Lubudubu - Bartusiowi

Z okazji urodzin wsiego wsiego najlepszego, zycze ja, Monika S... ;-)

hunger

I sent to one of my friends - potato pancakes (*) lover - the following text from bash:

[nagl] what do you think is the most wonderful thing in the world?
[mime] sex
[piter] sex
[uffok] sex
[frik] potato pancakes

Here is what he replied to me:

:-o

I would even agree with it :-)

Although, probably with time potato pancakes will move up on my list :-)))

(*) potato pancakes are a delicacy of Polish cuisine; even I sometimes faced with a choice between sex and these pancakes would have to think for a while what I prefer and I guess the answer would mostly depend on WHO would be asking ;-)


Wyslalam do jednego znajomego - wielbiciela plackow ziemniaczanych - nastepujacy tekst z basha:

[nagl] jak myslicie, co jest najwspanialsza rzecza na swiecie?
[mime] sex
[piter] sex
[uffok] sex
[frik] placki ziemniaczane

Oto jaka dostalam od niego odpowiedz:

:-o

ja sie nawet z tym zgadzam :-)

Choc placki ziemniaczane pewnie przesuna sie w gore z czasem :-)))

(Viva) Las Vegas!

Las Vegas needs little introduction. It is a gambling center of the US, The Entertainment Capital of the World aka Sin City. I did not enjoy myself much there as neither gambling nor getting completely drunk score high on my list of fun things to do. Moreover, there were so many sad people obsessively trying their luck on slot machines, that the whole experience got overshadowed with thier sadness. Still, it was an interesting experience to spend one night there and to see for yourself if this is the place you would like to visit in future or not. Below are few pics from that night/day:

Casinos try to attract customers with more and more bizarre architecture:


Famous Casino Bellagio fountain show:


Casino Royale:


Inside Ceasar's Palace Casino:


Ania and Moli playing on the machines:


Paris Casino during a night:


And not that glamorous anymore during a day:


MGM Casino and entertainment center:

Hoover Dam

On our way to Grand Canyon we stopped for a few minutes at Hoover Dam. Being 221.4m high it is the second highest dam in the US. It was built between 1931 and 1935 and it is named after Herbert Hoover, who strongly promoted its construction. It's located 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas on Colorado river on the border between Arizona and Nevada. It looks like this:

Uncertainty

While I don't see you, I don't shed a tear
I never lose my senses when you're near,
But, with our meetings few and far between
There's something missing, waiting to be seen.
Is there a name for what I'm thinking of?
Are we just friends? Or should I call this love?

As soon as we have said our last good-byes,
Your image never floats before my eyes;
But more than once, when you have been long gone,
I seemed to feel your presence linger on.
I wonder then what I've been thinking of.
Are we just friends? Or should I call this love?

When I'm downcast, I never seek relief
By pouring out my heart in tales of grief;
Yet, as I wander aimlessly, once more
I somehow end up knocking at your door;
What brought me here? What am I thinking of?
Are we just friends? Or should I call this love?

I'd give my life to keep you sound and well,
To make you smile, I would descend to hell;
But though I'd climb the mountains, swim the seas
I do not look to be your health and peace:
Again I ask, what am I thinking of?
Are we just friends? or should I call this love?

And when you place your hand upon my palm,
I am enveloped in a blissful calm,
Prefiguring some final, gentle rest;
But still my heart beats loudly in my breast
As if to ask: what are you thinking of?
Are you two friends? or will you call this love?

Not bardic spirit seized my mortal tongue
When I thought of you and composed this song;
But still, I can't help wondering sometimes:
Where did these notions come from, and these rhymes?
In heaven's name, what I was dreaming of?
And what had inspired me? Friendship or love?


by Adam Mickiewicz (translator unknown)


by Anawa and Grechuta in 1969

necessity is the mother of invention

The world works like this: some lazy guy does not feel like pushing the rock up the hill, so he invents a wheel (domesticates a horse or whatever); other guy is married to Xanthippe that makes him wash dishes, so he invents a dishwasher; yet another guy can not stand hearing his mother/wife complaining about him never making his bed in the morning, so he becomes a scientists and using tax payers money he demonstrates that leaving your bed unmade is actually beneficial for your health: link

Point Reyes National Seashore

One of the last places that Moli, Ania and I visited together was Point Reyes National Seashore. This place is amazing. It's like a piece of heaven on earth. It's pure, magical and divine. It definitely matches my sense of aesthetics. I sincerely appologize that I can not take photos good enough to convey this message.

Approaching the seashore:


Fog attacking the land:


Blanket of fog is putting the land to sleep:


Power of the ocean:


Lighthouse at Point Reyes:


Majestic Tule elk:


More fog:

Bristlecone Pine Ancient Forest

During our recent road trip with Ania and Moli on the way from Yosemite to Death Valley we stopped for a short hike in Bristlecone Pine Ancient Forest. We all loved it. Nature was stunning, weather was perfect, there were hardly any tourists and once we set up on the hike (4.6 mile loop) we only met one other group of hikers, moreover they were going in the opposite direction than we were.

Although bristlecone trees are not impressive in size (usually they are not bigger than 3-6 meters), still somehow they make you feel small and humble when you realize how old they are. The park that we visited is home to the oldest of them (e.g. Earth's oldest living inhabitant "Methuselah" lives there). Of course we all wanted to talk with Methuselah, but unfortunately his location was not marked, as park rangers were afraid that it could get vandalized by tourists.

The secret to the bristlecones durability is partly explained by the harsh climate that they have endured throughout the ages (with summer temperatures reaching 25 degrees Celsius, and winter - 30 degrees, snow cover up to 3 m deep and with roaring winds reaching 320km/h) and the fact that no other plant would withstand such extreme conditions. That means that the bristlecone do not have to compete with anybody for scarce resources. Moreover, the dry, low in oxygen air common at this height helps preserve the trees from rotting and from potentially devastating fires. But all this also means that the bristlecones grow slowly (each year increasing in girth only around 0.2 mm). However, also this slow growth is beneficial for them as it makes their wood very resinous and dense, and therefore, impervious to invasions from bacteria, fungus or insects. Another strategy that they adopted for surviving is the gradual dieback of bark and the water-conducting tissue (xylem) when the tree is damaged for whatever reason. Moreover, even dead bristlecones trees can remain standing for hundreds of years after death and they fall only when the supporting roots finally decay or get undermined by erosion. Those almost-dead trees look really bizarre but also beautiful.

Here are few pics from this part of our trip:

A view from our car on the way from Yosemite to Bristlecone Pine Ancient Forest:


Again, a view to magnificant Sierras from our car:


Sierra Nevada as seen from a viewpoint in the White Mountains:


Moli, Ania and I sitting on the dead bark of bristlecone in Bristlecone Pine Ancient Forest:


Not dead yet bristlecone tree:


More bristlecones:


Cones of bristlecones :-) :


A view from the (Methuselah) trail to Sierras:

FIAT

Here is an amazing story about a theft of two cows and two goats using... Fiat Uno. That reminds me of a story from my home country. Apparently, in the 70's in Polish TV there was a commercial of Fiat 125p, in which they showed that 16 people can fit into this car... I am not sure which of the two is a bigger achievement - 2 cows and 2 goats in Uno or 16 people in 125p?

science and creationism

Homer Jacobson, an author of 1955 paper called “Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life”, recently retracted his paper as he realized that is used by creationists as a scientific proof that life could not have started on earth without divine intervention.

A full story in NYT:
"The idea that all scientific knowledge is provisional, able to be challenged and overturned, is one thing that separates matters of science from matters of faith."

We live in a strange world, where people can take whatever you published and interpret it as it suits them, even when it goes against your own belives.

E=mc2

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it. Albert Einstein

San Diego

Ania, Moli, Bartek and I in San Diego:


A view of San Diego Bay and SD downtown from Point Loma:


Bartek on Coronado Beach with a hotel Del Mar in the background:


Statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo (the first guy who sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542) at Point Loma with views of San Diego downtown:


Mount Soledad with beautiful views of the city and ocean and controversial cross on the top:

fast food

When we were recently traveling with Ania and Moli, we ate several times at different fast foods. The reason for that was that Moli wanted to visit all fast food chains as part of "getting-to-know American culture". So we visited Pizza Hut, Wendy's, In-and-Out, Chipotle and unknown burger place in Las Vegas.
Food at Wendy's was probably the worse I had in my whole life. Ania and I took vegetarian burgers (meaning regular burger but without meat). That should be safe thing to eat, right? In the end it is just bread with cheese, salad and tomato. What could possibly go wrong there? Well, many things. For example, they can deep-fry it...
Second terrible meal that we had was in Las Vegas. Even though we asked Moli for French fries, he brought us burgers (with tofu, I guess). They tasted as I imagine a wet cardboard to taste...
I was never a fan of fast foods, but only after this trip I have finally infinite list of arguments to never ever to go to any of them anymore.

Here Ania and I at Wendy's. We are still smiling because we did not open our burgers yet...

the last night's dream

I had a very disturbing dream last night. In this dream I met one of my friends while he was walking around with his father (and other unknown to me person) from one guillotine to the other and putting his head under its blade, apparently for fun, as he and people that accompanied him were laughing all the time. I remember telling him that he was playing with fire, that it was a dangerous game and that he should not do that, but they all replied together that it was fine, that my friend had been doing it since always, and that I should not worry. So I did not argue with him/them anymore. In the end he was a grown-up and his father was with him, so who was I to tell him what to do?

Then something else was happening in my dream (no recollection what it was) and few minutes later somebody came to me with the news that my friend died because the blade of one of the guillotines somehow unexpectedly dropped and severed my friend's head from his body... I immediately run to the place where it happened and I saw my friend's head rolling on the ground. The weird thing was that he was still smiling...

As disturbing this dream was, I did not feel very bad about it as I was all the time aware that it was just a dream. I am not sure if it was a dream within a dream, or if I was already waking up then and therefore knowing that it was not a real event.
I only remember making a mental note to myself to remember this dream and think what it could potentially mean after I wake up.

bash: III RP is back

III_RP has joined #Polska
[III_RP] RE!

Uff... :-))

Polish Omelet on soy milk

I was extremely hungry for the past three days and whatever I tried to eat it always failed to satisfy my hunger. Finally, tonight I figured out that what I need is high protein, preferably egg based, meal. So after coming back from Nata's party I decided to make an omelet for myself. Unfortunately, we ran out of milk and as it was already after midnight (meaning all shops in the neighborhood close) I had to improvise and I ended up using soy milk instead of regular cow's milk. I have to say that I was very positively surprised with the results of that experiment. Actually, the omelet made in this way was better than regular one. It was crispier and slightly sweeter (but not too much). I think from now on I will always make it on soy milk.

Recipe:
Whisk two eggs, add a pinch of salt, glass of milk, 3/4 glass of flour, mix everything together. Pour the egg mixture (it should form a layer of around 0.5 cm) into a well warmed up frying pan and swish it around. Leave it alone for a few minutes to allow it to cook and "set up." Turn to the other side and do the same.

Poles in Britain

NYT has a very interesting article about Polish work-related immigration to Great Britain and its influence on British economy. It seems that Britain has greatly benefited from the presence of large population of Polish people not only economically but also culinary... ;-)
Ah, I am dreaming about Delicje, Tyskie, Zywiec, pierogi z kapusta i grzybami, placki ziemniaczane...

Poland, politics, church, little brother

"The direct intervention of the state agencies in the election campaign is for me proof that this government is abusing democracy,"

"Since the height of its popularity in the late-90s, Radio Maryja has steadily lost listeners but it still claims a daily audience of about one million. (...) A recent opinion poll said 74% of the radio's listeners would vote for Law and Justice."

Be careful! The Little Brother is watching!

dancing brain

Do you see the silhouette turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? link

Shoud I be worried if I can see it rotating in only one direction (moreover the opposite than majority of people)? explanation

If it is tomorrow, then I am at...

Natalia's art exhibit!

If you tell me, I might do it ;-)

While counting worms under the microscope I entertain myself by watching (actually, listening to) Friends. One fo my all the time favorite scenes is the one below from the episode "The one with the Princess Leia Fantasy":

Here is how it ended - unfortunately, reality is not always as great as fantasy:

racism, prejudice, responsibility

Dr Watson, a Nobel Prize winner for the model of DNA helix, one of the best-known living scientists, is apparently a terrible racist. His talk got just cancelled at The Science Museum in London after he claimed that black people are less intelligent than white ones (see BBC story). Also during his recent talk at Salk Institute in San Diego he presented a very strong anti-German attitude, claiming that all Germans are inheritably evil… It’s truly disheartening to learn that somebody so well respected as he would hold so many prejudices against other people.

EDIT: Watson claims to be misinterpreted.

Futalognkosaurus dukei

Check out this beauty!

urodzinki

Moj Kochany Tatus obchodzi dzis urodziny. Nie powiem wam ktore, bo i tak byscie mi nie uwierzyli, ze on juz jest taki stary (dojrzaly, mialam na mysli).

Kochany Tatusiu, w dniu Twojego swieta skladam Ci najserdeczniejsze zyczenia zdrowia, szczescia, pomyslnosci i pociechy z corki ;-) Caluje Cie i sciskam przeogromnie, Twoja Ukochana (bo jedyna zapewne) Corka.

I should...

I have not been writing here regularly since some time. Mainly because I needed time to figure out my feelings and what I want right now from life (in the sense of relationships, not work or career).

The process of figuring it out was painful and led nowhere. So I decided to stop thinking and feeling guilty for the things that I have not even done yet.

So here I am. Not thinking, not knowing what I want, but at the same time very happy and letting somebody special spoil me a bit ;-)

EDIT:

This song (poem) fits perfectly here and now:



Podaruj mi cos czego nie
Zdobede sama
A wtedy ja szepne Ci
Mozesz mnie dotknac

Moze pozwole ci bys ze mna budzil sie
Moze powiem Ci jakie lubie wino
Moze pozwole Ci zapalic swieczke
Gdy w pewna zimowa noc
Zgasnie swiatlo

grandma

- Grandma, did you maybe see somewhere my pills? The ones that have "LSD" written on them?
- F*ck the pills, grandson, you'd better come here and take a look at this DRAGON!

- Babciu, nie widziałaś moich tabletek, miały napisane "LSD"?...
- Pierdolić tabletki, wnusiu, widziałaś kurwa tego SMOKA W KUCHNI?...

so much

There is so much bad in the best of us
There is so much good in the worst of us
That it ill behooves any one of us
To find fault with the rest of us

seven-year itch

Gabriele Pauli, member of the Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party caused massive uproar by proposing to limit validity of civil marriages to seven years. After that time the married couple would have a chance to decide again if they want to stay married or not. If they would decide against it, they would not have to go through the procedure of divorce, saving time, money and probably also lots of emotional distress. (see: Times online)
I like her idea a lot, as I see it as the first step towards abolishing institution of marriage altogether. From personal experience I can only say that there is no more satisfying relationship than the one which is not bound by any sort of contract (or definition) and in which you can give your partner (and get it back as well) all the freedom in the world, and where you and your partner use this freedom to consciously choose day by day and night by night to stay together for one more day and one more night. And even if such relationship ends, still you are left with the best gift of all: in somebody's eyes you were the most fascinating person for these x of days, months, weeks, years.

OMG: disclaimer

I did several stupid things over the course of the last few weeks and it seems that now the time came to take responsibility for them. The thing is that I do not know how to resolve all the mess that I made and I do not really know what I actually want.

More update on that subject will come shortly, so if someone does not feel comfortable with reading about my messed up private life should skip several next posts that will have OMG in the title.

insanity Polish way

Kaczynski is the name of both Polish president and prime minister. Kaczka in Polish means duck, so many people call them colloquially "ducks".
One guy posted somewhere in the web sentence: "I will buy a gun and shoot the ducks". Few days later he got arrested by the police. Luckily, they believed him that it was just a joke and after two weeks of investigation he was not presented with "attempt to kill Polish president and Prime minister" charges, but he will "only" be charged with "causing unnecessary mobilization of public forces and starting false alarm".
That feels really insane. I do agree that a joke was stupid and inappropriate, but still, to put the poor guy in front of the judge for that?

link in Polish

how I see myself

This is a photo that either Ania or Moli took during our recent trip. I like it a lot, not only because of beautiful landscape in the background, but also because it also shows how I perceive myself - with this semi-ironic, semi-hedonistic smile on my face:

Improbable Research

The winners of this year Ig Nobel Prizes were announced today (see the list below). This award was created in 1991 by a science magazine "Annals of Improbable Research" (AIR) and is given in recognition of scientific achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think", "celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative - and spur people's interest in science, medicine and technology".


2007 Ig Nobel Winners - pick your favorite! (Mine is the one from the linguistic department...)

Medicine - Brain Witcombe, of Gloucestershire Royal NHS Foundation Trust, UK, and Dan Meyer for their probing work on the health consequences of swallowing a sword.

Physics - A US-Chile team who ironed out the problem of how sheets become wrinkled.

Biology - Dr Johanna van Bronswijk of the Netherlands for carrying out a creepy crawly census of all of the mites, insects, spiders, ferns and fungi that share our beds.

Chemistry - Mayu Yamamoto, from Japan, for developing a method to extract vanilla fragrance and flavouring from cow dung.

Linguistics - A University of Barcelona team for showing that rats are unable to tell the difference between a person speaking Japanese backwards and somebody speaking Dutch backwards.

Literature - Glenda Browne of Blue Mountains, Australia, for her study of the word "the", and how it can flummox those trying to put things into alphabetical order.

Peace - The US Air Force Wright Laboratory for instigating research and development on a chemical weapon that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among enemy troops.

Nutrition - Brian Wansink of Cornell University for investigating the limits of human appetite by feeding volunteers a self-refilling, "bottomless" bowl of soup.

Economics - Kuo Cheng Hsieh of Taiwan for patenting a device that can catch bank robbers by dropping a net over them.

Aviation - A National University of Quilmes, Argentina, team for discovering that impotency drugs can help hamsters to recover from jet lag.

Atti sings to Tchaikovsky's piano concerto no 1

Kristina made this cute movie: