Thoughtscriber

Don't be a snake, use your brake!

100 cassette covers — oh geez, I loved those. There are still several of those BASFs in my parents’ flat; my English-learning father used them for recording BBC programmes and some late 70s Italo Disco. To me, eight years old at the time, they seemed to be the essence of modern design; things seem to have changed since then, but still I cannot help liking the general style.

Don’t be a snake, use your brake! Hold your horses! Be fair, don’t be a hare! Less is more indeed! Slow down in our town! Drop the power, go 50 miles per hour! — Renders speechless.

In other visuals — These are some very nice posters from the Designs on the White House T-shirt project, a competition for hip Kerry shirts started by people who noticed (as explained in the about section) that existing shirts were “pretty vanilla”.

And, oh, oh, 40 minutes of Jason Kottke’s voice!

Tallinn

The last month has been total craziness. Quite unexpectedly, we have been invited to attend a cultural journal conference in Tallinn. The following week was a mixture of joyful expectation and general uneasiness (as far as I’m concerned, the uneasiness gradually subsided, at least until the moment of boarding the plane — the first plane in my life! — at which point the only words of wisdom I could remember were those I heard in Venice after attempting to get off the boat at a wrong stop: “Stay on board”). Shortly before departure day, we received from our — fantastic, as it turned out — host the following letter:

Dear colleague,

the time of the 17^th European Meeting of Cultural Journals is getting closer and closer. In the following I am giving some practical tips for getting around in Tallinn.

When you arrive in Tallinn by plane, then in front of the terminal you will find a line of white Opel-taxis waiting (Tulika takso). Those must be reliable. A ride to the Reval Park Hotel (Kreutzwaldi 23, at the corner of Kreutzwaldi and Gonsiori street, just beside the Politsei park) will take 10 minutes and cost you around 60 kroons. (Probably it is also possible to pay by card). People looking for “local experience” can try bus nr 2. Its intervals are 20 or 30 minutes. You should take sure that it goes to the city (Reisisadam) and NOT to the suburb called Moigu.

You can buy public transport tickets from the bus- or tram-driver. In this case it costs 15 kroons. If you buy it from a kiosk (Üks bussipilet, palun — One bus-ticket, please. Kaks/kolm/neli/viis/kuus bussipiletit, palun — 2/3/4/5/6 bus-tickets, please) — then it would be 10 kroons. The ticket can be used only once on tram, bus or trolleybus — you have to make holes into it. If you have made it a principle to avoid taxis, supply yourself with a map.

Reval Park Hotel advertises itself on its home-page as “an existing hotel”, probably meaning “exciting hotel” (the excitement is supposed to derive from the casino under the same roof). Some of the guests are accomodated at Poska villa guest-house. It is situated near the Kadrioru park (founded by Peter the Great). The meeting will take place next-door to the guest-house, at the “Self-Help and Advisory Centre for Elderly Citizens”.

As I am writing, the temperature in Tallinn is record high for this time of the year — 28 C, but it has been forecasted to get cooler during the next week (14-18 C).

I wish you a safe trip to Tallinn and I hope that the Meeting will turn out a memorable experience (in a positive sense, I mean).

Indeed, it couldn’t be more positive. Everything has turned out great — this has probably been the first trip of my life with no organisational surprises whatsoever. The conference was inspiring, the city — wonderful, modern architecture around the impressive and colorful Old Town, clean, friendly, full of young people, cafes, wi-fi areas and occasional seagulls flying by.

Tallinn advertises itself as a constantly developing capital; the — probably quite distorted as we know it — local legend tells of a a green man living in a nearby lake, who (for what reasons, we haven’t been informed) plans to flood the city after it is finally built. Each year he visits the city gates and asks whether its formation has ended; each time the answer has to be negative — Tallinn is perpetually under construction. I wish Warsaw or Lodz would resemble this “developing” city.

With big conference-load we haven’t been able to explore the city as we would like to, but the first impression makes one want to come back.

I also rather regret not being able to visit this Moigu area, which we were especially told NOT to go to.

Rather Varying Links

The Twisted Show - interestingly designed art site - of which, to me, the paintings are definitely the best part. Interestingly, among the links there’s Marylin Manson’s painting site; I’m not linking it here as I don’t really fancy it, even though some of these may be technically good work, but go there via breathewords if you’re interested.

A tourist attraction of sorts - only in Poland do such things happen. A more genuinely cheerful positive Polish touch here.

Plus, photographic documentation of the week.

+ breathtakingly poor photos and the weblog in Polish are up.

Please Don't Follow, Just Stand Your Ground

Do I differ from the rest of consumer society, or are those things a form of punishment?
I really don’t know — perhaps there is something in the way I look. It says: “I am a miserable, maladjusted soul, lost among randomly displayed arrays of clothing. Direct me to what I want or I will wander aimlessly until closing time and scare other customers away”. Anyway, it usually takes from thirty seconds to two minutes to the point of “Perhaps I could help you, lady?”

Please don’t.

1. It’s a known fact that one can ask an assistant for directions. I won’t hesitate to do that if I feel like it. I’m not as shy as I look.

2. Let’s suppose I am looking for a skirt. You will ask about the size and colour (if I’m lucky, that is, and you won’t ask me about the “sizie”, which is so very hip, eh?), I can even tell you that it should be tighter at the top and loose at the bottom and, say, black. But if you were to really help me find something I like I’d have to spend a quarter of an hour providing you with other information — the blouse/shirt/whatever that is supposed to go with it, the fabrics/patterns I like/dislike, the cut types, the colours, the collar, the cuff, the sleeve, the folds, the pockets… Oh, for sense’s sake. Just don’t distract me. Go away. Bugger off.

Or perhaps next time this is what I will do: give you a twenty-minute-long story on the development of my fashion tastes and unspecified attitudes towards specific cut/colour/pattern arrangements. Perhaps you deserve it for all those moments when trying the pieces on I hear from behind the curtain “So, how’s that skirtie?”

kinda related

Week in Links

House gymnastics
Animals on the underground
Busy beach
Joe Howley on Gilette products
History of lomography - if only for this:

Relating the news of the worldwide Lomographic explosion, the Society members successfully convinced the LOMO factory heads and Mr. Vladimir Putin (the mayor of St. Petersburg at that time!) to begin production of the amazing LC-A once again - ensuring that all the hungry lomographers across the world would be guaranteed a steady supply of this Russian steel wonder.

(nice 404 page there, also)

(chuckle)

Title: Better not.

Winter. What’s a girl to do?

1 2 3 4 5 6

Of the anticipated joys of Linux - installation and subsequent adventures scheduled for next week - will be finally justified to get one of these sexy wallpapers matching nail enamel.

Or something from here, to go with some smarty-sporty attire.

Productivity is Overrated

Also, the case is painfully often this.
Not to worry, however. Instead: playing around with the Saint, toying with the idea of connecting himself directly to the Internet. This is your Captain speaking: the revolution will not be televised.

Fantasizing about shopping.

Timing is Everything

A friend has told me a story of a friend of hers, who’s been preparing for a date — meticulously planning and arranging what to wear, leaving a lot of time for shower, hair and make-up, going for the best. It must have been some very special occasion, for — as my friend related — the girl really wanted to look glorious. Her date, however, did not show any usual signs of appreciation — instead, at some point embarked upon explaining to her the importance of one’s inner assets, how the invisible to the eye is the most important etc.

By way of a retort, the girl has simply taken everything off — in a manner and intent quite different from those usually met in such circumstances, and simply sat there, continuing the discussion on the topic.

I ain’t no preaching fucker and I ain’t no do-goody-goody either

But, somehow, today I can’t help liking this strip.

It’s really nice to hear the news. Dooce, you got free drinks if you ever visit this country.

I often take exercise. Why, only yesterday I had breakfast in bed.

Much as I like sitting at the computer all week, reading all sorts of funny stuff, playing (NWN, BG2, EU2, frozen-bubble, you name it), pretending to work etc., it’s time to do something, as it feels like I have reached, well, one step beyond being merely unexercised.

Not to create a false impression: something means absolutely the minimum. “To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable” is my general inclination, and I don’t really feel like changing.
Nevertheless, I have decided to do something which would provide more fun than dutiful workout and reminded myself of swimming, which I’ve always liked. So far, I have managed to call the swimming pool office and get the timetable and perhaps, perhaps, soon after the Thesis Day I will pick up my preposterous flashy-blue 50s-styled swimsuit and go to the pool.

Wojtek, on the other hand, has been helping a Warsaw fitness club put their website together and was thus recently given a yearly entrance card. Given an open choice, he voluntarily chose to visit the club three times a week. His last visit was something of an illustration of what happens when one decides upon such a feat of endurance: on Wednesday, his legs were hurting after the last-but-one class (they were concentrating on leg muscles, he said); on Thursday, it got better on the legs front, but as an effect of the last class (they were concentrating on the upper part of the body, he said) he couldn’t really fully stretch his arm. I was genuinely impressed, but of course my smirks and simpers annoyed him to no end. Going to Warsaw soon — can’t wait to see him perform.

Toasters!

Hi!

Well, it seems that I have already gone far enough and am unable to discontinue the habit, so this is it: my second, brand-new weblog. You still can — at least temporarily — view the rather exhausted Polish one.

I am Miss Thoughtscriber and live in Łódź (PL), the so-called “labour city” of empty factories and an air of general inability to take any definite action, which has always been rather close to my heart. I work as a translator and next week I’m defending my MA thesis in English. What precisely I will be doing afterwards I have no idea.

On writing introductory entries: I cannot help but remember one of the numerous postcards from a travelling friend, which read “I really don’t know what I’m supposed to write here. It’s my first day here.” Well, exactly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this. If you happen to need an English-Polish translator, are interested in anything or have any general remarks/questions, email me at . I’d really be delighted to hear from anyone as after spending the last few months on some boring academic stuff, my Inbox folder contains mostly news updates and Daily Dilbert.