Politika

Musim uznat, ze posledne parlamentne volby som povazoval za spasu Slovenska. Bol som presvedceny, ze vsetko bude nejak lepsie, hlavne ak nezostanu pri moci zastupcovia stran SMER, HZDS a SNS. Od volieb uz pretiekla nejaka ta voda dole Dunajom a toto moje presvedcenie zacinam vidiet ako vaznu chybu usudku. Este ani za minulej vlady som nemal stavy ked ma oblieva studeny pot a chyta triaska predtym ako by som si zacal citat noviny alebo pozerat spravy.

Nasa pani premierka a jej vesela kopa to u mna dotiahli tak daleko, ze sa bojim ist si precitat alebo vypocut o ich poslednych eskapadach. Co je horsie, zacinam pochybovat o tom, ze demokracia je najlepsi dostupny model vlady. Je sice pravda, ze na vlastnej kozi som okusil tak akurat socializmus a to co potom prislo po nom a vzhladom na moj vek, tak naozaj nemozem tvrdit, ze socializmus tak naozaj poznam. Ani tie prve roky po som politiku tak naozaj neriesil, mal som proste ine problemy. A ak mam byt uprimny, nie som si isty, ze v mojom veku by som ju mal nejak vyrazne riesit. Precitam si noviny, pozriem debaty, precitam programy a vyhlasenia stran, zamyslim sa co sa mi paci/nepaci, s cim suhlasim/nesuhlasim a idem volit. Aspon taka je moja predstava ako by to malo byt. Ale co ma clovek robit v state, kde viera v naplnenie predvolebnych slubov alebo aspon ich casti sa da povazovat za dusevnu chorobu?

Som tym celym vlastne znechuteny. Pozeram sa na nasu politicku a kulturnu elitu (najma na tu politicku) a jedine co ma napada je, ze su to vsetko len oportunisti, klamari, zlodeji a podvodnici. Potom si poviem, ze ale to nemoze byt take zle, ze im krivdim a ze su to predsalen vzdelany a poriadny ludia. Potom si precitam noviny alebo pozriem spravy a citim sa jak uplny chuj za to, ze ma vobec napadlo, to ze by som im mohol krivdit a povazovat ich za poriadnych ludi. Su to ludia, ktorym by som nepozical 50 centov (kovovych, nie CD), za ziadnych okolnosti by som im nezveril bank pri zatahu na pivo a to uz ani nehovorim o tom, ze by som do ich blizkosti ani len nepustil svoje deti (kebyze nejake mam). A toto su ludia, ktorym som svojim hlasom zveril do spravy svoju buducnost, moj kusok tejto krajiny, ktorym som do ruk vlozil moju slobodu. Ak ma niekto pocit, ze toto sa nejak tyka len sucasnej vladnej garnitury, tak Ohoo, pockat! Nie, nie, toto sa tam tyka vsetkych nasich "politikov" - ci uz v rovine vlady, parlamentu, mestskych zastupitelstiev, predstavitelov vyssich uzemnych celkov - proste vsetkych tych ************ ************** *********** sracov. (Sakra, to pomohlo ... )

Kruta pravda je, ze je jedno kto je u nas pri moci. Pravica ci lavica, modry alebo cerveny, zeleny alebo cierny, ruzovy alebo duhovy. Uplne jedno. Zostava jedina konstanta - ta banda co je v danej chvili pri moci pouzije vsetky dostupne (obcas aj tie nedostupne) sposoby na to aby si nejak napchali vrecka, aby si zabezpecili buduce napchavanie vrecak, ked uz nebudu pri moci a aby nejak vyzdimali este tie posledne kvapky "zivota" z nas obcanov, lebo sak kym sa na to dojde, tak oni uz budu predsa za vodou, mimo hru a tak. A keby nie, tak je tu predsa nejaka ta imunita. A keby ani to neslo, tak predsa sa nakradlo, nazbijalo, napodvadzalo a nakorumpovalo dost na to aby sa Justicii kupili nove spravne nepriehladne okuliarky a vsetko tak bude zase uplne v poriadku, poriadecku.

Kedysi ked sa ma niekto spytal na ten vtip o tom, co maju politici a holuby spolocne, som sa na pointe schuti zasmial. Teraz mi je do placu. Nie ze by som povazoval za nutne strielat tych okridlenych potkanov - predsalen ziju v prostredi ake sme im my vytvorili - ale ked pocujem slovicko politik tak mi zacina mykat ukazovakom. I ked oni za to vlastne tiez tak naozaj nemozu, su tam kde su preto, lebo sme ich zvolili my, my obcania. Su tam, lebo sa pred kazdymi volbami nechame obalamutit, nechavame si namazat med okolo ust a tlacit Nutelu do hlavy. A potom volime ako keby sme naozaj mali v hlave matros farebne zhodny s tou Nutelou. Samozrejme, ze sa vynara otazka, ake su alternativy? Predsalen, nadavat vie kazdy .....

Uprimne, neviem. Niet koho volit. Neist volit nie je alternativa, to sa clovek vlastne vzda aj prava nadavat. Co by sa asi stalo, kebyze vsetci podali neplatny hlas (asi snivam co?)? Alebo keby naozaj nikto nesiel volit (asi jedina alternativa ako neist volit a nieco tym ukazat). Ale to sa urcite najde niekto kto by nesuhlasil a ako spravny poriadkumilovny obcan volit siel .... Zdrhnut z tejto krajiny? Co ti co tu ostanu? Su politici inde iny alebo len klamu, kradnu a podvadzaju v nejakej cudzej reci?

No dost bolo otazok, dost bolo blbych odpovedi a najma dost bolo nariekania nad rozliatym mliekom. Je po volbach a az do dalsich mozem zvazovat ako sa tym, tym, TYM politikom pomstim! MOR do nich!

Guess what, I'm back :-?

It might seem I didn't write a thing in a long time, and I have to say, its true. I guess it just did'nt work out the way I thought - time, inspiration, frustration, no lust, etc, etc, ....... and so on. Pick one and nail the blame on it.

To be honest, I just can't tell whether I will be writing anything new anytime soon - it seems that Hard Harry (Pump up the volume) had it right - All the great things have been invented, all the great things have been done and all the great things have been said. I hope I will find something interesting to write about or that there will be something that will tick me off enough to write about it.

So why am I writing now? I am venting. What am I venting? Dunno. I should be happy (Reasons to be happy - Check!), I just am not. No idea why, no idea what to do to change the situation. I wanted to say its a SNAFU, but that would be a lie - everything is just peachy (I think).

But what the hell, I just feel miserable, so feel free to join me - mysery loves company.

PS:
Wanna cheer me up? Try something, anything, maybe it will work. Worst case it won't.

I'm back! I guess. Valleyschwag news and other stuff.

Well, it's been something over two months now since my last post and I guess I did not disappoint anybody (I got this idea from the tremendous amount of comments I got) by not writing a single letter. To be honest I was a bit too busy, too down, too unmotivated to do anything other than work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep and occasionally put in some form of relax/fun time or just change the schedule (although work, work, sleep, sleep did not work as good as expected). The thing that woke me up from letargy, well actually it was more than just a single thing, was the nice and friendly fact that I got a raise. Actually a big raise (at least in my eyes) as it was somewhat more than I expected. The second biggest thing that had an impact on lifting my spirits was the fact that Valleyschwag package #4 arrived. It was a long wait since VS3 but finally after a lot of hard work of the Valleyschwag team, the packages went out and even more surprisingly (at least in my case), the packs have arrived. I have to say that the journey of the package was not as easy as some might have expected, but it got here. Despite of the Slovak post, the customs office, various other adverse conditions that need no mentioning and one that really pissed me of. This one being the fact, that the package arrived in Slovakia, actually made it to my place of residence and there the trouble started. Nobody was at home, but that is not a big surprise I guess, the day of arrival being a workday (as there is no post on public holidays). So the logical thing is - lets put the package into the mailbox. Well, I don't live in America and we just don't use mailboxes the size of minivans, so the next problem was there - it was too big for the mailbox (this fact must have hit the postlady the moment she took the package into her hands, unless she is completely stupid, but lets just pretend she did not notice). So the next logical step would be - as last time when VS3 arrived, to put a notice into the mailbox, that there is a letter/package to be picked up at the post office. Well, this seems to be a very demanding task and also probably a awfull lot of work as the postlady decided not to do so. Now you probably wonder how in hell did the package get to me in the end. All I can say is that I got lucky this time, as my mom got home just as the postlady was leaving and she by some miracculous spur of the moment decided to hand the package to my mom. Lucky, eh? But it kinda makes me wonder, where did my VS2 package disappear, as it did not arrive and, as far as I know, was not returned to sender. Well big thanx to the Slovak post and I just love the way it works.

Now what did I get in this long expected package. As before I placed the pictures on flickr.com (pic1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10974863@N00/248299415/in/set-72157594205416065/, pic2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10974863@N00/248299475/in/set-72157594205416065/, pic3: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10974863@N00/248299372/in/set-72157594205416065/).
Now lets see if I can insert the picture directly or not. Well obviously not yet, so I will have to use the last resort and that being the RTFM aproach, it will take a while. So as you can see (if you follow the provided links ;-) ) I got some really nice schwag this time and I am really happy about it. Especially as there were some comments in the Valleyschwag blog (http://www.valleyschwag.com/chronicles/) from users that were unhappy about the long time between packages and/or about the package itself. Well ppl, the first problem gets addressed by "patience" and the second one is rather harder to cure and I am not sure if I got the right cure, me being happy with what I got, but try to see the people, the effort and the idea behind it all. If you're still unhappy, well, I can't help you with that.

Well, gotta go, folks and good job Valleyschwag team! Good job!

Valleyschwag 3 arrives

VS3_1
Originally uploaded by adamszki.

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, the valleyschwag care package so longingly expected has finally arrived here in Slovakia. It was a very nice surprise as the paper from the post arrived to let me know that I have a letter from San Francisco there (a letter? hmm). The funny thing was I was at home at the time so I don't know why the mailman (mailwoman actually) left the paper instead of ringing the bell and giving the package to me. But well, that's life. So, the next day (one has to wait till the morning for the letter/package to be ready at the post office), right before going to work I made a small detour and got my package from the post. It looked a bit battered and I was afraid what I will find inside. The first thing I noticed was the postage date: 11th of July 2006, which means that it took only 7 days for the package to arrive here. The funny thing is, that the May package is still "en-route". It probably left the Solar system already and is headed straight for Klingon territory.
The moment I arrived at my desk I opened the package and started pulling the battered contents of it onto my desk. Here is the "loot": 2*2XL T-shirts (imeem, simplyhired), Macromedia keychain-thingy with a compass (that is not really pointing north), eurekster key/pocket light, mozes fortune cookie, abazab tattoo, technorati sticker, Yahoo sticker, Jeteye pen, golden and silver ioda stickers, laughingsquid sticker, snubster sticker, and a yahoo answers button. Images are on flickr.com (http://www.flickr.com/photos/10974863@N00/sets/72157594205416065/).

I cant say I am entirely happy with the haul, but I have to say that it was probably a bit more than most of the others got. My point is that this is the first package I got, almost a 2in1 as this should have somehow compensated for the lost May package, which makes the payment to package ratio 3 to 1 (I guess that is the normal rate for most of the subscribers). I cant help it to be somewhat disappointed as the package did not contain much from the May package (no Rubyred t-shirt, but that can still come, no goatse sticker, no EFF sticker). Also in comparison to the packages some other subscribers got I would not say it is a 2 in 1 package. On the other hand nobody said it would be ;-). Though the communication with the great ppl at Valleyschwag/Rubyred labs suggested that there is something special for me. Plus there is the battered state the package arrived in (thanx postal services of this world), the Hoedown poster is shot, fortune cookie broken, half the stickers look look as if a cow would have chewed them (the pictures don't show this but the Yahoo stickers got it really bad, the ioda stickers are somewhat better off), the first thing the compass did after it stopped pointing north is that it took its leave from the keychain (I guess a drop of superglue will solve this).

Well to wrap it up, it is a great package. It is probably not worth two months subscription, but it is still a great package. And given the fact that it actually arrived and was in a somewhat acceptable state I can't help it to feel somewhat happy, though not as happy as I thought I will be. Well I will see what the future brings as I will stay on board till something really throws me off.

The Fast and the Furious - Tokyo Drift

I am a fan of nice cars, fast cars, dream cars, expensive cars or just cars. I am not that into it like I am into computers, gaming, reading or movies but I do like them. And so naturally when there is a crossection of my interests I feel drawn to it. That's how I came to like the NFS games or The Fast and the Furious movies. I loved the first one and was not that disappointed with the second one and I was full of expectation for the third one. I just saw it and I have to say I did like it. Nice cars, great stunts and a storyline that was not entirely lame, though it was pretty predictable and in my opinion the nice came Vin Diesel made threw it back somewhat, though it made some room for speculation on the fourth movie. But all in all, I think that for most of the people, there will be some beauty of the movie lost as they did not see the Initial D movie. I am not really sure how the Initial D: First stage would fit into the picture as I am sorry to report that I have not seen it yet and I am not sure when or if I get the chance to do so. I think that those who did not see the Initial D movie might get somewhat confused to the race environment of the Tokyo Drift movie and to the simple question "Why are they drifting all the time?". I cant say that there is much effort spent on explaining why it is so. But in the end it was a nice movie and time/money well spent. I am certainly expecting the DVD for this one.

Valleyschwag - still a no show.

June '06 is over. Done for, gone forever. And my first Valleyschwag carepackage is still somewhere out there. I guess the faith I've put into the postal services of the 21st century was incredibly wasted. No normal country can work and exist without a halfway decent and working postal service, and that is exactly it, our postal service barely fulfills the "halfway decent" part. On the other hand, given the results of the last election, held on June 17th, there is some doubt whether we can count as a normal country. It is not an explanation why things are the way they are, but it delivers some idea to "where my frackin package is". The positive side of the whole thing is the reaction I got from the Valleyschwag team, that is probably more concerned about the whereabouts of my package than I am. Though I am pretty sure the Post here does not give a rats rearend about their concerns either. So right now I belong to the small group of people whose waiting for the package did not stop and start again, as the June package is already out, but did not stop at all and goes on without delay. Although I have a dark feeling that the group of continuous expectants consist only of me, but I will be an optimist and think its a group of more than one poor soul.

Vacation Ends

I was on vacation.

Actually I am on vacation, though I don’t feel like that. I mean I live across the street from the place I work at and that kinda sucks. It is pretty cool in matters of fuel consumption (boots don’t need much gas) and in time spent traveling to and from work. On the other hand, if something needs your attention at work, or you need something from work, then it is also close. In modern times, with laptops, instant messaging, e-mail and mobile phones the workplace is technically where YOU are. Even while on vacation. So I am on vacation. That means I was at work only three times in the last 7 workdays. That is I was there in person. I don’t count the phone calls and ICQ is pretty much an inseparable part of my life. Not that I would mind the contact that much, but after these 7 days I just don’t feel like I was on vacation. I took the vacation because I needed to shut down a bit, step back and relax. That is a goal that got met, but I just don’t feel like that.

I slept well(and a lot), watched a lot of movies, tried to Betatest the nice and new Windows Vista Beta2, reinstalled my old XP installation as the nice and new Vista managed to kill it before dying. I still can’t figure out how data can get corrupted by being read, but I guess I will never find out.

I managed to solve the problem with the noisy chipset cooler by replacing it with a new one (same type, just new) and while at it I went and did some general computer silencing. New CPU cooler, new GPU cooler (I am running SLI, so I had to silence two cards, but one was done some time ago), new exhaust vent on the case and voila …. silence.

I did some shopping, managed a couple of things that needed to be done.

And that was it.

Vacation Ends

Valleyschwag - feelings and realizations

It seems that I finally got some nice people to read my blog. I cant say it comes as a surprise, but it is a nice felling. It also showed me that I might have gone a bit overboard with my last post, so maybe there is still time to do some fencemending and some corrections.

I titled my last post "Valleyschwag 0, Disappointment 1" though the proper label should have been more something like Postal services 0, Disappointment 1. The point is, I don't think anyone would have read had any idea from the title itself, what am I writing about. It still does not make this title right, though it made the post read. Even by the nice people at Valleyschwag. I think I am trying to apologize to them, here, as the title of the post might suggest that I am blaming them for the failures of the postal services (probably the failure of the p-o-s local service) and for the geographical fact represented in the distance between their offices and Slovakia's capital.

But it still does not change the fact that I am disappointed, although it does help a lot to know that the crew at Valleyschwag feels the same way, I mean they hand delivered my package to the post office (now that's service, boys and girls, that is service). And it still does not change the realistic/pessimistic coolheaded realization that I might cancel my subscription. Although the blame there falls again on the the postal services, should this really happen. It shows once more that though everybody here talks about ONE Europe, there is still a long way to a time when quality of services will be the same in the U.K./Germany/France kind of Europe as in the Slovakia/Czech republic/Hungary/Poland kind.

As I read Jonathans (Valleyschwag crew) comment to my previous post and realized, I should write the lines above, I thought that I should name the post "Realizations". During the creation of those very lines I came to the conclusion that the title should once again be something where you, my dear readers (I am not gonna name the three of you, it seems so lame to me, I might forget to name someone and then there I am, hurting someone's feelings again) can see straight out what the post is gonna be about. I guess I did not do as good a job as last time, but this was the best I could come up with.

Thank you Jonathan for your comment and let me say, I once again shield myself in patience and hope that next week, the package arrives.

Valleyschwag 0, Disappointment 1

As the second week of June took its ending (well, the work week) and no carepackage arrived, the level of my disappointment hit historical marks. My sister is leaving tomorrow morning and there was nothing to pimp her laptop PC out. No EFF sticker, no Goatse hands, nil. Very sad. To tell the truth I am quite hard to disappoint as being a realist(with a pessimistic streak) by nature, I rarely get negatively surprised or really disappointed. But this time, I guess, all those little traces of optimism, that might be in me, had to cooperate, think positive thoughts and generally do everything in their might to keep my usual realism/pessimism at bay.

I guess next time they will know better than that.

So know with the usual amount of realism/pessimism and some coolheaded reflection, I think, I can state that with a high level of probability I will not see my June package in June. And with an even higher level of probability it is safe to assume that in the case that my May package wont arrive by June 29th, my subscription will disappear.

Valleyschwag, 2nd week of June. (Well the beginning of it)

Still no sign of my carepackage, I am starting to panic slightly. My sis is leaving for overseas in a couple of days and I really, really, really, really (and once more, for good measure), really wanted to pimp out her/my (shared ownership ;-) ) laptop with some nice stickers.

The good news is that in the future the international packages get shipped first so maybe I will have the June issue at the same time as everybody else (oh optimism, oh optimism). Another piece of good news is that the "valleyschwag deputy" system gets a beating and gets rethinked/re-engineered, so maybe there is a chance of getting some nice rare schwag "pour moi". The not so good news is that the last of the May shippments was sent on June 2nd and knowing my luck (and the special lobbing that was for sure executed by a certain person known as Mr. Murphy) my package was 100% among those.

And once again I have to state: Patience ppl, Patience.

Extra Noise in my Rig.

no_space
Originally uploaded by adamszki.

I have added a second graphics card to my gaming rig, pics available at flickr and though I expected some extra noise it became a nasty surprise that this extra noise did not come from the extra graphics card, but from the chipset cooler instead. So right now I am running a 2x6600GT SLI rig and when I fire up the big rig the noise from that tiny little fan just kills all the fun. For a pretty new fan of less than 4 months it became quite loud. When I installed it and first turned the machine on, I was surprised that it was not to hear, even as it is spinning at over 5000 rpm. Now just gets louder and louder.

If there is someone with a good suggestion on a silent NF4-SLI cooler, drop me a mail, please.

"Dumbass Activity"

While doing my regular daily check of my favorite blogs I found a nice little piece of evidence on the fact that this world is in fact going down the drain.

So, law offices and lawyers are now preemptively warning people/websites that they will be monitoring them as they are anticipating the possible unauthorized streaming and downloading of copyrighted content their clients hold the copyrights to. In this particular case the matter is the 2006 FIFA WORLD CUP, the law office of Baker & McKenzie LLP in London and the pre-warned website is BoingBoing. Anyone who does spend time on, or “closely monitors” BoingBoing knows or should know that there is no way that the fine people of BoingBoing would be interested in something like pro soccer (or any other pro sport) and would infringe on someone else’s copyright for the matter. I guess that the fear of copyright infringement is somewhat clouding the minds of lawyers of the above mentioned law office.

Well guess what? The internet will be full of that copyrighted content once your client customers stream their feeds across the TV’s of private people throughout the entire World. You should know by know, that any signal set free (yes, even TV signal) remains free in the sense, that there is no way for you to stop the people from sharing their recordings among each other. Well you could try to buy all VHS tapes, all digitizers, all CD-R/RWs and all DVD+-R/RWs or ,even better, not set the signal free and let only PayTVs broadcast the World cup. But if they want to be really sure that absolutely no content of theirs gets to the net they should probably stop all TV stations from broadcasting the games, remove all the cameras from the stadiums, ban all recordable devices from those few people that will have a ticket to a game and frisk them to check if they are compliant with the ban. Would be nice what that would do to their revenues from advertisement, product placement, etc. and of course their income from selling the licenses to broadcast to TV stations. There is still another way, they can sue every website that will allegedly host some of their content or sue every manufacturer of recording equipment that might be used to infringe on THEIR copyrights.

So I suggest you(Infront Sports & Media group of companies) do your regular business and get rich on the income you usually make and leave the people who are not interested in your *shit*, in peace.

Freaky Friday

So here it is again ...... Freaky Friday. If there is a better description of a day when Mr. Murphy really kicks ass, then somebody will have to let me in on that particular secret. This is a day when really nothing goes right, although I should probably describe this one as a "Freaky 48 hours before the weekend" as all the freaky troubling things started out already on Thursday.

The first really maddening thing that made my day was that the Windows Vista Beta2 I have successfully downloaded (with an painfully slow average speed of 18kB/s and a total size of 4100,9 MB) got left at home. To be true I just wanted to save some time and effort on the part of a colleague who brought me in on the betatesting and burn him a copy, so that he does not have to download it again. Well the slight little problem with that is that one needs juice and equipment to execute the actual copy. Well I guess I am one of those who are on the better side of it all when it comes to equipment, but this particular morning the nice and very friendly Power distribution company (a monopoly of course) has decided that I obviously don't need any juice and turned it off. I will not go into speculating what the reason for this might have been, the result was, that my went down the hard way, about a minute after I booted it up, and remained so. As it was time to leave for work anyway, I just cursed a bit and went to brush my teeth in the dark. Once I was dressed and about to leave the flat, the juice came back, so I see this as just another injustice on the trackrecord of the universe.

The day itself was not exactly a mess, but the usual "situations" at work and similar stuff had me on the edge for most of the day. Of course, the only real problem that occurred this fine Thursday had to be while I was at lunch (although I have to admit that the lunchbreak was a bit longer than usual).

I can't say that the situation developed very positively, as once I brought the nice little 4GB image of Windows Vista Beta2 to the office and burned it, I had to find out that the version is only for 64-bit systems and will not work on 32bit ones. I guess I really should start reading the fineprint more carefully. Although at this point it seems to be a real problem (not really, huh?), it is not. It is just sad, that I hoped to save some time and effort for someone and then botch it up like this. Well at least it is the correct version for my PC.

The next nice thing that got me going was again work related and sorry folks, I just can't go into details on that one, all I can say, that once again I will be looking like a fool in the end. What a surprise!

And now for the nice little thing that got me going for real, that really made my day sparkling, shining and highlighted in the calendar for eternity, was Valleyschwag.

It isn't just that they changed the form of the blog section of their page, it was mostly the content of the blog, especially the one about the May Issue of the carepackage. It seems that I am not the only one to feel betrayed by the content of the package, as it seems that all those fine "deputy's" and active bloggers get their packages significantly fuller than the rest. To be honest, I am not really in the position to judge, as my package has not yet arrived, but as I am a pessimist and I am neither a deputy nor a very active blogger, I presume the content of my package will be on the rather slim side. The funny part of the whole thing is that, that it seems that all the people with the full packages got theirs before all the others and to depict my feeling truthfully, I have the bad feeling that the packages for those of us, who are from farther away, have been sent out last (or at least later). I am not the only one to observe, that this kinda brings around a feeling of false advertising. I have to say that it has been stated in the Valleyschwags blog, that the deputies and active bloggers will get the rare stuff, but for someone that does not browse the blog, nor does anything other than sign up, pay and wait for his/hers package, with the occasional glance at the blogs depicting the content of the current issue the actual content may come as a nasty shock.

I guess I am just reflecting the feelings others have about the schwag that they already got, but I have to say that, as good/great/excited feelings I had once I found out that the schwag is already shipping and as great the feelings became once I have seen some of the contents on some other blogs, so bad/disappointed/down I am feeling right now after reading some of the blogs and some of the reactions on the Valleyschwag blog. And mine has not even arrived yet. Well I guess I will see for myself once it arrives and that the June package will really be "kick-ass" as promised.

I hope I that all the "good news" and "good deeds" had enough for today and I will have a nice and peaceful weekend. Hope never dies, huh?

This is me, btw.

Valleyschwag@blog

Curiosity and impatience are natural and so of-course once I posted my previous post, I had to check if there is a way to find it without directly knowing the url. So I checked technorati, and I guess I am just too fast (probably just too impatient) to be already there. But guess what I saw! It seems I am not the only person that got jumpstarted into blogging by Valleyschwag. There are obviously people like me (e.g. http://foredoomed.blogspot.com), who finally got to publish their own blogs.

Way to go! Keep it up!

And I guess that means me too :-)

Valleyschwag2Slovakia

Hi there! Smee again :-D I guess I am one of those people that like getting things for free, even in those cases when there is no need/use for the things or it is not really for free. A month ago, while checking out one of my favorite sites (http://www.boingboing.net/) I came across an entry about valleyschwag (http://www.valleyschwag.com/) and it really hit me. I mean the idea behind it was something so out of the ordinary for me that I decided to sign up. It sounds easy but for someone from the other side of the globe, without prior ties to any other direct subscription/order from the U.S. it was something. Probably this was also a reason why I signed up. To see if the world actually works like it is being advertised. So I created me a paypal account, signed up for the valleyschwag care package, found out how the paypal to credit card stuff works and was done with. I signed up on April 29th and therefore missed the April package which was awesome. And then the waiting started. The on-site blog was not changing very much, but enough to keep the feeling that something is at work there. Mid-May was coming up and still nothing was really happening, but then things changed. An information appeared on the site that the packages will be shipping a week later, as the number of members jumped from 60 to 1500. Wow. Again, WOW. I said that’s some jump. So I went back into the patience mode, although I was really really starting to feel worked up about it. When is the package gonna be shipped, when is it going to be here? I could not just sit as usually and do nothing, I had to ask. I decided that it wouldn't do to ask when the schwag is going to be shipped, as I guess the team had enough pressure on them anyway, but at least the second question whirling about my mind could get answered. So I asked if anybody had an idea how long the shipping to my little home country of Slovakia would take. The answer tuned me optimistic (usually not a good sign with me, but I was so excited and up from it all, that I haven't even noticed). I mean 4-7 days to get a package from the West coast to Central Europe! Cool. I am not known to be very patient, but I have to say, in a situation where being impatient does not change a single thing, I can be patient or at least try to ;-) The days went by and finally the day came when a new blog entry announced that the schwag is on its way. Yipeeee, Hoooraaaaah, Great. I was really excited. A couple more days and it is here. I started to check out the blog more often, to search the blogosphere (via the friendly service of http://www.technorati.com/) for blogs about the package. As the first packages started to arrive and the friendly people who got them started to put the pictures of their take up on their blogs I was growing more and more impatient on one side and happy on the other, as the time for my package to arrive was getting shorter. Even though the team behind it all (Rubyred labs) was really working hard to ship all the packages out, they found the time to do a short video introducing the people behind the curtains, to give us a peek at what is going on there. It really was a nice touch, kinda bringing the audience into the show. Great Idea. Made me want my package even more. That was the status of today's evening. I came home from work, checked the blog on valleyschwag, to see how many more people got their package, how many blogged about it, what the variation in content is. I read through the posts and bang a bunch of shockers right there. The first shock-post that got my attention for full was by Thor (one of the cool people behind it all), stating that the June package will be even better (doozy was the word he used). Now I was really having trouble keeping my excitement at bay, but when there is nothing one can do about it, then there is nothing one can do. An often used phrase tells us that Patience brings roses, so I wrapped myself in patience again. The next shock-post made a crack into the armor of my patience and resolve, when the same Thor stated (citing): "Our job is to make schwag a bit less useless. Jonathan will be posting on this subject soon, but most packages will have one shirt. We give extras to you fine folks who participate!" Hmm, one t-shirt only? Now, when I saw so many blogs from people in the U.S. who all had two! How is that? Can’t be that all these people were seen as participants, when I guess most of them where fresh sign-ups (no on for the first package, exactly like me). Hmm, well, no need to jump to conclusions, optimism is the rule here, and even a pessimistic soul like me, has to sport some occasionally. I can’t say that the next shock-post made me feel better. It was by Jonathan and let us know that the packages are being sent out a few hundred at a time. Up to this point - Great! But it also said that the U.S. packages will arrive at their destination till the end of the week, but the International will take longer. Hmm, longer. Longer? I somehow hoped that those will be the first to ship, but I guess I was wrong. But it is never as dark as it seems, as the same post stated:“ We’ve figured out a lot of the logistical stuff now and future packages will be much more efficient." So there is always something positive to find out. Well, what does all this writing want to say? Hell if I know. It is just a snapshot of my feelings. What do I want to say? Patience my friends, patience. The packages will come, when they come. And a lot of patience and strength for the crew@valleyschwag, so that they can go on sending the packages to us, the impatient schwagless crowd. Good Job people, keep it up!

Who am I?

So here I am. Just the average nerdy computer bloke, workin full time for a unnamed american company (by the name <**censored**>), spending my free time the usual way. I cant say I am very much like the 'John Smith' protype, but I dont think I am that different. Well I am not American. And I dont live in America. Living in Central Europe I have sometimes the feeling like I am living behind the moon. Can't say that it makes me ecstatic or feeling poor, it is just that it seems that all the important things that happen in the world are allways happening somewhere else. This statement might give you the impression that I live in a very cool, solid, peacefull place and I am very sorry to shatter this impression, but alas it is not the case. It is just that whatever happens here is kinda not really important for the rest of the planet. Although on rare ocasions the surface of the world news gets broken by something that happens here, but those are really rare ocasions.

Now back to the topic (I really have to stop losing the thread of thought):
I am a guy who could be described as a bloke(dude, man, boy, whatever) who is a realist with a slightly pessimistic outlook on things happening around him. Well sometimes I do feel like a foolish optimist, so I guess that makes me a full scale pessimist. I guess the best description of the situation was offered by a friend of mine who commented when someone called me a pessimist "Yeah, he is a pessimist, but he tends to be right!". Now what does that make me? Dont know. Dont care? Not really, there was a time when that really did not bother me. Well it was around the time when there really was not very much bothering me, not that life was so easy, it is just that I really did not care. They say, that with age one gets wiser, I grew worrier. Things started to bother me, I started to care. I guess I am still not at the end of the journey, especially as there are more and more things that do get my attention and then get me angry, because although I know that the matter/thing is important, I still dont care. It is a funny feeling to be angry/agitated/feeling bad about not caring about something important instead of having those feelings about the important thing, but I guess that is just my way.

Did this tell you anything about me? Hope so. If not ... I dont care. Hmmm. No seriously, I do care, at least I think so.

Now what will I be writing about? Dunno. Stuff. Things that get me angry/agitated/interested enough to write something, to get the things off my mind or just to put my feelings and opinions somewhere other than the depts of my soul/mind.

So lets just see what the future brings.