Putting aside all the other things I could say...

...I'll just say:

Happy New Year to ya'all,

let's survive it like we did this one,
perhaps even more gracefully and with greater happiness
in out cold, withering hearts :)

Take care.

Adam

Christmas rant

OK, here comes.

This year's Christmas will suck. A lot. Not only I have two fuckloads of things to do for all sorts of school and college assignments, but also my computer got broken somehow and refuses to boot, so it seems I'll spent my beautiful holiday giving electronic version of CPR to my dearest fraction. In the unlikely scenario involving me acutally getting it up and running the problem with WoW unplayable will most probably persist, as several people has come to conclusion that with old graphic card drivers your icons get fucked up and with new graphic card drivers your gameplay will be choppy. That's just great. I wish I had a supercomputer or something (not that it always helps, some guys have problems on high-end PCs too).

There is a brighter side to Christmas, though, because due to some supranatural cause I've managed to get all the presents together and quite a handful of them, I might add. I got a nice book for my father (one he wants), nice book for my brother (one he wants too - not that he knows it, but he's a LotR freak so another Tolkien will make him happy), that iranian Persepolis comic book for my mother, the film for her too - coming in a beautiful cover-art'd box, shoe-wax for me and my father, Magic: The Gathering cards for my brother (the ones I gave him earlier this year but he doesn't seem to play much - a reminder to him he has them), a wooden cat necklace for my mother and finally a custom made song-book of negro gospels arranged for little choir for my parents, because they sing in one and want to try singing them themselves - this book comes with a picture, uni-bound, I just like it :)

Also, I've seen the finale of Stardance II. I liked it and I'm happy Aleš won, because he's such a fine man. And that dancer of his, she's pretty hot when not wearing all the make-up.

Good,
over and out,
Adam.

In Flagranti

Prepare yourselves, "culture" is coming.

I have just returned from a concert of a string trio called In Flagranti consisting of first and second violin and a cello.
The three girls, named Markéta, Katka and Sylva respectively, held their electronic instruments with great confidence. All of them were trying to look glamorous, but only the blonde one smiling at all times seemed beautiful to me (well, I know that if she took off all the make-up she wouldn't, but hey, it's always like that). Dressed in a tube top dresses and on high heels, with the skirt part cut up to their hips, the put up a real show. Or at least attempted to. Moving around on the stage in a crude attempt to create visual pleasure to the viewer, throwing away the skirts (only to reveal the shorter ones below) during only the third song, getting back-to-back to the others then splitting with a thump of their bottoms... I can't possibly depict the kind of view we spectators were getting and even the less in english, but it was embarassing and funny in a sad way.
They played with electronic support. Beats and such, you now that kind. Unfortunately for the whole case, "and such" included strings, namely the melodies these girls were playing. I seriously doubt - no, I'm sure - that the cellist ever really played anything. She mainly twisted around her instrument, once or twice even tried to spin it around the way they do it - much to my dissatisfaction it didn't fall, but I swear to God it almost did.
I shall not continue with disgraceing their "art". I'll just point out that the funniest moment was when the sound-manager played a wrong track and the leader signalled him to stop it, but the two other girls didn't really take notice and kept pretending they are playing, but then all of them stopped, but the music kept playing, not changed in any way.
They say they bring us classical music and that till now they've only had performances abroad. Well, I think I can imagine the kind of those performances. Private parties of very rich men, where these girls come, pretend to play classical music, pound the beats from the CDs into those men so that they don't fall asleep, twist around on the stage looking beautiful (some of them, at least), perhaps have a little lie-down, get paid and depart.

Oh well, this was a new experience to me. I'm happy to have it. But for the love of God, don't go to their concerts, not if they are paid. And for the love of God, girls, don't kill the amazing classical music like that.

Adam

CPE - Listening and Speaking

EDIT: I've been noticed by a friend of mine that I have messed up tenses in this post. It's very likely the case, because even checking only few lines showed me that I really made some mistakes. I _might_ correct them at an unspecified time in the future, but at the moment I can't be bothered. I'm always mixing up past simple and present perfect.
Also, this is not a boasting post. If you find it such, you are plain wrong.

I'll try to keep this short, not that usual wall of text.

As you all know, I've attended a first part of CPE examinations today. It consisted of two tests, Listening and Speaking, the rest is scheduled for the 13th.

First was the Listening. We were asked to arrive 30 minutes in advance, which proved to be completely unnecessary, as I've arrived only about 20 minutes in advance and still had to wait. After being let in we found our seats according to our answer sheet with names printed upon them. After a short introduction from the supervisor, some man not having a sheet with his name in the room at all and after a short sound-check the answer sheets were handed out and the test started. It was pretty standard, I've done all the tests from previous years so nothing really surprised me. Understaning was very easy, I could have literally transcribed the script, but as usually the question-answer pairs were often two-way and very unclear - that is even if you knew perfectly well what the people on the tape said, you didn't know what answer to choose. As I've said: standard. Just one more remark: the headphones didn't fit me at all and kept falling off my head and by having the sound come at you from three different sources (the headphones, one soundspeaker and second soundspeaker at the other end of the room) it was kinda echo'ed. Nothing critical, but still annyoing.

Next was the Speaking. I had to wait at the vicinity of Budějovická underground station for about one hour, which I found extremely boring. The place has nothing to offer; if you ever find yourself in need of spending prolonged period of time at that place, bring a book. Or two. When I entered the waiting room in the local gymnasium, I met our ex-professor Folda (who is known to be a pojeb). He was taking the FCE level exams. After a while the organizators read out my and one girl's name out loud, so we stepped forward and subsequently were given instructions as to the place where we should go. Off we went and I started a little chit-chat, just to learn something about that girl and so that we feel better when taking the test together afterwards. Do this, it helps. Get to know your co-examinee. When we entered the classroom, there were two examiners. One who talked to us and one who was making notes. Off went the examination, also strictly according to the guidelines I read earlier in the previous year tests. So strictly in fact, that I didn't like it at all. The examiner stared at us with rather blank face, not showing any understaning nor emotion, didn't react to what we said at all, only with standard "Hm. Now I will ask you some other question." sort of stuff. Really annyoing if you ask me. Also the topics we had to speak about for two minutes were quite academic - increasing the effectivity of people working (my co-examinee Karolina's) and of public transport systems (mine). I found two minutes extremely short and insufficient, especially because after the time run out (which I couldn't know, as the clocks were hidden from us) the examiner very ruthlessly cut in and ended me almost in the middle of my sentence with very standartized "Thank you, Adam.". I didn't learn to like that man. A few more points: I found myself resorting to calling things "things" instead ofby their real names and I also didn't really get to any conclusion during the speech I made (the two minutes one). It's not as easy as it seems. There are I think 5 areas that are marked in this test. It would be: Lexical Resource, Grammatical Resource, Discourse Development, Pronounciation and the last one I can't remember atm.

I'm not exactly excited and confident about the results, I think the girl spoke better than me and that I may have made some mistakes in the Listening test, but I think I'll pass.

Adam

P.S.: I've also met Barbara Holcatova at the Speaking part, applying for CAE. Rather nervous but still herself. Yeah, with a boyfriend. More like a manfriend actually, that guy must have been like 30.

I'm a case for a psychologist

This time it might be a bit too emo for some of you, too much of my personal life will be involved, so if you do mind that, don't read further and simply jump to the CUT line at the bottom. I've chosen to write a few things down to clarify my own views, take a step backwards and look at what I'm feeling and thinking.

My parents have decided that I need to visit a psychologist in search of a professional help with my computer addiction.

At first I decisively refused, almost laughing with disregard. But after a few seconds I realized, that it will be the ideal opportunity for me to talk this over with an (hopefully) non-prejudiced person and finally make my parents believe me.
We've had discussions and arguments about PC usage ever since. They always thought that I spend too much time on it. For quite some time we even used a system of daily quota based on my marks in school. But even though I always had the best score possible (allowing me, by the way, 2 hours spent on PC (including internet usage, playing games, watching vids, chatting and all) for that particular day) it sort of blurred out after some time with me spending sometimes more sometimes less time on it and my parents always complaining and reproaching me for it.
In last few years we've abolished all mark schemes and everything with me doing whatever I want and them grumbling accordingly.
There's been an increase in my average time spent on computer during last year due to me taking to World of Warcraft. I dare say, that my average time played per day would be something around 3 hours; some days I don't play at all, some days I might play for six hours (not straight! with numerous pauses for excercise, school, food and all sorts of stuff). That and I use my computer for schoolwork - which I sometimes quite extensive.
This put together causes my parents to see me "chained to my laptop" for most of the day they actually get to see me (which is not much, considering I return from school at around 4 o'clock average).

So they decided to take me for professional help. I'm so looking forward to it, because I think that I will have a decent chat with the psychologist, convince him that I'm no addict, make him talk to my parents and then go home. Where do I take the assurance?

I will make several points to my defence, talking only about gaming. Spending too much time on computer in general is a different issue which results from a different way of life. Here go my claims:

• my gaming doesn't interfere with my academic endeavours

No, it doesn't. After being top of my class one can hardly hope for more. Actually I've been getting better and better in last few years.

• my gaming doesn't interfere with my family duties and obligations

I don't have many and those I have I fulfill. And I still ask for more so that my parents can complain. They still do. Oh well...

• my gaming doesn't interfere with my social life

I've never been a party person, I'm not one now and I never will be. I prefer a quiet cup of tea with my best friends or a date with my girlfriend (if there was one) to a big party. I never went to parties, I don't now. I don't even lose friends, I actually make more of them. I might never see them in person, but so what? I may.

• my gaming doesn't make me leave clubs and interest groups

The thing that makes me leave clubs and interest groups is lack of energy and time combined and a worsening quality of activities performed in the club. This is, of course, debatable, but I stand my ground. The gaming is a hobby and relaxation for me, refreshing me after hours spent in school. I don't give energy to the game, I take energy from it. This, again, will be disputed by my mother who sees computer as a leech sucking out my energy (literally, not kidding), but again I stand my ground.

• I do not suffer withdrawal syndrome and I can stop playing by my own will

I've even stop playing ALL games for one whole month. What more of a proof do they need?

• the gaming is not a mindless waste of time giving me nothing

I could count oh-so-many things this game gives me. Let's just mention social skills, multi-people cooperation, basics of marketing, orientation in a wide world with many possibilities, the "you-gotta-stick-to-something" attitude... I could go on for a long time.

• and finally: the gaming is not a substitute for a real life

It's an addition. No, not addiction, addition. Extension. Bonus. I do not seek serious relationship in a virtual world, I do like to help others in there though. That might actually be a way of substituting real life with the virtual one. It's very hard to make a difference in this vast and potentionally cruel world. But I can make a difference in the virtual one. Also everything goes somewhat faster in there, which suits me. I mean I AM studying for a university and all, but before I'll be of any use it'll take ages. But in the game I'm of some use now already.

Well, I think that's about it. I'm looking forward to the psychologist visit very much. I hope that we'll settle this thing at last.


--------------------------> CUT <---------------------------


One of my friends recommended me a poem by T.S.Elliot called The Waste Land. It's on Wikisource. I've only read a few lines but I already like it. Reading poems in english might be the way to go for me.

Also I've had an experience today which I hadn't for the whole previous life. I took an egg and threw it against a stone wall at full speed. I only wish I had more so that I could experiment with various throwing momenta - I can only tell you about the full speed variant. It was like an explosion of anti-infantry mine, with shards of the shell flying from the center of the impact in all directions (but in one plane only, the plane of the wall). A little bit of the shell stuck to the wPublish Postall in the center of the impact and stayed there. All in all, it was a nice feeling to throw it, but next time I'm going to do something like that I won't throw full speed, I'll only throw half speed or something, so that it can do the "splat" thing.

Take care, people.

Adam

FreeRice.com

On my endless journey across the vast internets I've stumbled upon this site. It was a gift from the heavens, just what I needed.

What's it about: It presents you an english word with four others. You have to choose which of the alternative 4 is a synonyme (or generally similar word) to the original one. If you succeed in several words in a row, they get more difficult - you move onto another vocabulary level. This alone would be quite nice, because vocabulary expansion is just the thing I now need - my CPE exams are closing in on me way too fast and I feel unprepared.
But now comes the interesting part: For every word you get right the site donates 10 grains of rice to the world's poorest and starving.
How can this be true? They get the money from little (very inobtrusive) ads placed at the bottom of the page and give the rice to UN humanitary aid divisions who subsequently distribute it.

Pay it a visit. You don't have to sign up or pay or anything, it's fun and it's very good for your english. And it's a challenge - how far you get. So far I got to Vocabulary Level 27, but I oscilate around 25.
Can you beat me? Try it! ;)

On Instant Messengers

Ok so I've been using Miranda for past few years. I'm generally very happy with it, it's light-weight, it's useful, it's personalizable, but it's also pain in the ass to set up properly.

I got my package I flicked together some time ago and I'm happy with it - it might not show avatars, it might not show me info about all my contacts when I hover above them, it certainly doesn't tell me what the weather forecast is, but it functions, sends and receives messages (and, I must add, I can be sure they'll be delivered (which actually took me some time to achieve but anyway)) and doesn't bother my life that much.
It has, however, started getting somewhat old and senile lately, one extremely annoying error window started popping up on every attempt to connect (ideally every on every start-up, but in praxis much more often) and I'm now sterile, unable to send/receive files to anyone. Oh yes, and some people can't read my X-Status properly. Or at all.

So I decided to get a new one. Young. Vigorous. The latest build. With all the updated addons. Well, I did get the lastest build of the core. What I didn't get was the modern contact list addon (which is vital for any skinning - which I require) - the original (and obviously only) place on the web where it should be downloaded from (Miranda database) was bugged. After some extensive copying and enabling/disabling of addons and general proces of getting pissed off I though "Heck, I might as well get one of already functioning packs with some stuff I'd like and just disable the rest!". So I did.

I downloaded sssuigi's (I hope I put in enough "s"'s) pack. He's some slovakian guy and the pack was quite cool. I downloaded it, unpacked, simply copied and I was up and running. But oh-my-jolly-god, what all didn't I see! It was so, SO cluttered with useless junk! I mean, it had bosskey (what for? I can chat no problem!), weather forecast (in IM? why the hell would I want that?), TV programme (I don't have TV), radio programme and streaming (I don't listen to radio), Windows uptime (again - what bloody for?!), Miranda traffic meter (...OK, so I'll know how much I talked. Great.) and even more of some other stuff I didn't even understand what it was supposed to do!
It did have some nice features though, like e.g. contact-info on mouseover (very cool, with statuses, x-statuses, last-seen, god-knows-what, cup size...), avatars, cool semi-transparent pop-ups and all sorts of other gadgets and features. But the message window was ugly and cluttered too. It was red-on-black, which is bloody illegible. No chance.

So I thought I could tweak it appropriately. I started disabling addons and editing settings. But how great was my astonishment when I saw, that after disabling few (about 3/27 or something) addons and restart it stopped functioning! "Error, miranda had to be shut down, wanna send a message to Microsoft, they'll fix it for you." No, I did not. After trying three times and failing three times over I gave up and went back to my good ol' simple pack.

I think I'll cope with that start-up message and send files over ftp. I only fear what will I do when it will definitely die.

Adam

For the Bärchen!

Hi all,
this is mainly a filler note to make the Store look at least somewhat updated, but it seems to have something into it anyway :)

So I was in the cinema yesterday. No, suckers, it wasn't with my g/f, it was actually with my mum. We went to see the "Medvídek" movie, which I got some good references on.

Medvídek would be probably classified as a family comedy or family drama, but have no worries - it doesn't slip down into the abyssal depths of relation shit and "you-dont-love-me-no-more" stuff we all hate. It maintains a reasonable pace throughout the whole thing with the three main "heroes" (Jiří Macháček, Ivan Trojan and Roman I-dont-know) being really sympathic. I think you'll like them much more than their three wives (Aňa Geislerová, I-dont-know and I-dont-know), which sometimes behave like totally dumb teengirls.
Anyway, it's full of breaking up (and not making it back together), friends-talk, real life references and VERY realistic illustrations with some cynical clichés as a bonus. Mencl as an old father of one of the guys having a "I've-been-unfaithful-to-you-30-years-ago-when-I-was-drunk" conversation with his wife is just a golden berry atop the cake (which is called Medvídek, incidentally).

Go see it, it's nice. You'll like it, if you liked Vratné láhve and Pupendo and Pelíšky and such classics.

Next on my must-see list would be Rattatouille and RE: Extinction. Martin, we'll be going to that one!

Peace,
Adam

Love for Priest Tier 6

Just a quick note today. To all of you, who don't like WoW: take a look at this.Tier 6 armor for Priests, very high level class-specific set. What I'm trying to show you is the beauty - even if you don't like the game you have to admit, that the designers occasionally do some very good work - like, for example, this one.

It's also the most beautiful of all the sets - just see for yourself here. The simplicity combines with silent dignity, while still hiding something from us. I just love it.

Do you like it as much as I do? Do you like some other sets better?

P.S.: Proteosomes coming soon.

All copyrights and that stuff is Blizzard's, of course.

Molecular Biology - coming soon

I've been reading some very interesting stuff on the topics of ageing lately and I do plan on putting it up in partially digested form sooner than late, but it'll have to wait for some other and better day - I'm not feeling very intelligent today and I really cba to do anything of any value today anymore. Soz for that.

Stay tuned, interesting reading will be coming to your favourite blog soon.

On Finances, Time and Starving Children

Today I went to my friend's office to talk through my financial status and perspectives. See, he's kind of apprentice financier, studying the market and telling people what should they do with their money. He also had an attractive young lady with him, his "boss" or whatever, but not that it is of any importance to my story.
So here I am, at their office. Both are so nice and friendly to me, explaining mechanism of investment life insurance combined with mortgage and mortgage savings. Everything's so warm and friendly, in fact, that it would be seriously suspicious, if one of them wasn't my trusted friend. So, after some time we get to pension saving and stuff like that and finally I'm leaving the office, completely encumbered with too much data on everything and three signatures lighter.
During the 45minutes of my way home, with fat ladies trying to psychically force me to stand up and give up my deserved seat, I realize, that here we are actually earning money BY MONEY. We don't have to do a shit, we just have money and for that other people will give us yet more money.
Not that I mind, but reading this stuff later on I realize what state our society really is in. We have everything and we're so terribly bored. People have to sell their body, whereas we are paid for not using our money. People starve to death, whereas we start saving for our pension when we are 18.
I'm not trying to make a point here, it's just that it stroke me and I found it...amusing.

Yeah, and I just blasted off 399,- for my brother's Magic: The Gathering Started Pack.

Oakwood Foundation

You heard it - the time has come once again and I got myself a blog. Chances are pretty high that its life will be just as short as that of all my other blog attempts. But one has to try, doesn't he?

So, what can you expect from this place? I'll try to make it interesting, don't worry: links to articles I come across on the internets and find interesting, remarkable pictures from DA, insights about my gaming experiences, film or music reviews, stuff that happens in my RL and I feel like sharing... Don't worry, I'll try to limit the emo submissions to absolute minimum. That is: there will be none.

Why did I choose Oakwood Store as a title for this space? (I'd rather call it space than a blog, because that's what it really is.) See, oakwood is great material. It has the strenght, the proper feeling, the looks, it's friendly and supportive. And it's kinda rare nowadays. Yeah, that's what I would this place to be like.

As a first submission go check out my Dark Passion Play by Nighwish review on last.fm.

Peace