Metamorphosism

Last Saturday I took a breather from studying for Gamma’s (ultimately catastrophic) math test and went to an exhibition of new old instruments (mostly new instruments built by luthiers in the style of old instruments) with my cello teacher and several other cello students at Vienna’s Konzerthaus.

It was full of instruments, and of people, many who appeared to be your old-instrument geek type, which is one of my favorite types. They were all trying out the instruments, which include a lot of recorders, various string instruments (baroque cellos, violins, violas, various gambes, lutes, harps, and i think i saw a … Continue Reading

It is a great pleasure to announce the opening of the 2011 metamorphosism.com International St. Valentine’s Day Limerick Contest.

Winner’s will be announced on Valentine’s Day, 14 February 2011 unless I’m having some crisis or something.

Rules:

1. Be nice.
2. Entries must be a limerick.
3. This year’s themes: Jungian psychology, the recent astrological reform, Icelandic geography, monopolistic corporate imperialism and/or plutocracy.
4. Entries must be made in the comments to this post.

You have no doubt heard about the recent correction of the zodiac. If not, dates were changed and a sign was added - Ophiuchus, the man wrestling with a snake.

This of course has many implications. My first thought was, tattoo artists are going to have a busy year fixing tattoos.

Here are the dates:

Capricorn: Jan. 20-Feb. 16.
Aquarius: Feb. 16-March 11.
Pisces: March 11-April 18.
Aries: April 18-May 13.
Taurus: May 13-June 21.
Gemini: June 21-July 20.
Cancer: July 20-Aug. 10.
Leo: Aug. 10-Sept. 16.
Virgo: Sept. 16-Oct. 30.
Libra: Oct. 30-Nov. 23.
Scorpio: Nov. 23-29.
Ophiuchus: Nov. 29-Dec. 17.
Sagittarius: Dec. 17-Jan. 20.

(Dates copied from the discussion at metafilter,  which is … Continue Reading

Beta moved to Norway for a while to study international law.

Yesterday she was at a bonfire on a frozen lake. I guess lakes really freeze in Norway, or they are more careful with their bonfires.

I was talking to Gamma about her sister. Man, I said. She has cojones, I said. No way would I have had the guts to move to another country when I was 21. Except, hang on, that’s when I moved to Austria the first time.

Well, no way would I have had the guts to move to France when I was 15. Or go to Scotland for … Continue Reading

I stepped outside my comfort zone this morning and tied a different knot in my tie.

It’s asymmetrical, so I’m guessing it’s either a four-in-hand or a close relative thereof, but I can’t be sure because I have forgotten how one ties a four-in-hand and just improvised. I just googled diagrams but I have a problem reading knot diagrams.

My uncle used to come over to our house when he needed a tie tied and my father would tie it for him. When he got married, my father tied his tie.

I had to tie his tie for my father’s funeral. And my … Continue Reading

It was evening, when the smallest man in the world realized he had lost everything.

And it was winter, so it was pretty dark.

One minute he’s up to his knees in shit, trying to figure things out as usual, and the next he no longer is.

It’s all gone.

When he had thought about this moment in the past, considered it, it had been a scary thing.

So this joy he felt surprised him.

A deep and unabashed joy.

He looked at himself, but there was nothing there.

He turned around, and all was shadow.

“Hello there,” said the man formerly known as the smallest man in the … Continue Reading

Somebody asked me whether I had made any New Year’s resolutions and if so what one of them was.

I made up some bullshit thing. I don’t remember what. Probably “quit smoking.”

I started smoking in the last week of December, in order to have a bad habit to resolve to give up, and also Christmas had been stressful. All that family, all that disappointment to deal with because you misheard what people wanted. Or because you got them what they said they wanted, precisely, and not what they implied they really wanted.

So, officially, “quit smoking”. Nothing like starting the year with … Continue Reading

Death still has half a tank, but he’s doing something after work tomorrow so he swings into the filling station on his way home from work.

The architecture of the filling station is like this: building on the right, with the cash register, snacks and drinks and magazines, a couple poker machines, tobacco products, office in back. Next to that, restrooms and a garage bay.

There are three rows of pumps - one on the left, and then two rows on the right, back to back. So in theory two vehicles could be filling up on the left line, two more next … Continue Reading

So the smallest man in the world is driving along. He just hit a patch of ice so he’s taking it easy. The windows are fogged up a little, in the corners where the vents don’t get them, and encrusted with salt on the outside. As they pass the sugar refinery his daughter asks him what he’s chuckling about.

The look on my… hair stylist’s (he always has to pause to consider what they’re called nowadays) face were I to tell her to “make me look cool” when I go in for my haircut tonight, he says.

Oh, his daughter says.

Lose twenty … Continue Reading

Technical question:

Had WIFI problems so my provider sent me a new, improved modem. I installed it. The connection via ethernet cable works fine, using it right now on the PC. The WIFI says it’s fine, but I can’t get online with my macbook. Sometimes it claims to have a connection, one time I even got a page to load, but lost the connection soon thereafter. Usually, I get a connection timeout while it’s trying to log in.

Checking various forums, I noticed many mac owners have problems where macbooks which had worked fine suddenly can’t get online although they think they … Continue Reading