Crafts

I read somewhere that practicing crafts brings fullfilment to one's life. Right now, just after i lacquered the wood planks for our shelf, i may agree to that (or maybe it's breathing in the lacquer fumes?).

Thinking further about it, if crafts bring fullfilment, Latvia should be one happy nation, judging by the number of DIY stores around. But instead, it's one of the most depressive in EU. Maybe we're doing something wrong?

Evolution marching on

At least theorethically. And i contributed to it. All that is a very twisted way of saying that i'm a daddy now. And little Dāvis is a jolly good fellow (or my brain makes me think that way).

Physical things still matter

I've just done putting 100 CDs into their little cardboard sleeves. This is the first batch of our first album with Gaujarts. I didn't mind having to do that myself, since it gave me a sense of accomplishement. More than any electronic MP3 release will ever do. Since there is something final about having the CD in hand. And i'm thinking if we continue to play together into our next possible future recording, i will still insist on having a physical release, even if all the world goes iTunes.

So much of our lives is digital today, but still, still... we do like to touch things.

Or will the sense of touch be the next to go the way of tail and claws?

Religion / Science

There's an excellent article from Jerry Coyne - American biologist - about the futile attemps to reconcile science and religion. Apart from it being spectacular show of logic and common sense, the greatest part is the discussion afterwards. Particulary Sam Harris (i would marry him if he was a chick) has a great piece of satire. 

Can a biologist harbor any educated doubts about the Virgin birth of Jesus? No—because human parthenogenesis has nothing whatsoever to do with biology. Can a physicist form an educated opinion about the likelihood of the Ascension? How could he? Bodily translocation into the sky does not require any interaction with the forces of nature. Can either a biologist or a physicist realistically doubt the coming Resurrection of the Dead? Many have tried—all have failed. (Please understand that any mention of "entropy" in this context is mere posturing.)

Music image problem

There was an article about annual latvian music award nominations in one internet portal. The event, which is held by Association of Music Producers, is getting controversial this year, since quite a few well known acts have not been nominated (due to the fact that to participate you have to submit your work). But that's not the issue.

I don't usually read comments in portals, but this time i did, since the topic interests me. I was surprised by amount of "commentators" who had very strict opinion about latvian music as whole. Basically, they wrote, everything is crap, latvians can't play or write, latvian musicians should better go and dig graves, latvian language is not good enough to be used for song lyrics.

Maybe they are a very loud minority, but anyway that is a marketing problem. People have bad opinion, for whatever reason, which means that they won't come to gigs, they won't purchase any records or won't generally look for new latvian music. This opinion must be turned upside town, since it doesn't allow for development. We do have some great bands, great songs, great performers, just that latvians have this tendency of judging their own more harshly, perhaps because the musician lives just around the corner, therefore he can't be good, since the "the latvian" himself can't play or sing or write (and this musician around the corner can't be better than him, can he?).

Bad news is that advetising campaign probably won't help, the change has to start with the musicians themselves. We have to be better promoters, better marketers, better musicians, be generally more active. Maybe then we can "pull" the audience up a level?

Latvian consonants

Inspired by another blogpost i read today in which the author tried to find Latvian words with as many vowels bunched together as possible (like "neieelpo", "neieiet", "neieausi") i started think about consonants the same way. So far, to my amazement, i have found 2 words with 5 consonants bunched together, but 7 consonants in total in a 8 letter word. They are: zvirgzds un švirksts (by the look of it they're more Polish than Latvian...)

Crappy flags

For some reason, my colleague Rene started to look for flags of Soviet Republics. He found a nice Wikipedia page which has all of them, and you know what? Almost all are simply terrible designs. Except Latvian, Lithuanian and maybe Azerbaijani, the rest looks like they have been drawn by a 8 year old niece of Communist Party secretary general.

MORE STONES!

Good to know that we're not the only morons in the Baltics. Lithanian Parlament gets its share of stones too. Estonians - catch up!

Average voter

Reading news about vandalism next to Parliament building in Riga this evening made me remember a phrase from Winston Churchill: "The best argument against democracy is five minute conversation with average voter."

Strange search

Google has released search querry top called Google Zeitgeist.

One very strange thing i found so far is, one of the most popular Google search querries in Sweden is... google.

Go figure...

Handy English

I've been thinking on why many non-English speaking musicians (or wannabe musicians) write songs in English. First obvious reason is that English currently is lingua franca. But that answer didn't satisfy me, i thought there's something more going on.

And finally i got it yesterday night.

When i started to write songs, first three or four were also in English. I tried to write some lyrics in Latvian, but i found it very difficult and didn't succeed. At that point i didn't try to put the finger on the reason why there is such a paradoxical problem (i should be better with Latvian, after all). But the reason is this: English language is incredibly rich with one syllable words. One syllable words are extremely handy for songwriter, since, when putting lyrics to melody, you (usually) have to match the heavy beat of the bar (i'm not sure if that's correct term) with the stressed syllable of the word. Which means it will sound awkward, if you, for instance, start the song with heavy beat, but the word itself has a stress on second or third syllable, in other words there is a limitation.

With single syllable words there is no problem, you can arrange them as you wish, change order, no problemo.

Beatles' "Hey Jude" first verse has 29 words, 25 of them are one syllable.

ABBA's "Take a chance on me": 81 words, of them 75 - one syllable words.

Britney Spears "Oops, i did it again": 45 and 38

The first song i ever wrote (in English, obviously): 32 and 29.

Good news from space

I'm a big eater of sweats - candies, cookies, desserts, sweet-and-sour chinese pork - you name it. That's why i cheer to the great news of today - sugar is found in space! Now if decide to leave this planet, i'm sure i can have my dose of sugar even in the outer space.

P.S. Is it just me, or the drawing of the glycolaldehyde molecule looks a bit like giraffe?

Religion of peace?

The tragic events in Mumbai made me remember one story from the Danish cartoon craze couple of years ago. Some people in London, demonstrating in front of Danish embassy, held up a banner, which said: "Behead those, who say Islam is violent."

I wonder how it feels to be a moderate Islamist reading today's news.

Social net-WORK-ing

I'm now starting to understand that some people in the west are hiring other people to do their social networking for them. I'm currently registered on three sites: draugiem.lv, Facebook and LinkedIn, and i start to feel the pressure. When it's only the closest circle of friends you're linked to, you don't feel any pressure, but when it gets bigger and you're getting invited by people whom you don't know personally, it gets tougher since, what's the point of accepting their "friendship" if you afterwards don't socialize with them at least on "small chat" level? 

Now, should i accept the friendship of the guy who invited me today, or just pretend i'm dead?

On why religion is a terrible thing

I'm a fan (if you can say so) of writings of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Both guys are atheists as much as it is epistemiologically possible (Dawkins is a scientist, after all). "God delusion" and "End of faith" have shaped my views on religion. It's too difficult to explain in one post, read the books yourself. 

But what i wanted to write about is that all the silliness of religion got condensed in one little detail i was reading this morning. It's from Tom Wanderbilt's "Traffic" - a book about modern... traffic. And he writes that in L.A. many of the pedestrian crosswalks where you have to press a button for traffic lights to switch to green light, after the request of Rabbinical Council of California operate under so-called "sabbath-timing". Which means, that in time of sabath, pressing the button wont affect the light, since "sabbath-observant members of Jewish faith are not supposed to operate machines or electrical devices" in time of sabath or in selected holdays. Hebrew calendar is even programed into controller computers.

Because of handful of people who have blind trust in the piece of ancient literature (and other people who have limitless respect to these silly views) many more can't cross the street or have to wait at a crosswalk with no pedestrian in sight. I think i should finally start with inventing the religion of my own: the possibilities are truly boundless.

Jokes with a beard

Expression "joke with a beard" is usually used for old, not-funny-anymore jokes. But one professor William Berg has translated 1600 years old book of jokes from ancient Greek into modern English. So they're jokes with a reaaaaally long beard. What's surprising that the topics are largely the same: farts, sex, driving (the chariott) and ugly, annoying wifes. Same things, in short. Some things don't change, do they?

Curse of weekends

Listening to a radio programme yesterday evening. Anchor asked to send in messages about what good has happened to people today. One girl wrote: "Monday is over, so i'm one day closer to weekend."

I do know the feeling, i've been in a crap job for a little while ten or eleven years ago: grinding through the week in anticipation of the two free days. But i was smart or lucky enough to move away very quickly, however many, many people are working in crap jobs and paradoxically, perhaps the only thing that keeps them in the paid job are free days. Now, what would those people do, if you took those two free days away? Many would reconsider what are they doing with their time and if it's something they want to do.

Someone's got to do the crap job, i hear you saying. But i have this naive and idealistic view, that the more happier the people are around you, the more happier you are yourself. So let's cancel the weekends.

Idea #3: glue

Some people have this tendency of getting high by sniffing glue (they're not very high on the social ladder thou). So why not make a glue with some nice smell? Like lemon or peppermint.

Idea #2: heating

I've had this thought for a while, but now two things made me remember it. First, central heating in my appartment was switched on. And second: i went to a bar in London on a Thursday night.

Thing is, if you think about it, heating the whole room you're in (that means air in it, floor, walls, ceiling, furniture etc.) seems like a horrible waste of energy. In the end those inanimate objects don't feel the discomfort of being cold. So couple of days ago, while in London, we went to a bar, which had little terrace outside and we sat there (inside was all full). It was around +10°, and a little bit wet. To my surprise, after couple of seconds i felt a really nice wave of heat, but no visible source... And then i looked up.

The idea is basically this: to have an infrared lamp in the room (or lamps, depending on the size), which is able to track your motion. This lamp "follows" you around wherever you are. And since you can focus the infrared "light", you heat only the exact spot you're currently situated. Maybe there are some hidden physics issues, but it seems that you should be able to save a lot of energy.

And your drink stays cold for longer!

Walking issue

Spending couple of days in London this week i noticed a trend. Despite the fact that cars in UK drive on the wrong side, people, by and large, still tend to walk on the right side of sidewalk. It was especially noticable on long stretches without any possibility to turn, like "Millenium" bridge (but this one doesn't really serve as a proof since it's touristy area), but also on Oxford street and other busy sidewalks.

I wonder if it's something inherent to people, or maybe there's some very easy explanation, like the fact that most people carry their bag on right shoulder, and walking on the right keeps the bag from hitting those, who're walking in the opposite direction.