I’m coming back

Starting on the 5th of April, I will visit San Francisco for two weeks. I’m so looking forward to this... It’s been two years since the city and I parted.

Nobody home

I keep getting those invitations for parties in San Francisco. I used to live in San Francisco for almost two full years, off and on, before my visa ran out and I had to go to Switzerland, where I have a work permit. I always considered San Francisco more my home than any other place I've visited. I wasn't a visitor, I was at home.

But now that I'm not at home anymore, I admit, I hesitate to let people know about it. Those party invitations maintain this feeling of being home. I naturally hesitate to stop them.

Why don't you come back, you may ask. Well, ask your government. It makes it almost impossible for me to live in the United States, because it puts burdons on employers no company seems willing to take. I have been looking for a job for 12 months now, and each time a company learns I am a foreigner, they stop talking. It's simply too much of a hassle for them.

Incubator

www.corebasis.com/incubator/

Some people know I write a lot of articles around topics like usability, user experience and social change on the web. Few are aware that I also write for myself. It is not much and it has not been published yet in print, because I never made an effort to look into that.

Incubator used to be called 2souls. It is my valve, my pulse, my repository and my refuge. It is where I go when I need some time out. For some time I had 2souls out there, but it never really worked. Incubator is what the name suggests. It helps me breed my thoughts and stories. I don’t mind the world reading my thoughts. It is an incentive, driving me to improve my writing.

Feel free to leave a comment to my stories. I am always interested to hear from readers.

Urban Surfer

Why didn't they come up with this when I was 15 years younger?

extremetoysforboys.com/media/...ard.mov
www.techeblog.com/index.php...skateboard

A true story?

www.apple.com/trailers/un...3/large.html

The first feature film about the 9/11 events takes on the mythical story of the "passengers who stood up united" of flight 93 of United Airlines. What we know about this flight, which didn't make it to the Capitol, is what authorities wanted us to know. No one really knew what had happened. We were presented a story of passengers attacking hijackers and eventually bringing the airplane down. It is an unproven story, a conclusion based on a few cell phone call records, and yet, this movie will help to manifest the speculation as "the true story" in history of man kind.

I don't think it is wrong to take a fascinating storyplot and transform it into a book or movie. However, by neglecting speculation as the basis of the story, in my eyes, this comes close to straight propaganda. What is the reason for this movie? What is its intent? Number one, stories like this are truely fascinating. We like hero stories, we always did. Number two, it gives you a positive feedback on the events of 9/11, when we all felt helplessly confronted by something we could not change. The story of the "passengers who stood up and did something" provides a psychological aid to comfort our minds with the idea of unification when facing a threat.

The true story though is, as sad as it sounds, America wanted to be united, but in the aftermath it became even more diverted, engaging into a mode of suspicion and contineous incremental loss of freedom.

Paradise Now

raincloud.warnerbros.com/wip/u...00.mov

Cold shivers were running down my spine while I was watching this clip. I had first seen it about a week ago, and one day later, a german documentary showed more about the movie, including a short interview with its director.

When I was watching the documentary I had a strange tension in my stomach. My head was spinning. Is this good or bad? Is it glorifying terrorism or defying it? Is it pro Israel or pro Palestine? Is it manipulative? Whose interests are presented? How can someone dare to use this topic for a piece of entertainment?

The answer is, the movie does not give answers. It asks the right questions though. It puts you in corners, enabling you to see perspectives you haven’t considered yet. It confuses you with questions of moral and joins them with questions of your heart. It is getting extremely personal, intimate even, touching you where you can’t hide.

Given these circumstances, I am interested to see what effect this movie will have on the american public. I am sure there is no big promotion budget, at least not as big as for the American/Israel Campaign. And it is not a populist topic, like the war “Over There” ( www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Sto...7,00.html ), or the overdue impeachement of Mr. Bush. But it is important. It is necessary that someone dared to make this film.

If you have the abilities and resources to write history, and you don’t, you participate in guilt of ignorance, letting the ones in power write a distorted history for us.

I have a high admiration for the courage of this film maker.

Reinvention

All my life I experienced my existence as an eternal search and learning process. It follows an evolutionary pattern, steady improvements and experiences are leading to a repeating reinvention of myself. This Pantha Rei is something I have learned to accept as an essential cycle of life, and not only mine.

So if life reinvents itself, one could argue, what is the damn point of trying so hard to make a change in your life?

It doesn't run by itself. If you try to go that way, good luck, you'll end up sharing the fate of potato chips in the folds of an old leather couch. Try what you can try and don't regret it. I know, it sounds utopian, but think about it, seriously. Life is not simple, but you can get more balance by walking through it with a conscious mind.

One more thing. Never smile because you think they want to see you smiling, when you don't feel for it.