May 2012
1 post
Oh, right. I forgot... →
Time has moved beyond Tumblr, well at least for me.
I’ve returned to my old Wordpress blog; sintrenton.wordpress.com.
April 2012
2 posts
Whip your women
Today is one of the Slovak men’s favourite days — They get to roam around the villages, drinking beer and pear schnapps, while whipping the women and pouring water over them.
The women are not allowed to do anything but accept this treatment, which is done in order to ensure they are ‘good’ for the year to come. I haven’t been able to find out if ‘good’...
March 2012
4 posts
1 tag
The Strong and Hard Soldiers of the Great Slavonic...
I think it would be a liiiitle easier to accept.. or at least endure… the
macho, breast-beating, self-glorifying image of *The Great Unified Slavic
People’s Empire* they like to shout about after 6 vodkas and 9 beers, if it
wasn’t for the simple fact that their heroes of today are Vladimir Putin
and Slobodan Milošević.
Supremacist
Of course Israel would bomb Iran back to the stone age if they thought they
would get away with it. No difference, nor colour nor creed. Supremacist
ideology is always supremacist.
Valdag
Idag är det val i landet. Ok, nyval egentligen, om man ska vara petig.
De fyra partierna i högeralliansen kollapsade i vintras i interna bråk och misstroendeomröstning. För mig har partipolitiken i det här landet alltid varit knepig. Jag menar, jag är ju vänster, på ena skalan… och dessutom frihetlig på andra skalan. (Den andra skalan mäter auktoritär kontra frihetlig.)
Det frihetliga parti som...
The Hard Life of Eastern European Machos
“Women belong in the kitchen”. Slovak off hand comment on TV, 2012 (With no reactions)
I’m happy for Eastern European women that don’t have all these hard male choices like
whether going to the boozeria (trust me, these places have nothing in common with pubs, apart from serving alcohol. Interior decoration entirely optional. You’re here to get drunk. For a minimum...
February 2012
1 post
Kommissionärismen -- det nya ledarskapet →
En direktvald ordförande i kommissionen, med kommissionen som tydlig
europeisk regering och en lagstiftande församling med två kamrar,
Europaparlamentet med representativ fördelning av mandaten och rådet som
representant för medlemsländerna, var bärande element i hennes tal. Ok,
ingen ser ett problem med ett blivande Europas Förenta Stater som styrs av
en ICKE FOLKVALD REGERING?? Nä visstja....
January 2012
4 posts
Supremacy illiteracy
A bouncer, of that hunky milkshake type, is sitting at the table next to
us, wearing a neo-nazi brand rip-off hoodie.
However, the runes are T and Ng, not as T and S. (Making it ’ Thing’
instead of ‘War and Victory’?)
I guess there it’s something slightly pathetic about an Eastern European
anabolic meat mountain with supremacy slogans on his clothing that...
Dagens citat om kotlettkonservativa och den övriga...
“Ibland är det svårt att inte hitta paralleller mellan östeuropeiska katoliker som uttrycker sin längtan efter en Ledare, som beskriver Hur Det Är och den svenska ankdammshögern och dess timbrotalibaner som drömmer om sin exklusiva herrklubb, där man i samstämmighet berättar Hur Det Är.”
Kvällens bästa term: Stridspittskonservativ - slentrianhöger-man som gillar att uttrycka sig med...
Supply and real demand
The fundamental problem with the myth of supply and demand — which is actually supposed to be demand and then supply — is that demand is not market, or customer, demand, but that other, “false” demand, that is manufactured advertising driven by a supply that must be sold.
Breakfast for champions
One of the favourite things I’ve read on a menu was in a cafe in, I think
Greece, which offered a breakfast for those who had a bit too fun the night
before.
“A pot of black coffee, a glass of juice, a croissant, two aspirins and no
sympathy from the waitress.”
September 2011
3 posts
After living close to six years in an Eastern European country, I can only express it in three lines:
RELIGION IS SUSPICION
MATERIALISM IS VIOLENCE
OBEDIENCE IS HATE
Like I told the people at Diaspora, high on my wishlist is linking with your two ‘sister concepts’, though: StatusNet and Jabber/XMPP.
The main drawback with StatusNet in my opinion is that it hasn’t successfully implemented a true mobile interface. I am not talking about apps, I am talking about a workable stylesheet for an ordinary mobile browser. Dabr used to have a...
“I suddenly got the chilling feeling that, at the end of the day, Tom Waits goes...”
– Jack Ginkins
August 2011
2 posts
“There is no such depressing thing as the sight of an empty plate. One has to...”
– Mr. Ginkins, Residential Terrier Esq.
Trenton's law - UEFR (Useless Elitist Forum...
You may be familiar with Godwin’s law: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1 (100%)”.
Occasionally I participate in forums where people wanting to learn and having questions are sometimes met with a truly disgusting von oben attitude, which not only is rude, but also quite often containing completely useless...
July 2011
1 post
So, my friend was CRM consultant during the...
So, my friend was CRM consultant during the hype, switched to be SEO consultant during that hype, and is now Social Media consultant.
Maybe he should just have “Hype Consultant” on his card, to save money?
May 2011
1 post
The Three Way Call
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Version: GnuPG v1.4.11...
April 2011
1 post
“Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an...”
– John Steinbeck
March 2011
1 post
“There is something about ambition, when starting a new notebook, on that very...”
– Notebook Ambitions
February 2011
3 posts
Gangsters!
Never thought how appropriate those lines from The Specials’ first hit are nowadays. Dedicated to Reinfeldt, the PM of Sweden. Or as he likes to refer to himself; The Land’s Father that walks side by side with the population, whose trust he carries.
“Why must you record my phone calls? Are you planning a bootleg L.P? Said you’ve been threatened by gangsters Now...
Quality viz Quantity
When I stayed in Spain, I thought they were obsessed with food. Here in Slovakia they seem obsessed with eating. Never realised how enormous the difference is.
Simplehack: A moleskine refillable, Midori style
While visiting Chasing Daisies, one of the stationery blogs on my list, I — again — browsed through the posts about Midori’s Traveler’s Notebook (Flickr collection).
As so often happen, I then dragged up a number of photos and blogs about the notebook, to try to get a feel for it. As much as you are able to through your screen, of course.
Two things that I found appealing...
January 2011
1 post
Is it illegal in Sweden to teach religious...
As always, the answer is not a simple yes and no.
The new law for schools as of August 2010 basically states that undervisning (‘lecturing’, the actual classes) shall be neutral, utbildning (‘education’, programmes, the school’s general profile) doesn’t have to be. Det står skolorna fritt att “anordna andakter, bönestunder eller annan form av...
December 2010
2 posts
No, I do or Yes, I don't?
So what should I reply on the survey question if I find myself
suspicious of Muslims? “Yes, just as much as I’m suspicious of
Catholics” — or “No, not more than I’m suspicious of Catholics”?
Solidarity Light
Facebook is great for rendering democracy impotent.
Paste in a copied message as status update, create a page for a
cause, watching people clicking on it, or click a Like button, so you
feel you have Made A Stand.
Instead of actually doing something.
November 2010
4 posts
Whistleblowing in Eastern Europe - Somebody else's... →
Fico’s equilibrium [The Slovak Spectator] →
“Over the past month or so Slovaks witnessed two party congresses: of the largest ruling coalition party, the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKÚ), and of the largest opposition party, Smer, both of which summoned their faithful delegates to choose chairmen, or rather to re-elect the current ones.”
I will simply never grok the Slovak palate. “I had to eat Greek, Indian and Thai food, it was horrible. I was so happy to come back to the pickled cabbage and the cabbage boiled for two hours in goat diary products seasoned with genuine wheat flour.”
“I think sometimes things can be confused, since I have found two different kinds...”
– Sin Trenton
July 2010
6 posts
Headstone? No Thanks.
It was a wet evening many years ago in the company of some good friends. After an unknown number of pints topped with a couple of whiskys, the topic about your death popped up. Not what happens–or doesn’t happen–when you snuff it and afterwards. After all, we were all modern, rational people. That’s what we atheists like to call ourselves, you know. Not to mention, we weren’t that drunk yet. No,...
Alphabet (Repost from my private blog)
Originally posted June 17, 2008
Like I’ve mentioned earlier, I’ve got this thing for writing. And pens, notebooks… fonts, also alphabets, languages, linguistics, the history of writing, and so on.
All this together has also meant I’ve created an alphabet of my own. Well, through the years, several, in fact.
Then a couple of years ago, based on earlier experience of what worked and not (for...
x2
VkdocGN5QnBjeUJoYmlCbGVHRnRjR3hsSUc5dUlHaHZkeUIwYnlCMWMyVWdiWFZz
ZEdsd2JHVWdjM1JsY0hNZ1ptOXlJR1Z1WTNKNWNIUnBiMjR1RFFvTkNrVk9RMUpa
VUZSSlQwNE5Da1Z1WTI5a1pTQjBhR1VnYldWemMyRm5aU0JwYm5SdklFSmhjMlUy
TkM0TkNrZGxkQ0IwYUdVZ1RVUTFJR2hoYzJnZ2MzVnRJR1p2Y2lCMGFHVWdRbUZ6
WlRZMElIUmxlSFFnYzNSeWFXNW5MZzBLUlc1amNubHdkQ0IwYUdVZ2RHVjRkQ0J6
ZEhKcGJtY2dkMmwwYUNCSFVFY2dZVzVrSUhOcFoyNGdiV1Z6YzJGblpTNE5Da0Z6
SUdGdUlHOXd...
Sing if you're glad to be gay...
No, I didn’t say one of the best songs ever, I said one of the most
interesting songs ever. And yes, 32 years later, I still consider it
to be true.
Television - Little Johnny Jewel
Google it, Grooveshark it, look it up, discover it.
If you don’t know that there is a world outside Spotify, Ipads, and so
on, please do not pay any attention to this message, as it is probably
too...
No Peeking In My Mailbox, Plz -- pt. II
Some notes about all the exceptions in the earlier post.. You know, internauts are an opinionated bunch and whatever you state, there is a differing opinion around the corner. :)
I recommended the article about choosing passwords. Basically, if you have a good password, no one is going to brute force it. If you end up in a bare room with The Man, they are going to brute force you to give up your...
No Peeking In My Mailbox, Plz
I like Portable Apps a lot. I like the concept, I like the “carry your s/w with you on a thumbdrive” thing, and so on. Instead of just using the portable apps on a thumb drive, I actually use some of these versions on my netbook as well. Maybe it’s just me, but I like to have ‘self-contained’ software that keep their configuration information in a file instead of the Win system registry or dump...
June 2010
2 posts
A Holy Alliance – Or just plain unholy?
Last Saturday we had the Slovak election. The ”Social Democrats” are still the largest party, but one of their partners got kicked out of parliament and the other, the ultra-nationalist got 0.7% just above the line to make it.
The ”Social Democrats” here are old style, authoritan, conservative, and their party leader is a great fan of Putin.
The four centre-right parties talked earlier about...
Corruption now biggest problem in Slovakia, say... →
Well, no real surprise there — and it’s likely to continue after elections on Saturday, as well.
May 2010
6 posts
Rainbow shines even through tear-gas →
More comments on the first Pride march in Slovakia.
The first, but not the last.
Gay pride, Slovak shame →
“… it’s not often you see a police escort less prepared for violence, or less willing to deal with it once it erupts.”
FB keeping track of those not on Facebook?
Recenty an acquaintance sent out one of those Facebook mass mails, asking us to hook up. He quite likely simply allowed FB to rummage through his address book, and then it offered either to hook up with those people on FB or send an invitation to those not found. Personally, I’ve never used that service, even if nagged suggested daily by FB to let them peek in my address book. Therefore, this is...
Nice Sunday. Any Christian done their duty and killed anyone working today,
as ordered by 4th commandment & Exodus 31:15?
And no, you don’t get away, no possibility to shirk your duty. Remember
that that law stands forever (Isaiah 40:8) and is perfect (Psalm 19:7).
Wait, does this law apply to followers of the Jewish faith, as well? It is
Old Testament stuff, just not sure if they...
“Child pornography is great. It is great because politicians understand child pornography. By playing that card, we can get them to act, and start blocking sites. And once they have done that, we can get them to start blocking file sharing sites”. “One day we will have a giant filter that we develop in close cooperation with IFPI and MPA. We continuously monitor the child porn on the net, to show...
Didlyspeak (as opposed to newspeak)
So, if every keywordeling in every statusish updaterion putties your name
on that particularish fanelish page, you may not want to talkelawk about
see-eye-aish or dubblish-yous-emmies-deedees, unless you wantie nuttely
yankeedoodlish repubelicanix to see your name plastereded with that little
piece of your mindelish? But since Obelibamarama took da p0w3r in da
westliez, all iz le k3wlid3wli, otoh....
April 2010
5 posts
“teh axis of ivel — Zuckerberg, Schmidt and Jobs.”
– Sin Trenton
Bizarro identity « BuzzMachine →
“I want the exact opposite of what Facebook did. I want the Bizarro Facebook. Instead of Facebook controlling my identity, I want to be able to control and publish and set access to and rules for the use of my identity online, allowing Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, anyone access to it under my terms. “
Handy
I conceal and pollute my data, but give you my opinions and thoughts.
Of course you can discover personal information about me, get my sociograms, etc. But privacy is about datamining, not an investigation, CSI style. Datamining is about loads of people providing their data voluntarily
— and they do. Pollute. Confuse.
The Quick Version
The fast way of describing the current triumvirate ruling Slovakia?
Well, imagine the village versions of Putin, Mussolini and Don Corleone and you’ll get it.
Dwelling in the quiet backwaters
I read with dismay, though unfortunately little surprise about the Digital Economy Bill in the UK.
Today, I’m glad to be living in Slovakia. Just precisely for the reasons one honestly usually wouldn’t be. I nowadays live in a country where people have a long tradition of not being arsed about each other. Not too strange since during the Communist era, everyone passing you by was a...