freelance paradigm

For the last two months I have been visiting Idrija on saturdays to teach perspective drawing and some basic graphic at their highschool. I must admit it was (and still is) a wonderful experience. People are very nice and the town is beautiful. Today I decided to stay a bit and hang around for there was some kind of eco-event going on (promoting recycling, green energy...) with demonstration of dog education program.



More photos


PS: Im working on an uncalibrated monitor, so...

More lulz...

PS: why did my.opera change photo displaying settings from 640 pix wide to even smaller resolution of 620 pix on the blog page?

Some time ago I wrote about what resolution in media might be. Only later I remembered a xkcd comic in which the charachter contemplates how wide our options are and how we yet choose to live only a few of "day-types" over and over again. Imagine how it would be like if you could live every day anew, with different tasks and different people.

Something like that is happening to me last 10-14 days and it will go on for an other 5. I have no steady routine, each day is really something special. That is not to say it is spontaneous and improvised, on contrary, my activities are well planed, but still days are very different in comparison to eachother. And they are packed with work work work... From 7AM to 10PM. I could say that right this moment I live a very high-resolution life A lot of data in short amount of time.

One might think this is cool, and it is. But it is also very fatiguing. I learned that repetition is what keeps us fresh for the new stuff (to some extent). It quite hard to live like this for a longer period of time. I can't wait to slip back into a warm old daily routine. At least for a while, to get some mental rest.

So, what was I up to? I can give you a few things, there is lot's more, but I don't want to bore you

One of the things was a new creativity conference, organized by UMMI. It was really really cool. I opened the conference with a Keynote lecture of my own (video will follow), and then I was blown away by lectures of dr. Zadel, dr. Juriševič, Korado Korlevič and many others. This is me during the lecture (photo by Mojca Kukanja Gabrijelčič):


G33Ks might notice a familiar face on my t-shirt Moar photos.

This year I also went on Kras marathon for which I designed the main poster and some postcards. The postcards were designed with photos from Flickr via Creative Commons licence. It is soo cool to have that kind of colaboration across the world. This is a postcart for 4 events that will happen this year. Photos are contributed by Cobalt_sun, ((brian)), Randy Son Of Robert and Samo Onič, who is not on Flickr.

The poster:
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That is me with my design. Again - sharp geeky eyes might recognize bent corners on my number tag. This weekend Battlestar Galactica hit its final run and such an important event must be celebrated with every possible detail. I dedicated my 8.4 km run to this series finale.
Moar photos!

So, as mentioned - Battlestar Galactica Series Finale happens only once in a lifetime, therefore it deserves a special party, full of geeks, pizzas (we even ordered one with BSG caption on it), computers and elaborated debates about things that exist only in our imagination(s). But it was great. I'm not giving you any spoilers though...

Here it is. It was about time, don't you think? Let me know your impressions

PS: this wouldn't be possible without Violetisha from whom I borrowed the css code.

Finally some hot sunny days that deserve to be called summer!

It's been a while since my last post. I've been very busy!

Now that it is summer on the northern hemisphere, I'd like to share some knowledge on watermelons with you. It has been my favourite summer fruit (or better vegetable, depends on classification) since I can remember. In that time I developed some roules on how to find a really good one.



If you're buying just half or 1/4 of the whole fruit, you have no problem. Just make sure you are buying a piece from the largest watermelon possible. Flesh must be crimson-red with hard and crunchy texture. Note that small watermelons tend to be pink (especially spring "edditions") or have soft squeezy flesh on the polar sides of the fruit. Avoid that! If the watermelon has about 60% long crack on the inside, consider it a good sign!

But what if you are buying the whole one? Many people claim to have skills to distinguish a good watermelon from bad (good = juicy, sweet and crunchy). Two technicques can be noted: by first they put the watermelon against their ear and and press it really hard so that they "can hear how it cracks". Well, I have problem with that; first of all - watermelons are very much shaped like eggs, which are very hard to crack. Secondly; how does he/she know which crack-sound is good and which is bad and how does that relate to the level of suggar, watter or texture of the flesh? I tried this a couple of times and based on available information, I find this technique bogus.

Some other like to put the fruit to their ear and knock on the other side. While it may very well be true, that sound does travel differently trough different media, which vary in the level of water and suggar content (not to mention structure and texture), I believe it is hard to really hear that small differences, unless you are in studio environment with precise equipment. This technicque is often performed by resellers who usually don't eat the melons they sell and on that level it is just as bogus as the previous one.

So; here are my advices if you are buying a whole watermelon:
- pick as largest as you can buy - larger watermelons have more sugar, watter and better texture
- most watermelons come as a part of larger delivery. Watermelons of the same delivery are from the same field, (perhaps even from the same plant) and are very much the same. You can observe (and try) some that have already been cut in half and then pick an other as a whole. It is very very likely, that it will be the same as the one observed.
- the best time to buy watermelons is from late june to mid-august
- if you can't afford the whole watermelon at a time (or if you don't plan to eat as much) it is in 95% of the times better to buy 1/4 of a big one than 1/2 of a small one.


Enjoy!
(image source)

"Vizita" is a traditional event in my town. Back in the days of Habsburg Monarchy young boys (of 18) had to serve about 7 years of army service (!!!) so they had to make a really big party before they went. That celebration was called "Vizita", even though the word vizita means the the physical examinaton at doctor's (the word might be related to english word "visit" or verb "visiting"). Military service was kept obligatory in all successive regimes [SHS or Italia (betwen WWI and WWII), and later on Yugoslavia (1945-1991) and even in independent Slovenia (1991 - present day)] so the tradition of vizita went on. But a couple of years ago, Slovenia discontinued obligatory service and the whole event came into question. Luckly enthusiasts from our local tourist bureau and others are keeping it alive just for the sake of tradition.

I remember my vizita from some years back. At that time we were still facing military service (unless you go to university, as I went) so there was a just a little bit more pressure for us. Today these boys don't have to go trough that. But the army, which is now professionalized takes the advantage of the event to promote their agenda and draft volunteers. Click for some pics below or visit the whole album.

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I wish you a very happy, healthy and creative year of 2008*! Have as much fun as you possibly can!
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I am not really sure what exactly are we celebrating. I was doing a little bit of research and I found out that the dates for the New Years Eve vary from one era or culture to an other. I personally believe that it initially has to do with the pagan celebration of the southern solstice after which the day is getting longer (and the Sun wins over the dark forces of the night) on the northern hemisphere. This logic is no good for the modern people of the southern hemisphere who are now forced to celebrate New Years Eve and Christmas during their summer, when the sun is highest in the sky and now the dark forces of the night are getting stronger. Richard Dawkins often mentiones northern hemisphere chauvinism, and he must be right on that (see the quote below)
However, some callendars are having new year's eve around equinox in March, which sounds more fair for the both hemispheres, but I quess the symbolic meaning is less significant then. I was trying to find some data on Australian Aboriginal calendar, but failed. If anyone has some decent link on that, please post it within the comments.

Originally posted by Richard Dawkins:

In a science-fiction starship, the astronauts were homesick: "Just to think that it's springtime back on Earth!" You may not immediately see what's wrong with this, so ingrained is our unconscious northern hemisphere chauvinism in those of us who live there, and even some who don't. "Unconscious" is exactly right. That is where consciousness-raising comes in. I it is for a deeper reason than gimmicky fun that, in Australia and New Zealand, you can buy maps of the world with the south pole on top. What a splendid consciousness-raiser those maps would be, pinned to the walls of our northern hemisphere classrooms.. Day after day, the children would be reminded that 'north' is an arbitrary polarity which has no monopoly on 'up'. The map would intrigue them as well as raise their consciousness.

(Dawkins, Richard: The God delusion, Bantam Press, Great Britain, 2006, pages 114-115)

PS: It is 2008, AND WE STILL HAVE NO FLYING CARS!