A Tripp to Osnabruck

Last week me and a group other AI students went on an excursion to Osnabruck (Germany). Here we visited the cognitive science department of the university of Osnabruck. Which was very exciting! They have a very brought approach to cognitive science and AI, that reminded us a lot of our own AI study, here in Groningen. The most noteworthy difference being that they have a lot (a lot!) more robots there! I wish we had some more robots..

Of course, visiting the university was not the only thing we did. We also crashed a party at a catholic student association, who where looking very shocked when we started dancing to their, initially rather slow but admittedly later much better, music (or we just had a little more to drink later on and thought the music was better, that could also be it).

After happy hour, when the drinks where getting more expensive, we moved to some other place (which's name I forget..), where that night it was rather empty. But we did not care, the Tequila Sunrises went for 2.50 euros, so we where happy and drunk :).

When we got back to the hostel I took a shower, on my way back from which, in my boxer shorts, I found some people lingering in the common room, so I decided to join them for a minute.. or the rest of the night, as it turned out.. It was a bit embarrassing though to have to leave the common room through the kitchen the following morning, while people where having their breakfast... and I was not wearing more than my shorts and a towel.. but we had fun :)..

So, the following night we decided to go back to the Tequila Sunrise place, where unfortunately the Tequila Sunrise was a lot more expensive than the previous night. It was also a lot more crowded, which was fine, good even. It was an interesting place, they had plants in toilet bowls with glass on top of them, used as tables. A television on which, presumably, the girl who's bra was being taken off by two of her (also, presumably) friends could see if her parents where not coming through the front door (as that was where the camera was pointed at). Also there was a shower in the male toilet which was only to be used naked, according to the sign next to it (which we considered moving to the couch that was in the womens toilet, but for that it was stuck rather well to the wall...)..

Further more we had a nightly tour trough the city by a night watch man with an interesting sense of humor (although he actually was rather funny :)), climbed a church tower and looked over the city. We also visited the industry museum, at which the very long and dark mineshaft.. anticlimactically ended all of a sudden behind a door, in bright daylight, next to a house..

It was all fun! I had a really good time. Got to know a lot of people a lot better and had the best cup of chocolate milk with whipped cream ever (it was like a soup bowl in size, and it tasted like real coco made chocolate milk! Delicious!).. And most importantly, I got to dance, which I hadn't done in a long time!

I loved it, I wish we where still there!

Cheers!

Californication

The season finally is absolutely brilliant! I'll won't give any spoilers, but to say that I love that the season ends with the same song as with which it began! I am a bit scared about the chances of a second season though. It's a really, really, really good show, but it does not seem to be able, to carry on the same kind of storyline, given the ending.. But then again, Dawson's Creek was also very good at these kinds of story spins, and I believe there are some Dawson's Creek writers working on Californication! In that case, I'm very curious about the next season and I can't wait!! I can't wait at all!


See you!

The Boring Fun Paradox

I'm boring aren't I? I wonder that sometimes. I mean, I want to be interesting, but isn't it kind of boring to want to be interesting? Maybe it is more interesting to want to be boring? Would that be better? I don't know. I just want to be interesting. It's just stupid. Here I am, wanting something again. I always want things, isn't it boring? Here I'm whining about it. How bad can it get?
Now I'm having fun about whining about being boring? I really don't get it anymore! I'm enjoying myself by writing about being boring? What now? I'll start to bore myself about joy? Maybe I can write something about that!
So the real question is: Is it bad to have fun while being boring? It's probably better than being bored by having fun? Isn't it? Is being fun and having fun the same thing? I don't think so.. That's too bad.. I'm good at having fun. Maybe I should let fun have me? Would that be better? I think that if fun had me, that wouldn't be boring! What would you say??

Thank you, you're a great audience!

A Short on Californication

So there is this new series I'm watching. It's called Californication, it's with David Duchovny and it has some raw edges, but it is actually a really nice series. A bit twisted, but really nice! Duchovny playes a writer (Hank Moody) and he has a daughter and an ex girlfriend (the mother of his daughter) who is now engaged to, currently, his boss. So it is all a bit screwed up and I'm leaving out a lot of sexual messes, which gives it an interesting character.
But what I wanted to say about it, is that every time I watch an episode, I get the urge to write something in my blog or actually write something period. I like that about it too.


Just a short entry now..

See you later!

Happyness is What Happy Brings

Time for some optimism! My last post was a little bit on the gloomy side, I think. But It's much nicer to write happy messages :). In fact, this reminds me of when I and my team (The Little Green Bats) participated in the RoboCup world cup 2007 in Atlanta (and incidentally we won second place :)). A lot of the teams against which we competed were from china and well they have a different culture than, at least, where I come from and they sort of seem to take everything very seriously. When their agents were playing, they just sat there, not showing any emotion. And I have to say, when you are playing against another team, it is really exciting, to the point that it is down right scary! Every time we were going to be playing, I just got the urge to go to the bathroom, I dared not watch!
But to come back to it, we acted a bit differently. We got up and went to stand close to the screen and, we were really excited, so we ooh-ed and ah-ed and applauded and screamed and laughed. We had to, we couldn't help it. I mean, it was the World Championship, we worked almost two years on it, we wanted to win! And that was when someone said, what was almost the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me (well our team), she said: "You are a happy team!".
It is nice to be called happy. I never realized that before.. but I think it is a really great compliment to be called happy. I should thank her, when I see her again next year, in china..

Bye now! You're Happy!

Life Is Not for the Fair

Life. I always expect it to be fair. I expect it to be easy, that it won't hurt you. That if you want something bad enough or love someone bad enough, that is enough. That somehow it will always turnout for the best.
Then I'm always surprised that when I have a particular strong emotion, especially if it is directed at someone. Nobody notices it. Nobody can feel it. My emotions sometimes scream in my head. It sometimes feels as if the power of the emotion is enough to turn the whole world inside out. And sometimes I can feel so connected to someone, it feels as if maybe our auras connect, like some kind of energy intermingles and surrounds us both. Like I can feel the warmth flow between us, it feels so good. I really wish I could share it with someone..
People are so blind towards one another, it's really scary. How do we survive as a species if we cannot even communicate our strongest feelings or our deepest wishes? Isn't it depressing that a synonym for our "strongest feelings" is "our deepest feelings". As if we by definition are not allowed to tell anyone what we really feel, as if we are supposed to hide them, deep in our selfs, where nobody can reach them!? God forbid, they might find out what we feel. It is cruel that our inner feelings are so separated from the world out there...

My love to you all!

What I Really Want...

What I really want is to be me. I always wanted to be a few things.
First of all, a movie director. Yep, it sounds lame, but I do. I once made a (very) short film. It wasn't brilliant or anything but it was the single most best thing I ever did. I so much loved it! I knew exactly what I wanted and it was just having pure fun from there on out! (Ok and quite a lot of work, but it was worth it!)

Another thing I always wanted to do is be a writer. I really love the idea of creating wor(l)ds, inventing people and imagining relationships between those people. But more than that, to sketch and explore interesting circumstances and strange social entanglements. And to inspire people, to make them think and to give them something to think about and even cry about, to make them see the world just a little bit differently than before.. I wish I could do that...

Also I want to study medicine. I know it is something completely different than the things above (maybe except for the romantic notions involved) but I have always had a strange fascination with how people work. In a lot of ways, but mostly anatomically. I have some kind of insight into that. Somehow I can see the human (and probably more generic the mammal body) as a sort of abstract machine in my head. From the neurons in our brain and central nervous system to the blood vessels all over our body, to the digestive system to the inner workings of our cells.. It just really interests me!

There are just so many interesting things in the world, not even speaking about the universe. I wish I could see it all. But luckily it means that I'll won't get bored in the coming eons! ;)

Time for bed boys and girls!