Self-expression in the age of Facebook

This phenomenon, although nothing new & having been around since forever, has reached a new level in times of the Interwebs & social network, I believe. This sad little video neatly sums it up.



And while we're at it, this video about Facebook privacy made me see the whole issue in a whole new light! But see for yourself:

Something With Numbers

Wow. Coincidences happen at the most inopportune times, I guess.
I've been looking for this song for ages but I just couldn't remember the name of the band or the song. Now I just casually stumbled upon it.

Damn.

Addendum: 5 Things People Shouldn't Marry (But Did Anyway)

Your grandchildren.

The horror.

Hey Kid, wanna play?

I'm currently working for an organization that drives around with a big car full of toys and bikes and stuff to play with on playgrounds. Because we are mostly working at playgrounds it's obvious that I have seen a few. They mostly look like this:

Pictures (c) Saber, 2009

Peaceful. Fun. Full of Life and Laughter. Well, except for the last one, it kinda was a slow day.

Anyway, take a look at those playgrounds from all over Eastern Europe (mostly):



...oh my God. I don't think I will be able to sleep tonight.

First of all: Who puts a Lovecraftian creature on a playground? Or giant evil snakes and monsters? Whose crotch children can crawl out of? Or what about that damned abominations that are somehow meant to resemble humans, but due to a bad (or old) paint job they seem like lost souls straight back from hell. And what are those black creatures with bright white eyes from 1:20 on that seem to stare right into your soul?
A giant doctor that is about to stab you. A sad kraken doomed to entertain kids for eternity. Elefants whose ass is used as a slide. A wizard emerging from the ground. Gigantic insects crawling towards you. The lady in the blue dress.

With blood pouring from her eyes.

Excuse me, I have to find a corner I can rock back and forth in while I silently weep.

6 Things People Shouldn't Marry (But Did Anyway)

Love often goes strange ways, even more so if it goes against any known conventions. See, there's your typical marriage: Man meets girl, they fall in love, they marry, and everybody's happy (hopefully). Sometimes, a man meets a man, or a woman meets a woman, and they too want to feel the bonding that supposedly only marriage can give two lovers. Now, things look grim for those people, because this already goes against what people might call 'God's will' or 'standard behaviour', but people, I say, let them be, for there are much, much more weird marriages going on in the world. Here are only a few.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

In the mood for some jazzy, rainy love

Beni just sent me this, and it's exactly what I need after a day like today (stressful, cold, rainy):

www.rainymood.com

There's not much to it. All it is is a 15-minute loop of rain, some distant rolls of thunder and even some singing birds inbetween. But damn is it effective!

Play the loop and listen to your favourite songs, preferrably some jazzy lounge music, slow blues or acoustic and classical pieces. Not only is it incredibly relaxing, it also helps appreciating the dull, grey weather outside a little.

Now where to begin, you might ask? Well look no further, for Beni was so kind to provide the perfect song to get you in that jazzy mood:


I feel all classy now.

If you need some more inspiration, have a look at this 4chan thread Beni also sent along. It holds in store  many more Youtube links to some great moody songs, partly taken from OSTs of video games - and not that 8bit bleep bloop either, I'm talkin high quality lounge jazz. I'm going through it song by song right now; it's magical.

Other songs I'd recommend for some rainy loungin' and lovin' include:

Frank Sinatra - Moon River , The Girl From Ipanema (if you can, use the studio version..), As Time Goes By, All My Tomorrows
Katie Melua - Blame It On The Moon
Miles Davis - Circle, My Ship, Blue In Green... the whole Blue Moods record in general
Norah Jones - I've Got To See You Again, The Long Day Is Over, Don't Miss You At All, The Nearness Of You
Phil Collins - The Way You Look Tonight
Road To Perdition OST - Road To Chicago, The Farm, Road To Perdition (again basically the whole OST)

So what are your recommendations? I tried staying within the range of swing/jazz/lounge music, but that doesn't mean you have to!

It's all in the name, folks

There are studies that people react differently on various kinds of names - let's say that Major Awesome, for example, strucks people with awe, while Major Poopoohead on the other hand might get you a good pounding. Nothing new, right?
Well apperently, names are destined to become part of the people's slang, especially in the English language. (My original internet nickname, Saber, often results in (German) people repeating it jokingly as the German word Sabber, which means drool in English. No comparison to the English slang.)
Tiny recently looked up her own names on UrbanDictionary.com, revealing some interesting definitions that are partly really flattering. So I decided to follow her idea and do the same. (More after the jump.)
CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

12 Things I Learned From Learning Instruments

Bear with me, I know this is a long text with no pictures or other visual stimulation. But if you persevere, maybe you can even learn something from it! Now isn't that fun?

I've been learning instruments since I was about 10-ish: first I taught myself how to play the drums, a few years later I wished for an electric guitar for Christmas, the following year I got my first bass guitar. I consider myself a good enough musician to successfully play in bands (I've played in several so far) and on stage, although I can't think of myself as a professional – on rare occasions I do feel like one, but that's only because I have learned a few things over the years that increase my insight into how learning and actually mastering music instruments works. The best part: This is not entirely limited to music at all; most points can be translated into basically everything else, like art, sports, writing, you name it.
Some of them are pretty obvious, and I guess everyone who learns anything will one day or another stumble upon them, or you'll hear them from every teacher. But others are a little more specific and sometimes contrary to what you're trying to achieve (or even conflictive to another point on the list), but they can really help a lot. Here are a few things I learned from learning stuff, in no particular order. (after the jump)
...

CLICK HERE FOR MORE, you rascal!

Yet Another Resolution

'Many people know they are unhappy. But even more people do not know they are happy.'
- Albert Schweitzer

Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep. That's mostly due to the fact that I'm someone who can with ease pick a subject and keep brooding about it until I'm totally freaked out. It's not one of my most handsome traits, and I'd love to just flip some sort of switch in my head to keep it from doing that, but it ain't easy; especially when you're already in bed for 2 hours and still awake. In some cases all this worrying creates a panic about something that's perfectly fine and then I go and ruin it by making a fuzz about it and thinking up worst-case scenarios.
Come to think of it, I'm actually a pretty lucky guy – sure I get sick from time to time or have occasional cases of self-doubt, but who doesn't? In return I didn't have a lot of problems I witnessed on friends of mine – I never fight with my parents, I somehow always seem to have money, my graduation went well and I have job that actually balances fun and work perfectly. So all in all I should be happy. I am, I guess. But I seem to have developed a very low tolerance for everything negative: I NEVER fight with anybody (and if I do, I often lose because I can't fight), I don't like losing when playing games with friends, and if something stupid or bad happens to me it takes a while to get rid of it – it often disgruntles me for the rest of the day. You can say: The slightest amount of Negative can overwhelm everything Positive. And boy, does it suck.

But not anymore. Not only do I annoy (and drag down) people I like, but I seriously annoy myself at times. So there's that, a resolution for 2010 that might be a little late, but not too late:

I won't take things too personally, I'll just turn over the coin and remind myself of what's good in my life.