Spartans and Athenians

I decided not to buy the lego mindstorm kit last weekend, after I realised I was just being a capricious kid. (- "..WHAT?" - "oh, shut it.")

Instead I ordered some technical litterature from Amazon, a lot of it actually. There is nothing like software design books to change one's mind and focus heavily on the important things.
Or, in other words, this is just a way to please my geek side for a change, as if it wasn't spoiled enough these days with work and all...

Oh, and I also ordered a new Simmons book, to read while I'm waiting for Olympos to be released in January. It's called A Winter Haunting, quite appropriate, no? If it's half as good as Song of Kali it should still be excellent.

Obviously I'm not american but like the rest of the world I was following in the corner of my eye the election results. Scary.
On one hand I'm worried about the next 4 years, on the other I'm joining the camp that believes that on his second mandate he will do a Nixon and cock up royally.

I really thought Kerry won yesterday morning when I woke up listening to the radio, but actually they were just discussing how easy it was for americans to adopt a new president, not that there WAS a new president...bummer. It took me an hour before I realised.
In my mistake, surprisingly I wasn't that happy that dubya could get away with all he's done like that and just step down to Kerry. There ought to be some justice for Guantanamo, the killings in Iraq, the state of fear, the violation of democracy, the lies and that stupid face.

So now, paradoxically, maybe there is a possibility that some will wake up and react to all this nonsense. And I'm looking at Europe when I say this, I believe this will become a matter of survival for European politics and way of life.
I just wish would pull ther fingers out of their arses, accept another reason to extend Europe to Turkey, and start stepping forward on the international scene, or we [Europe] will end up like yet another Athens against a stronger and more demagog Sparta.

Even though we are right(er), being weaker makes us wrong.

Finger on the trigger

Just finished Pattern Recognition from William Gibson. Ending was a bit long compared with the rest of the book. I must say it was a rather slow story compared with his previous novels, but his style is definitely something. I hope (and I have a feeling) there will be a sequel.

This is the book that made me want to start a blog.
Things is, I still don't really have an idea for a topic. I'm too shy to open a diary, and I've got too many interests to focus on a single one.

I could do the web portal thing and recommand sites I like or other web-centric things, but that would be real boring.

Then I guess I will have to find a proper subject, that affects me in my daily life.
A source of inspiration was this guis's blog on BoingBoing.net, about homelessness and survival out there. Mmmmh, I will thing about it and come back with something for the next post.

In the meantime I will keep on struggling with this Lego Mindstorm thing.
the could have called it ConscienceStorm in my case, between my childish and adult persona.

- I really fancy one. Kewl ! 700+ bricks, processor, software, sensors and engines !
- ...isn't it a bit expensive for a bunch of plastic bricks?
- Yeah but this will be a great investment as Lego are not doing too well these days and I could still sell it on ebay later on, this is such a great value kit!
- Still, £160...
- yeah but it's a generation thing : I can enjoy it now, then pass it on to my kids (when I have kids of course), then by that time the kit will be worth so much it will be ridiculous.
- 2024? man, this sounds like a sci-fi date. Plus I still think this is a lot of mo...
- ...that's the point! Not so many people can afford it so it is rare therefore collectible and it will take more value with all those geeks around!
- hey! who are you calling a geek ?
- oops, sorry, all I meant was it's an educational tool with great value, bound to take even more value.
- Do you want your kids do be geeks?
- Of course!
- (hehe)
- Do you really believe you will sell it one day?
- Only if I don't like it.
- But why buy it then?
- Because it's a no-risk investment : fun, educational and long-term oriented
- No, I'd say you just want one. And what will your wife say? She won't be able to miss the box when you bring it home
- But now is the time, it's nearly christmas and they're going to sell out soon! Ten the price will double at least!

And so on and so on...twice yesterday I had all my details entered and the finger on the mouse trigger, hovering above the "Buy Now" button. Then I cleared it up.
Last night I asked my wife's opinion, who was obviously no.
Actually she said yes, but at the condition that I do not buy any more games, CDs, gizmos, toys for the next 10 years.

That's a bit abusive isn't it ?

Note that I already promised not to buy any video game until 2006 (this leaves me plenty of time to finish the ones I got..and anyway 2006 is the launch date for NWN2 hehe...).
Actually I broke my promise already when I bought Coelho's Pilgrim from that PoundLand with her the other day...but would could have resisted such a bargain?

Hello, world

Wow! finally I started to write something on the internet.
This blog site seems very user-friendly, I'm especially happy it didn't scream at my using Firefox. So far, so Good.

Updating a page seems painfully slow, though. I will have to try this FireFox extension one of these days see if it makes any difference.

Well, enough for today, time to go home and enjoy the week-end