadomiłem sobie dzisiaj że u i ó to nie tylko problem ortograficzny ale także wymowy ;-)

On aliens

2010-12-08T06:56:00.000+01:00

So we have watched this... Phew, where to start? Do not get me wrong - I really do not mind low-budget movies. But Skyline suffers from so many problems... And this is such a disappointment as this thing actually had such a potential. It starts with Greek's drama unity of action, time and place. Cool. But the script simply wastes the opportunity of human conflict of a couple of people stranded together in stressful situation. There is no play of characters there, no nothing. Bad, unconvincing acting is another story... The ending actually solves no mysteries, gives no answers and actually is no end at all... Really - this could've been really nice thing, but is just a waste of time. Not recommended.

On expectations and other stuff

2010-12-08T06:30:00.002+01:00

I have been teaching here for over a year now. Initially most of my activities revolved around Japanese Embassy, as said before - I was allowed to use venues for free. Now I am trying to switch my focus towards other facilities that have better resources (read: tatami). Yet as for today - I still am Aikido teacher in Japanese Embassy. This is why i received this:

I knew exactly what I was expecting - there would be an official tea-house sushi with soft sounds of shakuhachi and koto coming from beyond shoji screen, we'd be shouting Tenno heika banzai under Raising Sun flag, there would be Battleship Yamato lurking somewhere in the bushes and the more perceptive of guests would be able to spot ninjas hiding up in the palm trees... Beautiful Japanese women dressed in traditional kimonos would have haiku competition and at the end of the ceremony Buddhist priest would give blessings and fortune cookies to everyone.

Reality was - as it usually is - a bit different. There were many people, most from the diplomatic circles, all ambassadors and attaches and so on. There were Japanese women dressed in traditional kimonos, but in all these crowds it was difficult to spot them. I bumped into our Polish ambassador and got invited for Christmas meeting at her residence. There were Russians (hard to miss them ;-), British, Dutch, Americans, Indians, South Africans and many many others. Our Japanese hosts somehow disappeared in all these crows and - with exception of Kobayashi-san - were difficult to come by.There was short and actually not-so-bad speech from Japanese Ambassador, there was taiko presentation by ten-odd kids, there was wine, nuts, tempura and sushi, and then... I was back to the office.

On Spaceships

2010-11-29T07:10:00.000+01:00

Last week I found the web page with ranking of 100 of best spaceships in sci-fi movies ever. Of course the list sucked big time as ISD was not included. And the first place was taken by Millenium Falcon - hardly the best thing out there... But to the point.

The list was an inspiration to search for those movies I somehow missed over the years.

The first one was Outlander. Interesting, at moments spooky, logically not very inconsistent. No, not great by no means, but worth spending 90 minutes to watch it, especially if you like Vikings and all that gothic stuff.

Next was Pandorum. OK, this one got me puzzled. I still do not know if the director wanted to create a thriller, horror, mystery, action or psychological drama (with a touch of MPD). Special effects nice, size and complexity of their spaceship beaten only be Death Star, nice chick (with boobs she - sadly - does not show). Twist at the end caught me by surprise (am I loosing it?) and perhaps this is the biggest credit to the movie. Apart from that - average.

Next thing I am waiting for is Skyline, Battle LA and Iron Sky...

On wanted stuff...

2010-11-26T10:07:00.000+01:00

Yeah, I know - I want a lot of stuff. But I would also like to add to this another one of those Ibanez Hollow Bodies...

On another one in the pipeline

2010-11-19T12:56:00.002+01:00

Seen this?
Sheesh, and I didn't even have time to finish Dragon Rising...

On proper usage of your bike

2010-11-17T20:45:00.001+01:00

Watch this. That's the way to do it...

On Safaricom

2010-11-11T14:52:00.001+01:00

So this company has commissioned this commercial, which - I must admit - is not very Kenyan in quality. really nicely done. But for all of you people out there - take a look at the country I live in ;-)

On proper music systems

2010-11-11T10:12:00.001+01:00

Background
I am old... Perhaps old-ish. But I still do hear difference between CD or FLAC and MP3 (yeah, on my headphones) and I still love listening to music.

The most profound music experience I had when my dad took me to uncle Krzysiek and I first heard uncle's ~~Krell~~ correction - McIntosh. It was dark in his room, the only light were VU-meters of the amp and this funny lamp at the side of the turntable (now I know - rpm control sync). I was perhaps eight or ten and there was nothing in the room but music...

The second time was some 10 years ago. After Busza dumped me I still lived in that huge, cold apartment. Alone. And I loved to listen to a CD or two late in the night after Aikido class... The beauty of this apartment was that my bedroom was so quiet you would not believe. And then I would turn off the lights and listen to the music... And this is when I would lay hands on Beastie Boys album The in sound from way out. And I was there, in this huge, cold and dark room - alone, beaten up, tired and listening to quiet music... Pure bliss... Untill - out of the blue - I heard this funny, quiet but annoying noise. But where from? I turned down the volume and followed the sound... I could not believe it. It was the transport of my Pioneer PD-S 707.

This was - at the time - top notch Pioneer CD player with reversed platter and all bells and whistles. They do not make them like these anymore... Anyway - my point is - listening conditions were so perfect there that I could hear noise made by spinning CD!

To the point.
With modern day broadband - where for reasonable amount of money you get reasonably speedy Internet (even in Poland, but no, not in Kenya ;-) - the physical content distribution actually is dead. Not will be. Is dead. Now. Today. I know that sooner rather than later I will convert all of my 400 CDs into FLAC and move towards a solution that even does not even have a transport!

As I have advocated before - future of music system is a box that would have internal disk (preferably SSD) to store all those FLACs. Something that has real audio output which you can connect to your real amp and - subsequently - to real speakers. There are such systems available today. There are just three major problems with these...

Primo - few systems provide sound quality matching that of CD players like Denon 1510 or Yamaha 2000.

Secundo - most of them have fan. A fan! Why would you spend thousands of Euros on a stereo just to have a fan there? If I do not mind the noise I might as well buy a PC as a source.

And lastly - how do you convieniently browse through all of those hundreds of CDs? Most systems have very bad UI. I would like something like iPad app fro Sonos or Olive systems. Honestly - having been using iPad for 4 months now I see how much it can improve the whole experience.

Solution
I have pretty good idea what my dream system looks like. I wrote about it here. It has digital content player which sends digital signal to TacT amplifier and then analog signal is sent to something like B&W 803. The only missing component is the source. There is no product on the market that I am aware of which meets my criteria of functionality, ease of use (iPad app would be the best) with hifi-grade quality...

Solution? So far I still see no solution...

On Black Belts

2010-11-10T08:39:00.000+01:00

So assume for a second that you actually have honestly earned a black belt in some more or less obscure martial art. This means that teacher actually does recognize your skill / effort / dedication / persistence / money / whatever-you-want. This should be enough...

But if you need to show off your black belt to score with chicks or for whatever reason - there is this company which sells watches only to black belt holders. Nope - not very cheap. And - nope - not good looking. They have this unique quality of toys McDonald gives as a bonus to double French fries. But if you are in a tight spot and really need to boost your fragile, brittle male ego... Here's the link.

On Star Wars

2010-11-10T08:00:00.000+01:00

The Episodes 1 to 3 suck big time, but the original trilogy just rulez.
Now we have a chance to go back to those childhood memories.

First Lego did this:

Yup, a carbon-frozen Capt'n Solo.

And then someone released these blueprints...

On blackout

2010-11-08T10:27:00.001+01:00

In less than 12 hours this game will become available. I hope to obtain it before the end of the week. Then I will go under the radar until I finish it... So do not call, do not write... I will be busy shooting the bad guys ;-)

Now the game is out, I am still waiting for it to come to papa, but you can read a no-bullshit review here.

On birthday gifts

2010-11-04T16:10:00.001+01:00

I have this uncle of mine who used to say that you should not give a man for his birthday flowers for this is not manly enough. He said - give a sharpening stone, set of drills or laser level. I concur. But there is one exception...

This birthday I got a bamboo tree seedling. Awesome. Why? Because it has potential to grow to be a big tree and then you can use it as a target for tameshigiri...

On Beduins...

2010-11-01T12:40:00.002+01:00

Some years back I was lucky enough to visit Jordan and I roamed all over that the country. But what I was most impressed by was Wadi Rum desert. This just blew me away. Amazing...
So yesterday I watched Lawrence Of Arabia and there were these scenes there shot in Wadi Rum. And I was also there and I remember the silence and stillness and all the rock formations and everything. I miss that place...

From Jordan

Odejście najlepszych zawsze najbardziej boli...

2010-10-27T09:58:00.000+02:00

Odszedł mój profesor Marian Piekarski. Szkoda że nie zdążę na pogrzeb, chciałbym go pożegnać...

As geeky as it gets...

2010-10-21T16:47:00.000+02:00

If you were lucky enough to study at the University dynamic systems, chaos theory and so on, then you will understand the joke. If not... Well, there is always this book to read.
The article dealing with marriage through Math. Difficult not to appreciate...

Me like it...

2010-10-20T11:33:00.002+02:00

R2D2 at its best ;-)

Nie wstanę! Tak będę leżał!

2010-10-19T08:20:00.002+02:00

Heh, according to IMDB Polish movie Sexmisja is in best 50 SciFi movies ever. Kinky. ;-)

On principles of operating environment but also generally in life

2010-10-15T09:22:00.000+02:00

This is my Ibanez guitar

I hook it up with iPad AmpliTube application via this little adapter. Played with it and had lots of fun. But then... there is desktop AmpliTube 3 application which is so much more powerful than iPad application. So I decided to give it a try. And this is where I got shocked. Seriously

My Windows machine is Sony Vaio FW31ZJ with 4 GB of RAM and Core2Duo T9550 2.66GHz. Not top-notch turbo kung-fu machine, but still pretty decent. Runs 64-bit Windows 7, Experience Index = 5.0.

In desktop AmpliTube 3 I had like 1s delay - I would play the string (chord) and I would hear the sound over the speakers/headphones like 1 second later. Impossible to play... I did not have this delay with iPad, so I played with Windows controls, played with AmpliTube settings (like buffer size, etc) but was unable to get decent sound without delay... My friend has a Mac and he also uses AmpliTube so I called for help, yet he has no delay at all! So I reinstalled AmpliTube, played with it, fiddled with all the knobs and settings of both application and Windows OS and still got nowhere. I Googled and no help there either...

So for now I gave up on Windows version of AmpliTube but started thinking. If I can not get decent sound on good hardware but can play nice on much less powerful iPad - where is the catch? I see two options:
- Mac OS really is this much better than Windows OS, or
- Windows AmpliTube app really sucks
I Googled again and people did not get so much problems with Windows AmpliTube. So WTF? There is several GB of apps I collected over these all years that say conversion to OSX is a no-no. I hate the UI and general approach that this is Steve Jobs' world, I just happen to live in it. My notebook was scheduled for Windows re-installation this weekend anyway - I will retry AmpliTube on brand new, fresh W7 installation and let you know...

But is it possible that I was wrong all these years, that OSX is the way to go? I have always believed it's all potato-potata, purely personal preference: I like pears you like oranges. But is it possible that I am wrong?

On Polish history

2010-10-07T10:25:00.000+02:00

Just in case you missed this.

Kinda cool

2010-10-07T07:57:00.000+02:00

Turn up the volume and watch this.

On vintage aircrafts...

2010-10-06T08:13:00.000+02:00

I know it's difficult to compare sad fart of Polish aviation engineers that ended up killing several pilots some years back (yeah, I am talking here Iskra) with a result of famous 100 series fighter jets at USAF. Yet the timeframe if inception would be about the same... One of bastard children of this 100 series airplanes was modification of F104G Starfighter into U2. OK, fine, Powells shot down over USSR while flying from Turkey to Norway, the whole history of Cold War, blah blah blah, but then this. OMFG

On my Nike blouse

2010-10-04T15:26:00.000+02:00

Once I had opportunity to work in Berlin for extended period of time and there, in Berlin, I have found Nike Town store where I bought myself long sleeve Nike ACG blouse, red with a slogan Quit your job printed on chest.

This is the blouse i wore when I went to negotiate salary raise with my then-boss. Not very surprisingly I did not get one, so not long afterwards I changed my job profile ;-)

So now someone came up with a long, long story that says pretty much the same. Quit your job.

I hate being the trend-setter...

On peeing monkeys

2010-10-04T10:03:00.000+02:00

As I've kept saying since long, long time ago - Nairobi itself is boring. Now at least there is an Aikido dojo, but before then there was nothing to do here in town. So I have always tried to get out of city as much as possible. This is why I got here the tent, sleeping bags, stove and all the knick-knacks you would need while camping.

And last two weekends we went with Ally to Naivasha for weekend camping. That was almost fun. The problem was that last weekend there was this super-luminous full moon and the night was so bright that all the wild animals went just crazy. All those birds, wild pigs, hippos and gods know what else were so loud I did not get much sleep. And then... Early in the morning (judging by reddish sky in the east - about 0500) a monkey went up the tree and pissed on our tent.
I know, I know - some people would pay thick bucks to get pissed on by monkeys in equatorial Africa. I had to wash the tent, and - lessons learned - this weekend I pitched it so that there were no tree branches above my yellow house.

On meeting big shots

2010-09-30T13:34:00.000+02:00

Today I attended meeting with Cisco Senior Vice President Howard Charney. Charming fella ;-) Of course the message is we're not interested in your money, we want to bring the change into the world...
Still - nice presentation ;-)

Still bitching...

2010-09-30T09:35:00.000+02:00

About new music that is being made these days.
Went through Archive Controlling Crowds. Happy to delete it...