Category Archives: Fun

Elon Musk, Mars Colonization, and me

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Imagine you have lots of money, what do you do? Do you give it all to charity? Do you keep it until you’re 80 and then let your children fight over the will? Do you perhaps setup trust funds with altruistic goals, that end up eating most of the money for management overhead after you’re dead? (hey, execs need their bonuses, right?).

What I like about Elon Musk’s choices and initiatives is that he’s putting his money and energy into humanity’s future. He is not investing in its present or past problems, and he is not getting his hands dirty with politics.

What I realized today, is that if I had all that money, I would probably want to join him as a co-investor, and at the very least, I would try to get involved into one of the projects, even if just to help him reach his goals sooner.

I think of the countless times in my childhood when I really wished I could travel to the distant future. I did not like what I was seeing around me as a child engrossed in Science Fiction books that described partially utopian futures. I spent a lot of time thinking about how far I would have to travel into the future until I reached an era that might be to my liking. I figured at least 200 years into the future until most resource and religion wars are behind us, and the majority of humans have evolved enough to become decent human beings, with advanced, friendly philosophies that promote exploration, science, and simply being good to others (humans and non-humans).

What Elon Musk is doing is admirable because his actions bring this future into our present. This is the kind of atmosphere I want to live and work in. When you actively build the future, you invite it into your present life, and you become part of that future as much as that future becomes part of who you are. And let’s not neglect the gadgets: When you build futuristic gadgets, you live in the future right now.

This makes me want to focus even harder on my own business venture, with the goal of making enough money to be able to join Musk’s adventures.

Let’s hope I succeed! But whether I succeed or not, I am at least proud to belong to a species that produces people like Elon Musk, who are constantly pushing the envelope. They stay a tree is as tall as its many branches, I say the tree is tall as its highest branch / leaf / flower.

 

Music re-discovery

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A couple of months ago I upgraded my internal laptop drive to SSD. I’m very happy with the massive performance increase and the physical reliability. However, since the SSD drive is significantly smaller than my old magnetic drive (160GB vs. 512GB) I decided not to copy over any of my old music. This saved me from transferring almost 50gb of data.

The main reason for this decision was that I probably stopped listening to more than 50% of that music. I saw it as an opportunity to start from scratch, and only copy one artist at a time from my old collection, and only if I am reminded of them and really want to listen to them again. Another decision I made was to only transfer the tracks I liked (I made one exception so far with Yellow Submarine, because I love absolutely each and every track in that album). This would save tons of space, and increase the chances of enjoying a random playlist.

The first ones to make the move were: Kraftwerk, The Smiths, The Advent, The Beatles, and a bunch of Ambient tracks (Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Aphex Twin, Vidna Obmana, Zegunder, William Orbit, etc).

I am thoroughly enjoying the experience, and recommend it to anyone wishing to rediscover the music they love.

From Russia with Love?!

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When I was very young, Russia was this “grey” and “evil” entity. Having lived in countries mainly under the influence of the west, this is no surprise. The impression was that the government is not very good for the people, as in, not very democratic.

However this is my third or fourth time to Russia, and what I discovered has changed how I think about countries and governments in general.

The first thing that shocked me was how popular virtual money is. When you are in the wallet business, you learn that in Russia the most popular valid form of payment is “Webmoney” but the reality is that many russian companies have wallets! What really matters, is that you can walk a short distance from your home and convert your real cash to virtual cash, with which you can then pay for services online. For that, a rampant network of money collection terminals exists, with fierce competition in some areas. The machines only take money, and produce a receipt.

In some apartment buildings the machine is in the lobby so you can go downstairs in your PJ’s and convert money to virtual value without braving the elements (visualize the Moscow winter to realize how practical this is!).

What makes this business thrive in Russia and Ukraine? What is the government doing or NOT doing, which allows wallets to be so popular? Is it the lack of trust in Russians banks? Is it some Russian cultural trait?

I welcome your feedback on this one.

The Sexy Cripple?

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I know this post may disturb some of you, but I have noticed some guys (who’s names I will not disclose here) find the sight of certain crippled people arousing. A friend of mine saw this blond girl on a wheel chair and I swear if I didn’t hold on to a nearby lamp post, his errection would send me flying to Zimbabwe…

Is it because supposedly that person in the wheelchair is helpless, and an easy prey? Is it this kind of inner ferocious instinct usually found in carnivorous mammals?

Or is it because he thinks she is desperate for Sex and will do anything? Or maybe he is imagining her stiff legs and the thought of her dead limbs is arousing in a very perverse way?

This reminded me of the story of Safran and his dead arm, from the book “Everything is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer. In that story, Safran, supposedly the author’s grandfather, has a dead arm from birth. This somehow gets him into the arms (and underwear) of most of his village’s women… to the point where it has become a sort of a “secret weapon” for him, which he used to “fish” for his gipsy, non-jewish girlfriend. I seriously recommend that book by the way, it’s awesome in so many ways. And definitely read the book BEFORE you see the movie.

How to properly measure your member

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Nonsense warning: I’m in a good mood, so I decided to write a completely silly entry in my blog. I did not try the method mentioned below, so try at your own risk!

There have been lots of debates on penis size. Some say size matters, some say it’s how you use it, etc. The “size” however is not always very well defined. Are they talking about Length, or Girth? Lots of articles (mostly written by Women) talk about how the length doesn’t matter, and it’s really all about the girth, and yet some other women will tell you the length AND the girth matter.

I say, the only right way to measure your Penis is not by length or girth – It is about absolute atomic mass!

That’s right boys and girls. And how do you measure this? Fear not, for I’ve devised a sure method for you Math challenged people, that will also make you look like a “Real Man” while measuring your mass (because Beer is involved). You will need a large empty pot, a glass of beer filled to the top, and a cooking scale to weigh the fluid.

The Beer Displacement Method (Thank you Leah for the name!):

  • Step 1: Zero the scale by placing the empty pot on the scale, and turning the scale on. The display should show “0 grams”.
  • Step 1: Take a pint of Guinness beer, and place it inside the pot.
  • Step 2: Look at a photo of Scarlett Johansson to obtain an errection.
  • Step 3: Stick your member into the glass, the beer will spill from the glass and into the pot.
  • Step 4: Remove the glass from the pot, and weigh the liquid content.
  • Step 5: You are done! This is the mass of your penis!

So from now on, when you brag to your friends about how large you are, remember: what really matters is your mass! :-)

And another thing: If you are crazy enough to actually try this I will be happy to get comments below about your measurements! :-)