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Showing posts from 2015

The best possible end (Rugby World Cup)

Dan Carter was already a legend in his own rights. Already the top scorer in the game by far, already considered the best fly-half of of the modern era (and possibly of any era), good looking and whatever you want to say, he got it. But entering this Rugby World Cup he was at the end of his career, coming back to a World Cup after having lost all but the first games in the previous one. He got injured during that World Cup while he was at the top of his career and missed the rest of the competition. Then ruptured his Achilles tendon in 2013. Already new players on the rise took his place in games during last years, so his position was not the one of the big star that no-one can doubt. Then the competition begun, the matches went on and he was playing his game, good composure, on target with the kicking. Everything was going well, even if the All Blacks were not crushing every opponent as expected, but simply winning. And then a quarter final against France started, and New

Fucking midget (annoying people, part 2)

I am waiting for to go to the station and catch the train to work. I am kinda late, really late, but there are not so many train. So lets use this time for something completely useless. Monday night, another football game of the famed team Notti Magiche . We are up 4 - 0 after 10 minutes, than we let them come back, because we are kind people. The match begins to turn to a grind, though game. We are still up 4 - 3 in the final 10 minutes of the match, they mainly try to score in counter attacks (don't ask, please don't ask how a team that is up by one is pressing high instead of waiting for the opponent to come... don't ASK!), but we are managing quite well to control. They started to make faults, we started to receive them, this is a usual pattern. For once I am not complaining that much with the referee, since he is controlling everything quite well and when he sees a harsh tackle he has no problem on talking to the player and tell him to quite down. Finally. The

Draw (annoying people)

This is a football post, this is a "I annoy people and people annoys me" post. Today is Thursday, a day I used to spend doing something for sometimes, a something that I really enjoyed doing and that now I miss quite a lot, and that now is devoted to football. Playing football. 6 vs 6 football (I know, I betrayed my beliefs... but I needed a second night of sport each week, and this was what was available). It's with not the team I organize, and you can understand it by the fact that in 3 matches I played we've never lost. With the team I organize (7 a side) we never won. Anyway, we are from Ukraine, we are not a great team, we are not a bad team. And tonight we draw. It was a though match, we controlled the first part of the first half, and than we were down 3 - 0 all of a sudden. We hit posts, their goalie save quite some shots, when the goalie was not there a defender saved a goal already done (by the way... mine...) and at the end of the first half we

Not a people's person (or: how to live as an idiot)

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Few days ago (actually, almost 2 weeks ago) I have had a nice confirmation of how less I understand people. Well, truth is that it wasn't really on that day that I had the confirmation, I already knew it. But it has been a nice follow up on the conclusion I had come to in past times (and actually the episode was not so important on the matter, it was really important on another level, but transeat. ..). I really don't get people. I maybe am able to understand their reactions, facial expressions and words when I am actually detached from them, but the minute they matter to me... ooohh!!! That gets really interesting! I simply get lost, go blind and deaf. I know myself, so nothing that happens really takes me by surprise, but it still hurts sometimes finding out... that I was right... or wrong, depending on which side you look at the matter from. I definitely don't get people. I am better of with animals. I can understand why an animal does something. I cannot unders

Life's goals: THERMOS!

I am easily satisfied. Even if probably a lot of my friends will tell differently, I am. And tonight, after the weekly football match (by the way, having taken 3 paracetamol in the last 24 hours it's a clear indication that you will struggle during a football match, mark my words!), I sad down, saw my new thermos, that I bought less than a week ago, sitting on the table. There's tea in it, I knew it, because I prepared it at 5 pm. And it's 9:30 now... so probably the tea will be already cold. IT. WAS. NOT. Ah, that's a reason to have a life, after all... right there! (Still enjoying the second cup, by the way, just before heading to bed...)

Quantum mechanics

When I was a kid, and also late in my teens, and even further in my twenties, I enjoyed reading fictions book... I am not sure if this is the correct word. Anyway, books about invented stories, not reality, not history books. I enjoyed even then the once in a while history book, or the physics manual (or ants... if that matters). Past the thirties I started developing a taste for manuals, research papers and the such. And that's true that I can't even remember the last fiction book I have read (barring the eventual re-reading of some of my favourites like LOTR or Lem's Solaris and the Invinceble, or Garcia Marquez Cien años de soledad). I am really not sure why something like that happened. I believe it's related to my dislike of any story that ends badly: if I already know that it will end badly it's not an issue, but if I have to be passionate about the outcome and than everybody dies... no way I'd read it! So lately I've read the history of the c

12 days of Christmas

It is difficult to understand what's going on in my life. For me, I mean. I am never too clear regarding what I really want, what it is important for me and what I would LOOOOOVE to do. Truth is that I really don't know what I like. I am a bit too apathetic in all the aspects of it (my life). I fear to commit to some specific hope, so that it cannot be crushed under the waves of life. Not that it has always happened something like that, I should say... but hey...sometimes it has happened so I am entitled in my fear! So, there are so many things I like that I cannot pick a favourite one. I am positive that I definitely love to play football. That is for sure. I can actually say that there is no place on Earth in which I feel more at ease than any football pitch (7 a side up to 11 a side, maybe 5 a side is not really my place). And I am a bit scared about that. But of all of the other things... did I love maths? Or I prefer physics? Or maybe natural biology? Or history

Anniversaries (or maybe it was the 4th!!)

Tomorrow it's September the 3rd, 2015. It's an anniversary. A HUGE one. Two years ago, on that day, I was dying. And not slowly dying , that had been going on during the previous months. On the 3rd of September 2013 I stepped out of a door and my soul, my spirit simply crushed in pieces and disappeared. There's no easy way out of such situations and, anyway, I am the worst at going out of such situations. I died and walked the next year or so as a soulless spirit. Still today I can feel the desperation of that day. Everybody feels and reacts differently, everybody is strong in some situations and weak in others. On that day I could not stand. My legs could not withstand my weight. Nothing in my life before and nothing after (up until now, of course) felt so hard to pass through. I felt so crushed that I could not breath and simply take the next step was something I still consider the biggest achievement of my life. That happened exactly two years ago, minus o

The words I've never said (or... missing opportunities)

I am having that feeling that: "oh, shit. I've completely lost the time to say/do it". And that even worst feeling that I've lost you. Like this, without having said or done something that was there in the air to be caught, I've lost you. It's a fine Sunday morning, weather was supposed to be shitty, but it's not. Probably where you are the weather is better, and warmer, and you are holding somebody else's hand. And it bothers me a bit. I've always that feeling that something else could have been done, and I haven't done. That something else could have been said, and I haven't said it. And I hate that feeling, and I always fall back on these habits and I regret to have acted like I did. Yes... I am a good guy, and a stupid moron at the same time. Will get better...

I still got it (partially... maybe... I am not sure)

As usual if I don't write it means that everything is fine, or everything is so bad that it's too difficult to write, or that I've got no time or will to write. As usual, if I don't write, it's because I am an asshole. Anyhow, tonight I've had a wonderful night with some friends, having dinner on a canal, laughing at ourselves and about ourselves... living a wonderful life. And I am now home, early for a Friday night, but not feeling the need to being out hunting for life. Life is already here. I've been thinking about my age, about finally abandoning this lifestyle of a young and strong young man and finally entering the mature age I am actually in. Since I moved to Amsterdam I started again to play a lot of football, mainly 5 and 7 a side. It took some toll to get used to it, I got injured, I got frustrated at not been able to run as I used to, be strong as I used to. Mainly I felt so many time that I have no more the same fitness that I r

Jurassic World: good entertainment, bad movie

I never watched the Jurassic movies. Maybe some scene here and there. But not one complete movie. Or at least I don't remember it. But after the best pizza in Amsterdam (Fuoco Vivo) we decided that it a good idea as was the second part of the night: Jurassic World!! First a minute to curse the 3D. Hate it. I watched the movie, didn't think it was so spectacular, watch the trailer the next day and discovered that on my laptop's screen I was seeing colors that I just imagined during the vision at the cinema! Bad, bad 3D! Than the movie. SPOILERS START! ---------------------------------\ 1. high heels in the jungle is not a good idea 2. a company with as chain of command 2 persons... maybe not a great company 3. road bike in the middle of the forest and you never slide or fall? 4. the most dangerous dinosaurs ever, you finally have got it in front of you and you don't shoot immediately? 5. when finally you shoot with whatever you have, including ma

Ireland: days 16 - 18

And by now... I started feeling the wear and tear of being on my own. Saturday I woke up, simply packed everything and left to get to Cork. The day was fine, sunny, and the morning got on quite quickly. I stopped to refuel, take a coffee. I arrived at the B&B in Cork at noon, perfectly on time: demonstration of my inner GPS. I left the luggage at the house, meeting my guest, and left for the airport were I returned the car. I then went to the city by bus, walked my usual 2/3 hours around, doing nothing particular, and headed home. I was feeling tired and worn, wishing only to got back home. Sunday there were the idea to go and watch a hurling match, but there were none nearby. So I stayed in bed, watching Daredevil (nice series, by the way!), then went out, took a beer, ate something, took a coffee in a nice coffeeshop/library (not the Amsterdam/type coffeshop!) and went back home. Monday it was time to go, but my flight was in the late afternoon/early evening so my gue

Ireland: days 13 - 15

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And the day to leave Galway come, and it was a sad day! I spent the most of Tuesday thinking if it was worth leaving Galway... I would have loved to listen again to some more sessions! But the time came: Wednesday ! The day was one of the finest, sunny and warm. And of course I have to drive! I decided to go swiftly to the south and then walk around somewhere. But go swiftly to the south means to use highways, which I despise. So I drove quickly as I could, but along the coastline. I encountered some nice town on the road, but the finest has been Milltown Malbay. Lovely, on a natural gulf, with surfers surfing the waves. I stopped for some photos in the sun, that promptly got covered. I head on. Arrived at Killmore, to take the ferry, and took it. Landed in Talbert, visited a nicely preserved five storey castle nearby, Carrigafoyle, in which it is still possible to understand the position of the rooms on every floor. Drove on, Tralee was on the way, I stopped looking for a map of the

Ireland: days 10 - 12

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Sunday started with heavy rain and a fun breakfast with a nice serving lady-man, sir-girl. Heavy, blonde, extremely kind and thus scary. But again: kind, really kind. After breakfast it was time to decide where to go, what to do, who to be. And it was a though decision: rain all around! So, lets go to Connemara National Park and see what's there. There are wild goats, this is what's there, and heavy rain. So I visited the Visitor's Center, enjoyed a nice exposition on Ireland's history, and a nice coffee (with scone...). Then headed east, and then south into a fine pass valley, with strong rain all around. And floodings of the roads, too. Arrived in the happy Oughterard town, and had lunch. And relaxed, have a beer, wait for the rain to pass. It didn't. I visited the nearby castle, really nice, and then headed to the Galway City, famous in the world. Visited the center, had a Guinness in a pub and to the B&B we go. Nice and clean, and wonderful landlady. At

Ireland: days 7 - 9

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So comes Thursday . Early hours, it's just before 3 am, I am at Mullaghmore and I cannot sleep anymore. What to do? Took the car, headed for the north side of the peninsula, peed and started my way to Belmullet, that from now on we will call Béal an Mhuilhead, in it's Gaelic form. Before passing Sligo I went to Rosses Point, to check one of the places were I thinking of actually spend the night before. I tried to sleep a bit more in front of the sea, but indeed I was out of sleep. So I went on, passed Sligo and went on the Wild Atlantic road, that easy roads are no fun to me. I passed Easky when the sun was almost getting up, then a bunch of other villages lost on the Atlantic Coast. My idea was to have breakfast at Ballina (Béal an Áthal), the capital of wild salmon. I arrived there... and it was 6 am! I thought it was 7 at least... nothing to do, everything's closed. Let's go on to Crossmolina, che the Lough Conn and go on to Ballycroy National Park for a early start

Ireland: days 4 - 6

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Monday I woke up from  my first camping night into a delightful day of bright sun and clear sky. The same valley in which I slept got a completely different look. A wonderful one. I packed everything, the rain of the night before almost completely dried up on the tent and poncho, and headed for the B&B. At the house I had a nice and sturdy Irish breakfast, and luckily my room was to be ready at 11 am. Since It was not so far away, I simply awaited on the bench outside the house in the nice sun. Once I got my room (number 5) I took a shower. The most amazing, wonderful shower I have ever had. Probably beaten only by a shower I took in Stockholm... but that was with a lot of funny optionals like waterfall effect, side jets and things like that. After the shower I decided to do a 5 hours walk: up the hill, up to another hill, and back again. The hills happened to be around 600 metres high, so not too much. But I have to say that the excursion took its toll. At the end I w

Ireland: day 1 - 3

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So, after a lot of planning... ehm... not that lot. After some days of planning, here I land in Dublin a Friday night, at 9 PM, heading to a B&B in Malahide. This is how I started this 18 days holidays: getting left by a taxi driver on the wrong Malahide Road... some 10 km away from my B&B. This is how carefully I planned my holiday. Luckily, after some walking, a second taxi collected me and so I managed to arrive were I would have spent the night. Rockstar! I've been thinking of visiting Ireland since I was 18 and I first heard the songs from Clannad (I know, too commercial kind of music... no?!?). I've been wanting to visit this country so bad that I never talk about it with anybody and never planned it. But here I am (still I haven't planned it, but this is a different story). So, Friday night at Malahide, Pebble Bed&Breakfast. I spent the night watching TV (it's a novelty for me! I have no TV in Amsterdam!): The Hurt Locker. Liked. Sat

Eire 2015: - 37 days

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So, a month more or less is what is missing for the start of my trip to Ireland . Landing at Dublin, leaving from Cork 18 day later. Some nights in Hotel/Hostel/Private apartment, some nights trekking and sleeping in a tent. And today... I bought the tent! And some other things like pots and sleeping bag and stuff (shirts, trousers, an inflatable mattress...).  But something is missing... (please check below a close up). You see that blank space? Do you see it?!? It's the sleeping bag. It's missing: I bought it, it's missing. The sucker decided to fall down from my bike while I was singing out loud a punk song, so I didn't noticed it. The bastard. Sometime I miss it so much it hurts ... (mainly because I'll have to buy it again...) On a lighter note: I was thinking that maybe, but just maybe, I will rent a motorbike instead of a car... I know I will not do it... but just thinking about it make my smile grow bigger and bigger...

Two words on: Conspiracy theory against Linux?

It's that time of year again: the time in which I install a new distro on my laptop. My nice, fine, kind System76 laptop. Ubuntu 14:10 has run its course and it's time to switch back to Manjaro (KDE edition). But I am missing a USB drive, so it's time to buy a new one (mine it's lost in Parma...). So I went out, biked funny Amsterdam, entered Mediaworld and bought a 8 GB disk (yes... I tried to find a 2 GB one, but I could not). Sandisk, as it is. Biked back home, watched some video on Youtube, read some news (procrastinating, it is called) and finally time to download Manjaro 0.90, install Unetbootin and create the Start Up disk. Done! Now it's time to stick it in: reboot! It doesn't run!! Meaning that a "B oot failure : No DEFAULT or UI configuration directive found!" error was showing. What the... !!! WHY?!? Faulty copy of the ISO? Nope. Wrong installation process from Unetbootin? Nope! Wrong pc?!? Nope. It turns out that the Fat32 forma

Nights are full of misteries... and void of sleep

Sometimes I would simply love to learn how to forget. I am a stupid idiot (no, I am not talking metaphorically, I really am. I know my level of intelligence is quite high, I know a lot of things, but I am really a functional idiot in this life and it has created me so many problems that it is difficult for me to have normal relations with other humans. It seems ridiculous to say something like this... but it's sadly true). So, I was saying: sometimes I would simply love to learn to forget. It is so easy to forget... something hurt you? You forget it? Life goes on! Somebody has been rude to you? You forget it? Life goes on! My problem is that there are things, and of course those are the must hurtful things, that at a conscious level I have learnt to forget, but my freaking asshole sub-conscious doesn't want to. And they, of course, come back at the worst times. One of the worst times? For example: NOW! Now that I would love to go to sleep and I would need to go to

There's a moon over Bourbon street tonigth...

It wasn't tonight, it wasn't Bourbon Street. But indeed there had been a moon over some place (and, by the way... wonderful song from Sting, check it out!). This morning, I woke up at the sound of the alarm (damn 8 am shift... that make me wake up before civilized hours! Like... 6:50 am!) and I opened the eyes. I let the curtain on my bedroom's window half open yesterday night (that's the nice thing of living in the north: nights during winter are usually really dark...) and a potent light was lighting up my bed. I simply lifted a bit my head and there! I saw it! There was the full moon, shining low on the horizon, but still bright and white (usually so low it's already reddish... lucky me!) and just a bit above it there was a strong star. I believe it's Venus (so, technically, a planet...), I've not checked and will not check it now. Because that's not the point. There was the moon so bright and shining, and a shining white star just above, sho

Ireland 2015

Outbound flight bought. Inbound flight bought too. So, Ireland will be real, after all, this May 2015. A little more than 2 weeks, in a foreign country, alone, driving around and camping somewhere. If I'll say that I am scared I'd be lying, but worried, yes. It's a long time that I've not been around alone in a foreign country, alone, driving around and camping somewhere. A long time, like... forever? Arrival in Dublin, departure from Cork. The first draft of the trip is here below... Still a lot of things are not chosen. Like... were to sleep? For how long hike in the parks? But the first step is done. I've got 2 tickets, one to go, one to come back... let's the adventure begin!