Here’s a question of morality to you, readers.

Let’s say there’s an issue you’re passionate about, something you have also expressed your opinion about before. Then suddenly you find out that should you stand your ground and defend what you believe it won’t be you who suffers, but people that are close to you.

Essentially the conundrum is if you would stick to your beliefs and ideals at the cost of grief and distress caused to your relatives. Or would you just swallow a bitter pill and keep your mouth shut.

Hypothetically of course. Any resemblance to actual situations is purely coincidental.

My perception of girls lately is more along the lines of:

You wouldn’t want to make a universe angry. I bet an angry universe would look at you with eyes like that.

You know, so it’s not all flowers and humble expressions of admiration and gratitude.

You can read the whole thing here.

And we love you, of course, regardless.

If I won the lottery I’d walk around in bespoke suits made by Thomas Mahon and shirts by Péter Anna. I’d drive a Ferrari California Spider and Teufel speakers would blare Pink Floyd records in the living room.

In his latest blog entry Scott Adams, the cartoonist who created Dilbert wrote a bit about how he ended up making cartoons fo a living. His synopsis reads:

In summary, the two opinions about your abilities that you should never trust are your own opinions, and the majority’s opinions. But if a handful of people who have a good track record of identifying talent think you have something, you just might.

I find this quite insightful, especially where he suggests people should be wary of trusting their own judgment. If anything, I can second that: I am my own worst enemy, a ruthless critique of everything I do, an aggregate of all the negative voices that whisper little discouragements, the judge analyzing my every move in retrospect.

I am yet to find a way to silence this part in me without utilizing excess amounts of alcohol.

Source: Agyvihar.

Gondolom mindenkinek megvolt a Boom De Yada dal a Discovery Channeltől. Még talán én is betettem anno. A sikerre való tekintettel követte egy második is, valamint szerintem minden tisztességes geek számára kihagyhatatlan az xkcd webképregény által inspirált változat, amelyben Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow és hasonló félistenek szerepelnek.

Egy hete pedig nyilvánosságra került egy World of Warcraft témájú videó. Az apropót a Blizzard és az Alienware közös filmes versenye adta, a végeredmény pedig magáért beszél:

A YouTubeon 720p HD verzióban érdemes.

Mondja valaki, hogy apa munkahelye nem cool. Bár az amerikai hadsereg lövöldözős játékot is csinált népszerűsítési célból, azért mi is kezdünk elindulni ezen az úton. Élő Counter Strike életképek, és autót lapító tank. A zene pedig szerintem Immediate Music.

Hello! De régen találkoztunk. Hogyhogy itthon? Na, és milyen Japán? Nameg a japán csajok, azok tök szépek, biztos megvolt egy-kettő! Nekem elmondhatod. Hm, lehet csak a világítás, de kicsit mintha sárgábbnak tűnnél. Haha. A szemeid is mintha húzottabbak lennének. Tényleg, és tudsz japánul? Mondjál már valamit! Fúj, és ettél nyers halat? Tudtál pálcikával enni, vagy volt villád? Én imádom ám Japánt, rajongok a kultúrájáért. Nem semmi, hallod, irigyellek: neked el van rendezve az életed. Na csá!

Lisa Hannigan, nuff said.

In advance, I’d just like to show this. This is how high the bar was set:

I stumbled upon The Gathering while I was in Japan only a few years ago and couldn’t stop listening to them. But then Anneke left the band and first there was a lot of silence and uncertainty then the announcement of Silje joining and some new songs posted to MySpace. Which, actually, failed to convince me.

My thoughts were mixed. Somehow the singing voice wasn’t distinct or powerful enough. The heavily guitar-driven sound a little mushy. I couldn’t pick a favourite song from The West Pole either. I was sticking to the old albums for a while.

Not that all this could stop me from going to their show yesterday.

The warm-up band, Autumn, was okay, but I haven’t done my research and didn’t know any of the songs. But then The Gathering took the stage and I was reduced to a fanboyish existence. I knew the rest of the band from all the live DVDs, but Silje was a surprise: she almost looked fragile, contrary to what I expected. She was much more likable at barely an arm’s length than on the band pictures. (Some people chose seats but I went right up to the stage, first line. Basically I was at Marjolein’s feet.)

About half of the songs played were not from The West Pole, rather from previous albums. I knew that they rehearsed old material with Silje but I wasn’t expecting this many. No complaints of course, it was beyond belief rocking out to Saturnine.

I’m also not really sure what transformed me… maybe listening to TWP tracks live or Silje’s non-studio voice… anyway for one I grew to like new material and I wholeheartedly accepted the lead singer swap. I’m Team Silje now.

Just listen to this:

I disagree with @kelt that The Gathering only used to be cool five years ago. They are still going strong after twenty years and they are still very cool, thank you very much.

Surprisingly few attended though: the place was only a little more than half full. I wasn’t looking back too often, nevertheless I think we, the audience, managed to make up with enthusiasm what we lost with numbers. Time will tell, I hope the lower interest won’t prevent or delay a return. I can’t speak in anyone else’s name but I was left craving for more in the end, even though we got two encore songs (Leaves) not just Travel which was on the setlist.

Probably I was the only person wearing a turtleneck in the history of rock gigs.