it’s may 31st 2009, which means i’m exactly 8888¹ days old! :)
see for yourself:

wolfram alpha: 1985-01-29, screenshot

now get the togas out and celebrate! :)
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A towel, [the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value.
You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth;
wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

happy towel day!

in an attempt to improve my efficiency and productivity, i’ve spent some time reading up on the most common natural products & substances that increase activity and energy.
 

here’s a short (non-exhaustive) list of things i’ve com across:

caffeine:

increases activity and concentration. stimulates the central nervous system, heart activity and blood pressure.
negative effects: adaption, addiction, nervousness and anxiety, irritability, anything up to cardiac arrhythmia.
overdose (according to wikipedia): 7 to 10 cups of coffee consumed within a short timespan.

guarana:

contains more caffeine than regular coffee. here, the caffeine is linked to tanning agents, which makes it longer-lasting (it’s released little by little).
same negative side-effects as with pure caffeine.
overdose: 20g guarana powder.

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warning: the following links and videos show some things that you are probably going to find gross. watch them at your own risk.

someone once told me, that buddhism says “once a year, you should do something you’ve never done before”.
i’ve had so many different things inside my nose lately that i think that counts for 2009.

some time ago, i discovered two fairly large masses in my nostrils.
searching for information on the internet returned lots of websites that were talking about either nasal haematoma (see photo quiz of the aafp, pictures at meduweb) or haemangioma (e.g. blog post and corresponding picture).
it wasn’t likely to be a haematoma because that is usually caused by being hit on your nose (which i hadn’t been), and the “balloons” in these pictures originated in the septum, while mine seemed to originate on the opposite side.. i didn’t know about the tumours, though.

i was relieved to hear my ENT doctor tell me that i just had very large turbinates (or nasal conchae). turns out this is why my nose had been more or less constantly congested for several years.

in terms of treatment, i had two choices:
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happy valentine’s day!

(the image shows young leaves of drosera binata and was taken on codfish island, new zealand.)

it’s february, which means i have a few days off.
enough time to play auditorium.

here’s a bunch of screenshots that show one possible solution to each level¹.
right now, i’m stuck at act 15 finale, level 3.
will add the last two solutions when i figure them out.

[view photos: auditorium solutions]

it’s an exciting week:
today i passed the last exam before the holidays, auditorium just went online,

AND vienna teng’s new album, “inland territory” will finally be released tomorrow in europe. in the US, the release date is april 6, so we’re two months ahead over here. :-)

you can listen to a webstream of the entire album at skopemag.com.
update: unfortunately, the article and stream was removed. vienna teng twittered about it not being intended for the general public.

if i hadn’t been certain to get the album, the first 30 seconds of “the last snowfall” would definitely have won me over.

update #2: the full song “in another life” is available for streaming on vienna’s info page at treibhaus.at.