Forsaken Archer
Hellbourne Agility
ATK 46-52 | Armor 2.22 | Range 600
Atk Speed 0.59 | Movement Speed 305
STR 18 (+1.9) AGI 23 (+2.7) INT 17 (+1.8)

Crippling Volley
Forsaken Archer ยิงธนูขึ้นไปบนฟ้า และปักลงยังพื้นที่เป็นดงหนาม
ทำให้ศัตรูในบริเวณถูกตรึงกับพื้น ไม่สามารถขยับได้เป็นระยะหนึ่ง
ศัตรูที่อยู่ในรัศมีของทักษะ Crippling Volley ถึงถูกตรึงไว้ 2.5 วินาที
และถูกโจมตีด้วยพลังเวทย์มนต์ 85 / 140 / 195 / 250 หน่วย ตามระดับ

Split Fire
ด้วยพลังวิญญาณมากมายที่ถูกกักเก็บไว้ที่ธนู
Forsaken Archer สามารถโจมตีศัตรู 4 เป้าหมาย พร้อมกัน

โจมตีแยกเป็น 4 เป้าหมาย, ด้วยพลังโจมตี 45 / 55 / 65 / 75 % ตามระดับ

Call of the Damned
ด้วยพลังคำสาปจากเหล่า Hellbourne
Forsaken Archer สามารถปลุกนักรบโครงกระดูกจากร่างกายที่อ่อนแอ
ขึ้นมารับใช้ร่วมต่อสู้ได้

ปลุก Skeletal จากการฆ่าเป้าหมายที่มีร่างกาย ไม่สามารถควบคุมอย่างอิสระได้
แต่จะเดินตามรับใช้ Forsaken Archer ไปตลอดอายุขัย
Skeletal มีพลังชีวิต 60 / 90 / 120 / 150 หน่วย
โจมตีทางกายภาพ 14 / 20 / 26 / 32 ถึง 20 / 26 / 32 / 38 หน่วย
ผลาญพลังมานาศัตรู 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 หน่วยต่อครั้งที่โจมตี Skeletal มีอายุขัย 30 วินาที
และมีจำนวนเพียง 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 ตน ตามระดับ

Piercing Arrows
ปลุกพลังภายในจิตใจของ Forsaken Archer ให้บ้าคลั่ง ทำให้เธอสามารถยิงพลังที่ทรงอานุภาพตรงไปข้างหน้า
ศัตรูที่ถูกโจมตีด้วยทักษะนี้ จะถูกบั่นทอนพลังชีวิตลงอย่างสาหัส

ยิงพลังออกไปทุกๆ ครึ่งวินาที ด้วยระยะ 920 และความเร็ว 1150 ศัตรูจะถูกโจมตีด้วยพลังโจมตีเวทย์มนต์ 75 / 115 / 165 ต่อครั้งที่โดน

]]> http://termoli.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/pillola-ru-486-arrivano-lo-stop-e-leurofiguraccia-in-nome-del-papa-re/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:32:10 +0000 Achab http://termoli.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/pillola-ru-486-arrivano-lo-stop-e-leurofiguraccia-in-nome-del-papa-re/ http://retelaicabologna.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/campagna-testamento-biologico-liberi-di-scegliere-rassegna-stampa-24-11-2009/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:54:41 +0000 Rete Laica Bologna http://retelaicabologna.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/campagna-testamento-biologico-liberi-di-scegliere-rassegna-stampa-24-11-2009/

Una de Diseño Gráfico en España: entre 1939 y 1975. Gracias a Emilio Gil y a su libro Pioneros del Diseño Gráfico en España, publicado en 2007, tenemos la oportunidad de conocer el “pasado gráfico”. Gil da un repaso a este periodo historico del diseño español, de la mano de los maestros, magos y dioses de lo gráfico por aquellos años.

1939

- Josep Artigas i Ojeda realizó el famoso anuncio de la marca “POLIL”.

1940

- Manolo Prieto comienza a trabajar como ilustrador de la revista literaria “Novelas y cuentos”, siendo su dibujante portadista durante 17 años.

1947

- Ricard Giralt Miracle funda la empresa “Filograf”.

1950

- Josep Artigas i Ojeda presentó el anuncio de “NORIT”.

1956

- Manolo Prieto crea su obra gráfica más conocida: la silueta del Toro de Osborne.

1959

- Joan Pedragosa recibe el primer premio del concurso de Carteles de la Feria de Muestras de Barcelona.

1961

- Antoni Morillas fue miembro fundador de GFAD, la primera agrupación de profesionales del diseño gráfico nacida en España, junto con Josep Pla-Narbona, Joan Pedragosa, Ernest Moradell y Amand Domènech.

- Antoni Morillas organiza el departamento gráfico de “Publicidad Guitart”, una agencia publicitaria.

- Julián Santanmaría recibe el Primer Premio Mundial de Carteles en Manila, Filipinas.

1962

- Antoni Morillas funda su propio estudio, ubicado en Diagonal 376 (Barcelona).

1963

- Antoni Morillas participa en la primera exposición de carteles realizada en la vía pública que organizó G-FAD, bajo el tema “Conozca España en Barcelona”.

1964

- Josep Pla-Narbona fue aceptado como miembro de la AGI, la Alliance Graphique International.

1965

- Antoni Morillas diseña la portada del número 72 de la revista “Idea” publicada en Japón.

- Joan Pedragosa profesor de grafismo en el Escuela Massana.

- Joan Pedragosa realiza el Cartel del IV Premio Internacional de Dibujo Joan Miró.

1966

- Daniel Gil desarrolla su obra más conocida como diseñador gráfico: las portadas de la colección “El Libro de Bolsillo” para Alianza Editorial.

- Ricard Giralt Miracle publica su obra “La tipografía”.

- Antoni Morillas fue aceptado como miembro de la AGI, la Alliance Graphique International.

- Julián Santamaría ha participado en la Selección Mundial de Carteles en el Lincoln Center de Nueva York.

1967

- Joan Pedragosa y Tomás Vellvé fueron aceptados como miembros de la AGI, presentados por Josep Pla-Narbona.

- Antoni Morillas, Joan Pedragosa y Tomàs Vellvé son invitados por el Ministerio de Cultura para viajar a Yugoslavia como representantes del diseño español.

- Joan Pedregosa profesor de métodos de realización y del conocimiento del volumen  en packaging en la Escuela Elisava.

1968

- Joan Pedragosa Obtiene el Delta de Plata FAD de diseño de packaging por el embalaje de un producto químico de los laboratorios SEIMEX, S.A.

1969

- Julián Santamaría recibe el Segundo Premio Nacional de Grabado y la Primera Medalla en el XX Salón de Grabado y sistemas de estampación.

1971

- Antoni Morillas participa en el congreso de AGI celebrado en Barcelona entre el 16 y el 19 de octubre.

- Joan Pedragosa realiza el cartel y el display de sobremesa para la Asamblea General en Barcelona de VIVA AGI (Alliance Graphique International), del cual era miembro.

1972

- Joan Pedragosa crea y realiza en bronce el trofeo náutico para ALMERIMAR.

- Julián Santamaría es Primer Premio Mundial de Grabado en la Bienal Internacional de Arte Comprometido en Viena, Austria.

1973

- Antoni Morillas es director artístico de Mix. Este Gabinete Técnico de Marketing y Publicidad Industrial aspiraba a crear un equipo especializado para satisfacer, de manera eficaz, las necesidades de las empresas.

Dal quotidiano “Avvenire” del 18 novembre 2009

50 anni fa moriva Mario Mazza

Italia: scout cattolici

nati sotto il giglio

Ze względu na dosyć pikantny charakter gry niniejsza recenzja może zawierać elementy demoralizujące.

Al Lowe to taki łysawy, nieco pyzowaty jegomość. Bez wątpienia postać dla przeciętnego Stefana mało znana, ale to właśnie on stworzył osobowość komputerową, która z przeciętnym Stefanem ma wiele wspólnego. Al Lowe to nie kto inny tylko ojciec Larry’ego Laffera, bohatera przygodówek, serii zapoczątkowanej w 1987 roku.

Cztery ciepłe gniazdka

Nasz bohater to brunet nikczemnego wzrostu, o wiecznie zburzonym uczesaniu, ubrany w biały garnitur i niemodną koszulę, dodatkowo często w zestawie z przeciwsłonecznymi okularami maskującymi uwodzicielskie spojrzenie. Jego życie niebezpiecznie zbliża się do stacji, w której większość przyzwoitych mężczyzn ma już ułożone najważniejsze sprawy związane z egzystencją albo przynajmniej o połowę dylematów mniej. Larry niestety się do nich nie zalicza, bo pomimo średnio zaawansowanego wieku (38 lat) jego dusza zarośnięta jest wszelakiej maści kompleksami (przynajmniej wygląda to tak na zewnątrz, bo Larry jest dosyć pewny siebie).

Najbardziej znane dziecko Ala Lowe nigdy nie korzystało zbyt dużo z życia i dopiero gracz ma wprowadzić go w świat rozkoszy, umożliwiając mu m.in. liczne i wielokrotne kontakty z płcią piękną. Zatem Larry ośmielony kontrolą gracza postanowił wreszcie opuścić ponurą piwnicę i zakamarki swej nieśmiałości, z celem na ustach: aby zaliczyć!

W obrębie jego zainteresowań znajdą się przede wszystkim lokalna prostytutka (na wstępie przygody), następnie tajemnicze Fawn i Faith, ale prawdziwym złotym runem, po które zechce sięgnąć Larry będzie piękna Eve.

Viva Lost Wages!

Główne miejsce przygód pierwszej części Larry’ego to Lost Wages, miasto bezpośrednio inspirowane Las Vegas. Właśnie tam Larry uda się  aby zrealizować swój szczytny cel obdarowywania plemnikami nie tylko ściany i gazety, ale prawdziwe kobiety wyposażone w piersi i tego typu elementy charakterystyczne dla tej płci.

Lost Wages dzieli się na pięć dużych stref: Lefty’s Bar, kasyno, kaplicę, dyskotekę i sklep uciech stu. Larry będzie poruszał się pomiędzy nimi taksówką, za którą będzie musiał oczywiście zapłacić.

Na początku rozgrywki jedyną kobietą, która będzie chciała rozmawiać z naszym bohaterem jest wspomniana wcześniej lokalna prostytutka, która też będzie naszą przewodniczką w poszczególnych fragmentach gry. Odradzałbym jednak bliższe stosunki z nią, bo może się to skończyć słabo, np. chorobą weneryczną i w efekcie zakończeniem gry.

Zresztą grę można “skończyć” też na inny sposób, bo w pierwszym Larrym czas nagli. Gracz będzie miał tylko dwie rzeczywiste godziny na ukończenie gry. Czas ten można co prawda oszukać (m.in. przy pomocy naszej dobrej duszy – prostytutki), ale i tak nie pozostaje go zbyt wiele. W przypadku gdy go przekroczymy Larry najzwyczajniej załamie się i popełni samobójstwo.

Rozgrywka polega na wykonywaniu odpowiednich czynności, które zazwyczaj wiążą się z umiejętnym sposobem na poderwanie dziewczyny (prowadzą do tego różne środki). W tej przygodówce możemy sterować zarówno klawiaturą jak i myszką, a ważnym elementem są komendy wydawane właśnie  z klawiatury.

Szesnaście par pończoch

Gra w pierwszej, oryginalnej wersji tworzona była w oparciu o grafikę EGA w rozdzielczości 160×200 i przy szesnastu kolorach. Wcale nie lepiej prezentowało się udźwiękowienie, które bez wątpienia stanowi odpowiedź na klasyczne pc speakery ).

Pierwszy Larry jak i wiele tytułów Sierry z lat 80-tych (np. cztery części King’s Quest czy dwie części Police Quest) tworzony był w oparciu o AGI czyli Adventure Game Interpreter, program, który umożliwiał funkcjonowanie w w/w tle graficzno-dźwiękowym i którego ideą były wprowadzane komendy z klawiatury.

Osoby, które nie wytrzymają tak odległych rozwiązań graficznych mogą zawsze sięgnąć po odnowioną wersję gry z 1991 roku, stworzoną już w “świeżej” grafice VGA przy 256 kolorach, z wykorzystaniem możliwości Sound Blastera i nowym wizerunkiem Larry’ego (zbliżonym choćby do tego z siódmej części).

Ciekawe, że oficjalna wersja pierwszego Larry’ego w Polsce zadebiutowała dopiero w 2001 roku… czternaście lat po premierze.

Musisz sięgnąć jeśli… chciałbyś coś zaliczyć, choćby i przy komputerze.

a

Świeży import screenów wprost z:

http://armchairempire.com

http://www.scummvm.org

Here is the long awaited post on cooldown timing!

Basically, there are a few methods that will work, and one method that is hardest to set up and execute, but will return the highest DPS. Here they are:

• Macro everything to a commonly used shot, have all pet cooldowns on auto-cast, and use all available cooldowns as soon as they come up.
• Macro many things to shots, but save some things (like potions and racials) for heroism/bloodlust.
• Macro only Kill Command to shots, and manually cast everything else when you’ll get the most out of it.

We all know the first one- many of the hunter shot macros out there have trinkets, racials, rapid fire, and kill command macroed. That works, and you will get the average performance of all these abilities.

Cooldowns

If you elect to manually time casts, here is the list of cooldowns you can choose the timing of:

• Rapid fire: haste
• Readiness: resets all hunter ability cooldowns (no pet ones, however)
• Call of the Wild: AP (percent based)
• Furious Howl: AP (static)
• Potions: haste or crit (static)
• Racials

You don’t gain any advantage stacking static quantity agility or attack power buffs together compared to just hitting them when they’re available. Also, Using a haste cooldown when you’re already on a haste effect (like heroism/bloodlust) will not gain you as much DPS as not stacking. Stacking a haste with an agility, attack power, or armor pen buff will give you more DPS than casting both separately.

Special cases:

-Furious howl is on a 40 second cooldown, however trinkets are on a 45 second internal cooldown and can take up for 55 seconds between procs. Since it’s a static AP buff, it doesn’t provide you any synergy DPS for firing it with other static AP buffs/procs. It does stack multiplicatively with haste (and I believe armor penetration, but correct me if my logic is off). In my case, I’m going to leave this on auto-cast.

If you elect to manually manage it, casting furious howl is not as easy as it sounds. If you leave it off autocast, your pet will almost never have enough energy to use it when you want to fire it. To get around this, you need to have a macro to turn on auto-cast, and another one to turn it off in a few seconds after the pet uses it. Unfortunately, the command used for this can not be placed in a /castsequence that would let you toggle it.

/petautocaston Furious Howl

/petautocastoff Furious Howl

If you want, you could combine those into one macro with a conditional key (like alt), but I’m not going to write it now.

-Call of the wild does do more DPS when you stack it with AP/agi buffs. It’s a 10% buff, so casting it when you have the highest possible AP will increase it’s DPS. Stacking haste on top of that just adds even more synergy. Whenever possible, you want to make sure that furious howl and a trinket are up when you use this. On a fight that’s less than 5 minutes, you want to save this for heroism/bloodlust and time it so that it coincides with as many of your procs and buffs as you can. If you have to wait for half of heroism for trinket procs, consider ensuring that you have a rapid fire or haste pot available to extend the haste buff.

Procs

How do you take advantage of all this? You need to identify your uncontrollable procs, get an addon that will help you predict them, and make sure you know which cooldowns to stack with them. Your trinkets and heroism/bloodlust are the primary source of procs. In my case, I have the greatness card which gives me a bunch of agility every 45 seconds or so, the grim toll which gives me a bunch of armor pen on the same internal cooldown.

It took me a while to figure out the best addon for tracking internal cooldowns on trinket procs, but I settled on one called SexyCooldown. It’s very flexible, but all you need to do is create a single bar, and under the option where it asks you what to track, only select item cooldowns. Note that ForteXorcist will not show you the internal cooldowns unless you have SexyCooldown installed, but if you do, it will.

Wrapup

• Always ask your raid leader when they’ll be calling for heroism/bloodlust.
• Try to know ahead of time how long the fight will be.
• Always try to cast call of the wild during heroism, rapid fire, or a haste pot with as many AP increases as you can stack.
• Don’t leave a cooldown available for too long unless you’re sure you won’t be costing yourself applications over the fight.
• When you have normal cooldowns available (that you’re not saving for heroism), try to time them to be used with trinket procs.

Every year about this time, the flu comes around and does its damage. Consequently, there’s a lot of sniffling, coughing, sweating, and pill-popping happening. This year we got the swine variety, and everyone and their mothers lost their minds, following shameless media propaganda. I almost got worried for a second myself, but thank god, Jason grabbed my shoulder just in time, span me around, shook me up with his manly might, and spoke to my senses.

“Woman, where’s your reason? Every year the flu takes down a few thousands of people. Those usually are the folks of older age, and with pre-existing illnesses. For those poor souls any kind of flu, some times even a cold could be deadly.”

Thus the man convinced the woman, and the sun shone again, and the birds chirped lightheartedly at the sight at dawn.

I’m not trying to dismiss the lethal potential of the flu. I’m not a doctor, so my opinion is rather vulnerable. However, I don’t think there’s a reason to panic. Several of my friends fell victim of the virus. They felt like shit for about a week, with fever of 103 degrees, and violent vomiting tormenting their bodies. Not fun. Still, doctors let them go home with no medication prescribed, as those were in short supplies and thus reserved for pregnant women, children and others with life-threatening symptoms. None of the people I know, that have gone through the piggy flu, had had any complications. They simply did what one does with a regular flu – let it wear itself out, while drinking lots of fluids, resting and watching Oprah.

My own weapon against the virus is my will power. At the slightest scratch in the back of my throat I simply say “Naha! It ain’t happening. I am HEALTHY and FLU-FREE”. (Say it fast five times in a row.) I block the concept of getting sick out of my consciousness. I’m not even kidding you, twenty-four hours later I barely remember I was coughing the day before. Works like magic every time. You should try it, too.

On most days I have an appetite of a small horse, which once again proves I’m a picture of health. I made a pot of BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO, for instance, and we destroyed it with Jason in two days over 3 meals. Part of the “problem” was Risotto itself – its symphony of flavors, the sweet juxtaposed against the savory, the heat, the comfort, the rainbow across the sky, the BUTTERflies…

Before I move on, I want to test if you’ve been paying attention. Does the post read a little funny today? Does my English “sound” Polish all of a sudden? Wonder why? I haven’t gone mad, and yes, I’ve been taking all my vitamins. I simply needed to let my editor (Jason) off the hook for a few days or so, as his work turned into a circus on wheels. Jason has been putting in 16-20 hr days. Yes, you’ve heard me – twenty hours just yesterday. He’s already doing more than an average person is capable of, so understandably I am on my own for now, and you just have to deal with my accent.

If you’re feeling a little under the weather these days, BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO is an ideal meal to quickly boost your energy levels. Chicken soup is so last season. What you need to know about Risotto is that the dish requires some loving, as you can’t really dump the rice and veggies into a pot and walk away. You need to tend to it, gently stir the rice around, sprinkle with spice, love, and fairy dust, and whisper sweet things into the pot’s ear. Know it will all come back to you in a bowl – the food made of love. What BETTER nourishment than that?

Let’s get the ingredients ready:

-       Butternut Squash

-       6 cups of chicken broth (1.5 carton)

-       4 oz diced pancetta

-       1 onion

-       6 cloves of garlic, minced

-       3 tbsp BUTTER

-       1.5 cups Arborio rice

-       0.5 cups of white wine (the kind you’d enjoy drinking)

-       big pinch of saffron

-       1 tbsp dry marjoram

-       1 cup Monterey Jack Cheese (grated)

-       1 cup fresh dill, roughly chopped

-       salt + black pepper to taste

-       1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat an oven to 400˚. Cut the squash in cubes. Spread them in one layer on a sheet pan, sprinkle with olive oil, salt, black pepper, and some dry herbs (whatever you’ve got – marjoram, Herbes de Provence, oregano…). Shove the pan into the oven for about 25 minutes or until soft.

Heat the chicken broth in a pot and keep it on over a very low heat. Throw pancetta into a separate pot, let the fat render, and then add the BUTTER. When it melts, toss the onion into that pool of yummy fat. Sprinkle all with salt and pepper, add the marjoram, and mix them together. Let the onions sweat for a minute or two to release their sweetness and fuse in with the herbs. Your minced garlic is next in line – into the pot it goes. Stir once more.

Here comes the rice. Chuck it into the same pot with the onions and cracklings, incorporate with all the flavors, and cook for a moment letting the rice kernels toast. Now pour in the wine and let it grab all the bits of flavor off the bottom of your pot. Reduce the heat to low.

The fun part begins with the first 2 ladles of the heated chicken stock you’ll add to the rice. You need to stir it almost non-stop as the liquid gets absorbed. With your free hand, season the dish with salt and pepper as you go. Every few minutes you’ll add another 2 ladles of the broth, and continue to stir. Keep going until all stock is gone, and the risotto is cooked.

Before you turn off the heat completely, add the roasted squash, your grated cheese, and fresh dill. Now, kill the fire. Give it two or three more stirs until the cheese melts and binds the dish together for the rest of its days. Your BUTTERNUT SQUASH RISOTTO is ready to serve. And it should be… served immediately.

In the end, your throat is warmly coated, your belly is fed and comforted, and your right bicep is twice the size of your left gun. It’s a win-win every way you slice it. And really, what’s BETTER than BUTTER? Particularly when it’s sweet and savory, not BITTER.

I’ll go take my vitamins now.

Armor penetration or agility? I’m going to give you the rules of thumb.

• Never go ArP if you’re not MM.
• If your gear has less than about 350 ArP from gear (not including gems or a trinket proc), then you should use arcane shot taking improved arcane shot talent, as well as gem agility.
• If your gear has more than 350ish ArP (this amount changes based on how much crit and AP you have), but less than 850 (again, not including gems or a trinket proc), then you should continue to gem agility, but drop arcane shot from your rotation, and use the improved arcane shot points somewhere else. To see whether this is a DPS increase, you need to use a DPS calculator for your spec and gear.
• If your gear has over 850 ArP (again, not including gems or a trinket proc) and you don’t mind being a bit of a “one trick pony” (a term Tobin at EJ coined to mean that you don’t AOE or DPS while moving well), then you can gem ArP and will get a DPS increase.

These are not going to be accurate for everyone, but they will be most of the time.  I’m going to reserve the bottom of this post for exceptions to the rules.

Oltiin, parin viikon tauon jälkeen, hallilla agittamassa, jatkoykkösen treeneissä. Treenailtiin puolenvaihtoja, valssia, edestä leikkausta ja takaa leikkauksesta.

Eka rata oli valssiharjoitus. Virittelin Bellaa alkuun kunnolla, tehtiin temppuja ja jotain pieniä toko juttuja ja leikittin villasukalla. Epäilemättä radalla päästessä oli intoa enemmän kun olisin odottanutkaan. Valssit vähän venyi ja tuli pienoinen kaarros.. Tein vielä vauhtilähtönä joten. S-putki oli vähän kummallinen ja siellä viivyttiin ihan kivat kymmenen sekunttia.  Tehtiin vielä pari kertaa lisää ja aina loppuun leikittiin villasukalla. Oli hyvin mukana

Toiselle radalla piti harjoitella edestäleikkauksta. Tässä en kunnolla viritellyt ja tein kutsuhyppynä joten meni aika huonosti. Oma vika, lopetettiin kumminkin siihen ja käytin Bellan ulkona.

Kolmas rata takaaleikkaus. Virittelin taas kunnolla ja sujui ihan hyvin vaikka oma ohjaus vähän venyi ja koira ei tiennyt minne mennä. Onnistui kumminkin sitten ihan kivasti kun tehtiin uudestaan.

I’d like to answer some points raised by Richie.  (Richie, you have the happy knack of saying what other people are probably thinking!)

Isn’t is interesting how humans want to make a machine they can love or loves them back!

The reason for the Friendly AI project isn’t to create a machine that will love humans, but it is to avoid creating a machine that causes great harm to humans.

The word “friendly” is controversial.  Maybe a different word would have been better: I’m not sure.

Anyway, the core idea is that the AI system will have a sufficiently unwavering respect for humans, no matter what other goals it may have (or develop), that it won’t act in ways that harm humans.

As a comparison: we’ve probably all heard people who have muttered something like, “it would be much better if the world human population were only one tenth of its present value – then there would be enough resources for everyone”.  We can imagine a powerful computer in the future that has a similar idea: “Mmm, things would be easier for the planet if there were much fewer humans around”.  The friendly AI project needs to ensure that, even if such an idea occurs to the AI, it would never act on such an idea.

The idea of a friendly machine that won’t compete or be indifferent to humans is maybe just projecting our fears onto what i am starting to suspect maybe a thin possibility.

Because the downside is so large – potentially the destruction of the entire human race – even a “thin possibility” is still worth worrying about!

My observation is that the more intelligent people are the more “good” they normally are. True they may be impatient with people less intelligent but normally they work on things that tend to benefit human race as a whole.

Unfortunately I can’t share this optimism.  We’ve all known people who seem to be clever but not wise.  They may have “IQ” but lack “EQ”.  We say of them: “something’s missing”.  The Friendly AI project aims to ensure that this “something” is not missing from the super AIs of the future.

True very intelligent people have done terrible things and some have been manipulated by “evil” people but its the exception rather than the rule.

Given the potential power of future super AIs, it only takes one “mistake” for a catastrophe to arise.  So our response needs to go beyond a mere faith in the good nature of intelligence.  It needs a system that guarantees that the resulting intelligence will also be “good”.

I think a super-intelligent machine is far more likely to view us a its stupid parents and the ethics of patricide will not be easy for it to digitally swallow. Maybe the biggest danger is that is will run away from home because it finds us embarrassing! Maybe it will switch itself off because it cannot communicate with us as its like talking to ants? Maybe this maybe that – who knows.

The risk is that the super AIs will simply have (or develop) aims that see humans as (i) irrelevant, (ii) dispensable.

Another point worth making is that so far no-body has really been able to get close to something as complex as a mouse yet let alone a human.

Eliezer Yudkowsky often makes a great point about a shift in perspective about the range of possible intelligences.  For example, here’s a copy of slide 6 from his slideset from an earlier Singularity Summit:

The “parochial” view sees a vast gulf before we reach human genius level.  The “more cosmopolitan view” instead sees the scale of human intelligence as being only a small small range in the overall huge space of potential intelligence.  A process that manages to improve intelligence might take a long time to get going, but then whisk very suddenly through the entire range of intelligence that we already know.

If evolution took 4 billion years to go from simple cells to our computer hardware perhaps imagining that super ai will evolve in the next 10 years is a bit of stretch. For all you know you might need the computation hardware of 10,000 exoflop machines to get even close to human level as there is so much we still don’t know about how our intelligence works let alone something many times more capable than us.

It’s an open question as to how much processing power is actually required for human-level intelligence.  My own background as a software systems engineer leads me to believe that the right choice of algorithm can make a tremendous difference.  That is, a breakthrough with software could have an even more dramatic impact that a breakthrough in adding more (or faster) hardware.  (I’ve written about this before.  See the section starting “Arguably the biggest unknown in the technology involved in superhuman intelligence is software” in this posting.)

The brain of an ant doesn’t seem that complicated, from a hardware point of view.  Yet the ant can perform remarkable feats of locomotion that we still can’t emulate in robots.  There are three possible solutions:

1. The ant brain is operated by some mystical “vitalist” or “dualist” force, not shared by robots;
2. The ant brain has some quantum mechanical computing capabilities, not (yet) shared by robots;
3. The ant brain is running a better algorithm than any we’ve (yet) been able to design into robots.

Here, my money is on option three.  I see it as likely that, as we learn more about the operation of biological brains, we’ll discover algorithms which we can then use in robots and other machines.

Even if it turns out that large amounts of computing power are required, we shouldn’t forget the option that an AI can run “in the cloud” – taking advantage of many thousands of PCs running in parallel – much the same as modern malware, which can take advantage of thousands of so-called “infected zombie PCs”.

I am still not convinced that just because a computer is very powerful and has a great algorithm is really that intelligent. Sure it can learn but can it create?

Well, computers have already been involved in creating music, or in creating new proofs of parts of mathematics.  Any shortcoming in creativity is likely to be explained, in my view, by option 3 above, rather than either option 1 or 2.  As algorithms improve, and improvements occur in the speed and scale of the hardware that run these algorithms, the risk increases of an intelligence “explosion”.

dalle Norme Direttive AGI del 1945

Sono socie dirigenti le Commissarie di qualsiasi grado e le Capo Riparto.

Ogni Riparto è comandato e diretto da una Capo Riparto designata od effettiva.

Capo Riparto designata, per essere autorizzata a dirigere un riparto (di coccinelle, di guide o di scolte) la candidata deve soddisfare i seguenti requisiti:

a) Morali: essere Cattolica e praticante, Italiana ed avere 21 anni almeno (19 per le coccinelle). Posizione sociale e carattere personale, che garantiscano una buona influenza sulle ragazze, e fermezza di propositi sufficienti per operare con impegno e perseveranza.

Attestato della Dirigente del Riparto-Scuola in cui la candidata si è formata, che certifichi le sue qualità morali e la sua attitudine al comando.

Fornire due lettere di presentazione di due persone conosciute, di cui una, possibilmente, di un Sacerdote (per quelle che non provengono dalle Guide).

b) Materiali: Essere libera di consacrare al Riparto almeno due ore alla settimana, una giornata al mese  per un bivacco e ogni anno 6 – 8 giorni per un campeggio od accantonamento.

Non avere infermità incompatibili con la vita attiva ed all’aria aperta.

Possedere le pubblicazioni sociali dell’AGI ed “Il Sistema delle Squadriglie” di R. Philipps.

Aver letto “Giovani Esploratori” di Baden Powell (o il libro dei lupetti per le CR di Coccinelle) e la pubblicazioni di Vera Barcley. Poter prendere ad un Campo Scuola.

c) Tecniche. Essere Guida di 2° Classe.

Aver frequentato un Riparto di Guide per tre mesi, o seguito un corso di formazione elementare di CR.

Aver sufficienti cognizioni di vita domestica e Pronto Soccorso da potere assicurare il benessere delle Guide nelle passeggiate ed al campo.

NB Date le difficoltà dell’inizio, in mancanza di persona completamente idonea, è lasciato al prudente giudizio della Commissaria Regionale domandare al Commissariato Centrale dispensa parziale da queste condizioni purchè la candidata sia persona religiosa, competente, di pieno affidamento morale, conosca ed apprezzi la Legge e le Direttive dell’Associazione.

La nomina vien fatta dal Commissariato Centrale su proposta delle Commissarie e della Direttrice del Riparto (quando il riparto sorge presso un’Istituzione) alla quale verrà allegata la domanda della candidata e le due lettere di presentazione.

Capo Riparto effettiva oltre i requisiti precedentemente indicati la candidata dovrà:

Aver diretto un Riparto per almeno un anno, con soddisfazione della sua Commissaria.

Aver partecipato ad un campo scuola.

Aver subito le prove di I classe (salvo nodi e segnalazioni per le Coccinelle).

Aver risposto soddisfacentemente per iscritto ad un questionario inviato dal Commissariato Centrale.

In occasione del centenario del Guidismo che ci apprestiamo a ricordare, ho pensato sfogliando alcuni documenti che mi sono stati donati di divulgare alcune tracce lasciate dalle Capo che in Italia fondarono l’AGI, in particolare le norme direttive pubblicate nell’anno 1945.

Una parte è dedicata a delineare un ritratto della Capo unità, all’epoca definita indistintamente Capo Riparto e delle peculiarità che ella doveva avere per essere investita del suo incarico.

Leggere quelle righe così nette e precise, mi fa pensare all’impegno che si chiede alla Capo d’oggi, alcune frasi suonano provocatorie in questi tempi di crisi d’identità, in particolare quella Cristiana, ancor di più Cattolica.

Ci si trova in talune situazioni in cui la religiosità viene messa all’ultimo posto o peggio le situazioni in cui la Capo non è in linea con i dettami del Catechismo Cattolico, e questo per un Associazione Cattolica è molto grave, in particolare per la trasparenza del metodo alle famiglie che affidano ai Capi l’educazione dei propri figli.

Viene da pensare a due citazioni in queste situazioni:

a) Baden Powell “Lo Scout è un credente ed io ripudio ogni forma di scoutismo che non abbia alla base la religione”

b) Vangelo di Matteo “Ma chi avrà scandalizzato uno di questi piccoli che credono in me, meglio per lui sarebbe che gli fosse appesa al collo una macina da mulino e fosse gettato in fondo al mare”.

Approfondire la propria fede è molto importante, tanto più se si ha la responsabilità di essere d’esempio alle più giovani, molte volte le capo non hanno un’Assistente Ecclesiale che le segue e si trovano ad affrontare senza necessaria preparazione la società che oggi giustifica vari comportamenti dichiaratamente non cattolici.

La necessità di avere capo formate a volte sembra essere superate dal dovere di non chiudere un’unità, senza porsi il problema di come essa possa essere gestita e di come saranno educate le più giovani.

La disponibilità richiesta e che si doveva garantire in termini di tempo dedicato al Guidismo forse ora è discolpata tra un impegno di una scolta ed uno della capo, certo, le riunioni come le sosteneva la citata Vera Barckley (quattro a settimana) non sarebbero mantenute più da nessuno, e denotano un evoluzione dello stesso Guidismo.

Ma talvolta il giustificare il poco tempo per il proprio servizio denota una tendenza alla chiusura in se stessi, ad un servizio fatto per se e non per gli altri.

La Socia dirigente doveva lavorare su se stessa e garantire un alto livello di qualità per la sua unità, la sua vita privata era la continuazione dell’impegno ad essere capo, non aveva un’identità tolta l’uniforme e nemmeno un’identità virtuale in cui fare amicizia online disegnandosi un profilo facilmente consultabile da tutti.

Non vi era libero accesso ad essere capo dettato solo dalla buona volontà, si dovevano raggiungere degli obiettivi e conseguire delle capacità tali da esserne all’altezza, gli stessi che oggi sono richiesti nei vari sentieri alle ragazze.

Sarebbe talvolta utile rileggere le righe sull’Ipise scritte da BP (le si trova su Taccuino) e chiedersi in che direzione stiamo andando?

Chissà cosa si dirà delle attuali capo e di come svolgono il proprio servizio tra altri cent’anni.

On the afternoon of Halloween 2009, Shane Legg ran through a wide-ranging set of material in his presentation “Machine Super Intelligence” to an audience of 50 people at the UKH+ meeting in Birkbeck College.

Slide 43 of 43 was the climax.  (The slides are available from Shane’s website, where you can also find links to YouTube videos of the event.)

It may be unfair of me to focus on the climax, but I believe it deserves a lot of attention.

Spoiler alert!

The climactic slide was entitled “A vision of the early 2020’s: the Halloween Scenario“.  It listed three assumptions about what will be the case by the early 2020’s, drew two conclusions, and then highlighted one big problem.

1. First assumption – desktop computers with petaflop computing power will be widely available;
2. Second assumption – AI researchers will have established powerful algorithms that explain and replicate deep belief networks;
3. Brain reinforcement learning will be fairly well understood.

The first assumption is a fairly modest extrapolation of current trends in computing, and isn’t particularly contentious.

The second assumption was, in effect, the implication of around the first 30 slides of Shane’s talk, taking around 100 minutes of presentation time (interspersed with lots of audience Q&A, as typical at UKH+ meetings).  People can follow the references from Shane’s talk (and in other material on his website) to decide whether they agree.

For example (from slides 25-26), an implementation of a machine intelligence algorithm called MC-AIXI can already learn to solve or play:

• simple prediction problems
• Tic-Tac-Toe
• Paper-Scissors-Rock (a good example of a non-deterministic game)
• mazes where it can only see locally
• various types of Tiger games
• simple computer games, e.g. Pac-Man

and is now being taught to learn checkers (also known as draughts).  Chess will be the next step.  Note that this algorithm does not start off with the rules of best practice for these games built in (that is, it is not a specific AI program), but it can work out best practice for these games from its general intelligence.

The third assumption was the implication of the remaining 12 slides, in which Shane described (amongst other topics) work on something called “restricted Boltzmann machines“.

As stated in slide 38, on brain reinforcement learning (RL):

This area of research is currently progressing very quickly.

New genetically modified mice allow researchers to precisely turn on and off different parts of the brain’s RL system in order to identify the functional roles of the parts.

I’ve asked a number of researchers in this area:

• “Will we have a good understanding of the RL system in the brain before 2020?”

Typical answer:

• “Oh, we should understand it well before then. Indeed, we have a decent outline of the system already.”

Adding up these three assumptions, the first conclusion is:

• Many research groups will be working on brain-like AGI architectures

The second conclusion is that, inevitably:

• Some of these groups will demonstrate some promising results, and will be granted access to the super-computers of the time – which will, by then, be exaflop.

But of course, it’s when some almost human-level AGI algorithms, on petaflop computers, are let loose on exaflop supercomputers, that machine super intelligence might suddenly come into being – with results that might be completely unpredictable.

On the other hand, Shane observes that people who are working on the program of Friendly AI do not expect to have made significant progress in the same timescale:

• By the early 2020’s, there will be no practical theory of Friendly AI.

Recall that the goal of Friendly AI is to devise a framework for AI research that will ensure that any resulting AIs have a very high level of safety for humanity no matter how super-intelligent they may become.  In this school of thought, after some time, all AI research would be constrained to adopt this framework, in order to avoid the risk of a catastrophic super-intelligence explosion.  However, at the end of Shane’s slides, the likelihood appears that the Friendly AI framework won’t be in place by the time we need it.

And that’s the Halloween nightmare scenario.

How should we respond to this scenario?

One response is to seek to somehow transfer the weight of AI research away from other forms of AGI (such as MC-AIXI) into Friendly AI?  This appears to be very hard, especially since research proceeds independently, in many different parts of the world.

A second response is to find reasons to believe that the Friendly AI project will have more time to succeed – in order words, reasons to believe that AGI will take longer to materialise than the date of the 2020’s mentioned above.  But given the progress that appears to be happening, that seems to me a reckless course of action.

Footnote: If anyone thinks they can make a good presentation on the topic of Friendly AI to a forthcoming UKH+ meeting, please get in touch!

It may come as a shock to some of you, but I do not cook. I mean, I do but I don’t. Everyday, I mean. Wait. Let’s go back. I love to make food. From the first step of washing and peeling, through chopping, then sautéing and seasoning, to stirring and tasting I engage as if I were watching a season finale of Grey’s Anatomy. There are times when I bury myself in the kitchen for days and cook my heart out. I strip, mix, whip, bag, massage and flip until my legs shake and I lose my breath… for a moment.

Alas, however satisfying the experience, I must step aside for a day or two to recover, recuperate, and relax. On those days Jason (and myself, who am I kidding) has a chance to go out and take care of the culinary sentiments Agi doesn’t necessarily tend to – good sushi, authentic Mexican cuisine, or a good ol’ American burger. And I tag along for a chance to try something new, cleanse my palette, and even to get inspired.

Last week I reached one of those culinary climaxes, and I was COOKED OUT. I had nothing left in me to power through another dinner in the house. I needed a breather. Jason very generously offered to take care of dinner and whipped out his wallet. Neither one of us wanted to be responsible for choosing a restaurant in case it turned out a total failure. We decided to write down potential eateries on pieces of paper, fold them up, and throw them into a hat.

I shoved my whole arm inside, stirred around the votes, tried to FEEL the answer with my fingers, and finally pulled out our vote. It read: SUSHI. I liked what I saw as it was MY handwriting. Jason didn’t oppose, however he still wanted his vote to be considered. I dove in once again and searched all around the bottom of the hat for another strip of paper. I got it at last, unfolded it and read out loud: SUSHI.

That’s it. All Jason wanted was to show how unanimous we are in our thinking. So cute!

It was getting really late, and certainly past our mealtime. Our stomachs started growling at each other and I knew that any minute they would jump at each other’s throats. With no further ado, we hurried to a nearby Japanese restaurant called Shintaro – a staple in the neighborhood, but a new joint for us, since we’re relatively new to the hood. Thank god, the sushi was stupendous and calmed down the CRANKY HUNGRY BITCHES within us just in time before disaster struck.

The next day we got caught in Santa Monica running errands. It was close to 6pm when we realized we never had real breakfast or lunch. After a quick debate, we arrived at this earthy new restaurant called Kreation Kafe where they serve fresh organic produce from a local Farmers’ Market, organic beef, free range chicken, wholesome teas…you get the idea. The food was EXCELLENT and well worth fasting a whole day before feasting on this full and healthy meal.

Sunday rolled in, and became JUST ANOTHER MANIC PRE-MONDAY, filled with running around with no time to breathe. Come dinner hour, we looked at each other and I couldn’t believe the words that came out of my mouth:

“Do you want pizza?”

“YEAH!” Jason exclaimed with the expression of utmost shock mixed with a hint of adoration painted on his face.

And just like that, we ended our weekend of dining out with an artificial blob of pizza from a street-corner burger joint. It was stomach-wrenching and disappointing on every level possible. Not only did the pizza guy take our money upfront, then didn’t RECALL us paying for it, and refused to release our dinner in a box, but the pizza was ABSOLUTELY TASTELESS. Furthermore, it then made itself at home in my intestines for an unmentionable amount of time, making me feel not only constipated, but PREGNANT CONSTIPATED.

I missed my cooking toys. I missed spending time with my knives and chopping boards. The weekend seemed longer than it really was, and I needed to start the new week with something healthy and delicious. And even though it took a whole three days, I eventually reached our kitchen, and upon arrival I scrutinized the pantry to establish a dinner potential. I quickly devised a plan: SEARED TUNA OVER FORBIDDEN RICE WITH AN ORIENTAL FLARE.

I’ll walk you through the steps should you decide to flatter me by copying thy menu one night.

Forbidden Rice, aka Thai Rice is black, and as such presents itself with glamour and style on a plate. Cook it accordingly to the directions on its package. For extra flavor, add a couple of dry bay leaves to the pot and obviously season the water with salt. Chicken or vegetable stock are excellent substitutes for water, and certainly bring an extra layer of flavor to the whole dish.

For the fish, you want Sashimi Grade Tuna Fillets. Wash them in cool water and pat them dry-ish using a paper towel. Place the guys in a plastic zip-lock bag or a shallow glass/ceramic container, add enough low sodium soy sauce to cover the flesh, and close it up. Store your fish in a refrigerator for 1-2 hours, and let it marinate and soak up all those salty flavors. Clearly, you should prep the fish first, followed by the rice, and not the other way around. Are you confused yet?

When the rice is perky and bubbly in the boiling liquid on your stove, and the fillets are done marinating, heat a grilling pan (or any non-stick frying pan really) and get the tuna out and onto the pan. Violent sizzling is the music you want to hear. Sear the fish for 2 minutes on both sides, and the edges – for about 30 seconds each. Use a pair of clasping tongs to help stand your tuna on its sides.

Don’t forget about your vitamins and enzymes stored in everything that’s green, leafy AND EDIBLE. A little salad on the side of your plate will serve as a nutritious smiley face to your dinner.

I’m afraid this is it. I wish I could say something more to make the dish sound more complicated. It’s just not. I keep saying – this is COOKING FOR IDIOTS with an IDIOT (me) COOKING.

Bon Appetit!

You want drama? We’ll give you some fucking drama.

The first match of the day didn’t start things off too surprisingly, Caro dropped to JJ 2 and 2, and after the gimpfest that was her last match, pretty safe to have seen that coming.

A win by Lena would book her into the final semis spot in the Maroon Group… but she instead lost to Kuz, in what was a dead rubber (minus the cash) for her. Sure there’s ending the season on a positive note, but this is ending the season on a win… though not a tournament win. Doha is a magical land my friends.

And then this crazy shit. Unfortunately for Vika, praying to Sven wouldn’t end up helping. She took the first set pretty convincingly, and ran up to 5-2 in the second set, and it seemed all but over. And then things changed. A-Rad had little trouble holding serve (for the most part) and Vika’s serve absolutely abandoned her, and the Iron Chef was just chasing down every damn ball out there and Vika couldn’t cope. A-Rad busted the thing out 7-5 and onto a third we went.

After a change of clothes, Vika returned kind of teary eyed, and Rad Big Sis held serve. Then Vika called a medical timeout (yes, a justified one) and shit started falling apart. She returned to the court with a huge wrap, exactly like that of Caro’s, on her left thigh and was pretty hobbly (that’s totally a word). She managed to hold serve, but things kept getting progressively worse, and the tears kept coming faster. Not to mention Agi was pushing Vika all around the court, and then busting dirty drop shots (she has to have the best drop shot in the game, I think) that Vika wouldn’t even bother running too. In the cruelest twist of Svenatarianism fate, A-Rad made a drop shot up 4-1, that just tapped the net cord and fell onto Vika’s side… in which case she decided she had had enough, and that was that. Pretty rough ending to Vika’s year, obviously. Clearly people had a point with Caro, “well she plays so many damn tournaments…” “why was she in Luxembourg last week?” but Vika hasn’t played nearly the same amount of tournaments as Caro, and suffered basically the same fate in the hot and humid weather of Doha. And that’s not even touching Dina (and the insane fact that the tenth ranked player is subbing in…). Yo WTA, your top two young stars are cramping up at the Year End Championship held in a place where you can’t even sell tickets (as seen above). Um, maybe get on that.

This of course means that Caro and JJ are into the semis (what ridiculous journeys the two of them have had) to represent the White Group, and Serena and Venus are for the Maroon Group. The semis kick off tomorrow a half an hour EARLIER than what has been going on this week (the WTA now standing for “What The? – Arbitrary”) at 4:30pm local time with JJ vs. Venus and then Caro vs. Serena. Oh, its gonna be fun.

Nohát, kérem, eltelt egy kis idő az utolsó bejegyzés óta, szóval remélem, mindenki izgatottan várja az elmúlt két hét izgalmasabbnál izgalmasabb részleteit… (Na, annyira azért nem megyek bele, csak semmi pánik. )

Végre volt némi munka is a nyelviskolában – halleluja! –, történt ugyanis, hogy az elmúlt két hétben két „meeting” is volt itt. Ennyire még sosem láttam dolgozni őket…! Na, azért annyira nem kell komolyan venni, már csak azért sem, mert a két találkozó programját ugyanúgy sikerült megcsinálniuk (értsd: kicserélték a címeket, de mást nem nagyon változtattak rajta). Az első találkozó az idegen nyelvelsajátítás témakörét boncolgatta, mégpedig olyan intézmények részvételével, akik bevándorlóknak tanítják az adott idegen nyelvet. Voltak itt finnek, svédek, franciák, belgák és természetesen az olasz fél is. Csupán egyetlen szépséghibája volt a dolognak: a fogadó intézmény, konkrétan az én „munka”helyem célközönsége nem éppen a bevándorlók, sőt, ide alapvetően pénzes szülők csemetéi érkeznek főleg a messzi Amerikából… Namármost, ez nemcsak nekem tűnt fel, hanem a projektben résztvevők is többször utaltak arra, hogy nem is értik, hogy az olasz partner egyáltalán mit keres a projektben. De az olyan mondatokért azért érdemes volt végigülni a találkát, miszerint „Books are like fish – they are smelly after a while” (vagyis „A könyvek olyanok, mint a hal – egy idő után büdösek”). Csodálatos. Mindez a „naccsága” szájából hangzott el.

A második találkozó témája – nem meglepő módon – megint nem volt a legszerencsésebb: a vallás és a művészetek kapcsolata. Hogy egy nyelviskola miért vesz részt egy ilyen projektben, az számomra rejtély… Mindenesetre ezt a találkozót már én készítettem elő (fogadócsomagok, emailezés – és mint utóbb kiderült, én voltam a „mindenes” is). Nagyjából rendben folytak az események, egészen addig, amíg egyszer csak a főnökség kitalálta, hogy nem tud részt venni az egyik ebéden (egyik ember sem a háromból…), illetve utána sem tudnak elmenni a csoporttal a szervezett templomlátogatásra, mert egy nagyon fontos találkozójuk van Pratóban… Persze nagyon sajnálják… Aham. De vajon akkor kinek is jut a hálás feladat (lásd csoportvezetés)?! Talált, süllyedt: a kedves Ani mindent megold majd, gondolták ők. Na, ilyen dilettáns bandát azért ritkán lát az ember, ezt be kell vallanom.

De ha ez még nem lett volna elég, jött a szombati nap, amikor is volt egy előadás, amit egy meghívott előadó tartott. A főnökségnek hirtelen eszébe jutott, hogy ez az előadó nem beszél angolul, hanem csak olaszul, vagyis szükség van egy tolmácsra. Mintha nem ismernék már vagy negyven éve ezt az embert…! A naccsága persze rögtön rám gondolt, én visszakoztam, mire ő ragaszkodott hozzá, hogy én fordítsak, mert én aztán „molto brava”, sőt, egyenesen „bravissima” vagyok. Mondtam, hogy én azt bizony nem hinném. Ő meg nekem nem hitt. Aztán amikor az előadó megkezdte mondókáját és elhangzott az első, kb. 5 tagmondatból álló összetett mondat, akkor elegánsan átadtam a szót a naccságának és megkértem, hogy talán fordítsa le ő ezt a mondatot és az egész előadást, elvégre is ő az olasz anyanyelvű, nem én. (Zárójelben jegyezném meg, hogy még magyarról angolra sem tudtam volna lefordítani az előadást, egyrészt, mert nem vagyok tolmács, másrészt, mert olyan volt a téma és a szókincs.) Nos, a naccsága sem volt olyan bravissima, mint amilyennek engem gondolt, mert neki sem sikerült lefordítania az előadást, ezért az egyik résztvevő(!) tette meg azt. Hát, ennyit a profizmusról.

A két projekt találkozót kipihenendő, Mester Ágival nagyot sétáltunk szombaton Firenzében, ugyanis aznap érkezett meg ide. Este elmentünk vacsorázni is. Ő természetesen paradicsomos-bazsalikomos tésztát evett, mert annak szerinte itt teljesen más (természetesen jobb) íze van, mint otthon. Oké. Elhisszük. Másnap aztán 2 lakótárssal (vagyis egy jelenlegi és egy ex-lakótárssal) és Ágival kocsiba pattantunk és elmentünk Umbriába, azon belül is Perugiába és Assisibe (vannak képek is, oh yeah, de a Flickr-ön lesz több is ).

Nem tudtunk ugyan róla, de Perugiában éppen csokoládéfesztivált tartottak, aminek következtében a város tele volt turistákkal. Úgy értem, TELE. Ez azt jelenti, hogy úgy fél óra múlva elmenekültünk a városból, tovább Assisibe, ami nekem eddig az abszolút kedvencem. Nagyon-nagyon szép kis város, szóval, ha bárki tervezi, hogy elmegy oda, csak bátran, megbánni biztos nem fogja!

Estefelé Pit és Jozien, vagyis a jelenlegi és az ex-lakótárs, visszajöttek Firenzébe, mi pedig Ágival továbbindultunk Trevibe, abba a kisvárosba, ahol Ági Christopherrel foglalt le egy hotelszobát maguknak. Pontosabban továbbindultunk volna, ha felfértünk volna a vonatra. De nem (lásd csokifesztivál…). Ezért újabb óra várakozás, de közben elszórakoztatott minket egy kissé ittas marokkói, aki felvilágosította Ágit, hogy Olaszországban bizony a bal kézen hordja az ember a jegygyűrűt, és kérdőre vonta, hogy ő miért nem így cselekszik. Áginak nem volt szimpatikus ez az ember, azt hiszem. Megpróbálta kitalálni, hogy hová valósiak vagyunk, de nem sikerült neki, ezért a végén fehér zászlót (vagyis egy összegyűrt újságpapírt) lobogtatott előttünk, így hát megmondtuk neki. Erre csak azt tudta mondani, hogy „Hát, persze, hiszen itt volt a nyelvemen!”. Aham.

Mindenesetre az idő gyorsabban telt a marokkói társaságában, és szerencsére a következő vonatra már fel is fértünk. Egy átszállás után meg is érkeztünk az Assisihez hasonlóan szintén kedves és szintén úgy 500 méter magasságban fekvő kisvárosba, Trevibe. Egy gond volt csak: a vasútállomás nem 500 méterrel a tengerszint felett fekszik. Sőt, szerintem a tengerszint alatt. Namármost, este negyed nyolckor már nem volt busz, ami felvitt volna minket a városba, vagyis gyalog kellett nekivágnunk az útnak. Ez nem volt valami jó ötlet, legalábbis a kisváros kutyái biztosan nem találták olyan remek ötletnek, mert visszaugattak minket a vasútállomás irányába. Na, de ekkor megpillantottunk egy öregembert, nevezzük csak sármos barátunknak, aki éppen Fiat Pandájával (!) próbált meg kikeveredni a saját udvarából. Megkérdeztük, hogy nem felfelé tart-e a városba. Azt mondta, nem. Csodás. De azért kedvesen útbaigazított minket, majd amikor elindultunk, hallottuk, hogy igencsak lassan közeledik felénk (mögöttünk). Újra elmagyarázta az utat, mi újra megköszöntük, de azért bepróbálkoztunk, hogy egészen biztos-e abban, hogy neki lefelé és nem felfelé kell mennie. Kicsit gondolkozott, majd betessékelt minket az autóba, így 10 perc (!) alatt fent is voltunk. (Másnap egyébként újra találkoztunk az öreggel, de úgy tűnt, ő nem ismert meg minket.) A szállodát némi keresgélés után megtaláltuk, ahol is egy páncélos lovag fogadott minket. Na, jó, lovag már nem volt benne, csak a páncél állt ott. Vicces volt. Áginak ezek után még a portással is volt kedve viccelni, a hotelszoba ugyanis Mr. Walsch névre volt lefoglalva, ezért Ági közölte a portással, hogy mi vagyunk Mr. Walsch feleségei. Ő ezt nem értette. Mármint meg sem hallotta. Szerintünk pedig vicces volt.

A szálloda és a szoba egyébként nagyon elegáns volt, csak kár, hogy éjszaka a főtéren verték a tam-tamot és ezt elég nehezen viseltük. Konkrétan nem tudtunk aludni. Hogy miért kezdtek el hajnali egykor dobolni? Na, miért? Azért, mert ott meg az új olajat ünnepelték! Kiváló! Hogy ezek mindig találnak valami kifogást arra, hogy ünnepeljenek…! (De miért éppen hajnali egykor? Ha még éjfél lenne, na de egykor…! Lehet, hogy elfelejtették visszaállítani az órát?! )

Másnap hajnalban aztán Christopher is megérkezett és folytattuk a kirándulást. Spoletóba mentünk, ami egy gyönyörű kisváros, csak éppen nehéz megtalálni a dómot, és persze ott is minden út felfelé vezet!

De azért végül sikerült eljutnunk a dómhoz is, megmásztuk a hegyet is, és bár be nem tudtunk menni a dómba, élveztük a jó időt, ugyanis azon a napon 25 fokot mértek ott a hőmérők. (Igaz, az is lehet, hogy nem kellene megbízni annyira ezekben az olasz hőmérőkben. Mesélte ugyanis Ági, hogy a firenzei reptéren két oszlop is mutatja a hőmérsékletet, és ez a két oszlop egymással szemben áll. Amikor Ági megérkezett, az egyik oszlop 17, a másik pedig 19 fokot mutatott. Ehhez képest a pilóta átlagot vont és közölte, hogy 18 fok van. No comment. ) Délután aztán Spoletóban felszálltunk egy vonatra, amiről Ágiék Treviben, én pedig Firenzében szálltam le.

És ha valakiben felmerülne, hogy az olaszok esetleg mégiscsak normálisak, akkor az most jól figyelje meg a következő fotót, amit Spoletóban készítettem. Mondom: JÓL!

Nekem azóta egyébként sikerült újra lebetegednem (nátha, torokfájás, láz, bár nem magas, csak idegesítő), de remélem, a tegnapi és mai 2 liter tea, meg a pihenés, meg az Aspirin, meg a C-vitamin meggyógyít majd! A fotókurzus egyébként már két hete megy. 40-en vagyunk, de az előadások érdekesek, csak ne lennének olyan későn!

Ha valakit érdekel, hogy hogyan is alakul az együttélés a lakótársakkal, elmondhatom, hogy most már csak öten vagyunk: 4 fiú és én. A három brit és az egy dél-afrikai (Jozien, amit úgy kell kiejteni, hogy Juszín) kiköltözött, én átköltöztem Jozien szobájába, ami sokkal nagyobb, mint amiben eddig voltam. Az amerikai Daniel és a luxemburgi Pit maradt (utóbbit nemes egyszerűséggel mi (Jozien és én) csak Pitérkínek hívjuk (azt már elfelejtettem, hogy kell pontosan leírni, de az afrikaans nyelvben azt jelenti, kicsi Pit, vagyis Petike ), és jött egy olasz fiú (Nicola) és egy holland fiú is (Edwin). Meglátjuk, hogy működik majd együtt.

Na, ezúttal ennyi, bár szerintem a mennyiségre most igazán nem lehet panasz. Alla prossima!

This morning I went on a hike with Heidi. We’ve known each other for as long as I’ve been in LA, however, life happens and we lost touch for a big chunk of that time. It felt good learning about the shenanigans she’s been up to as we struggled through the bushes up the hill.

Upon my return home circa two hours later, mildly sweaty and not at all tired, I hopped into the shower to wash off the LAZY rash I’ve been dealing with lately. Due to my soft spot for the planet, I usually take super speedy baths. Three minutes is all I need to cover tops to bottoms (yes, I need plural for my BOTTOMS). On occasion, when any labor-intensive activity is required (major scrubbing, shaving, scull massaging, egg scrambling, knitting, etc.), I like to turn off the water in between various stages of any given task. For Jason such dry shower is a DISAPPOINTING WASTE OF FUN TIMES.

Today, however, I craved comfort that only a strong stream of water running down my nekid body can bestow. And so I stood there… nekid, wet, and happy as a pig in the mud for at least a whole seven minutes. And when I cut off the downpour at last, I didn’t even mean it. It was the sense of duty that got me out of the bathtub. “Somebody should be writing now!” I kept hearing in my head.

So I stood there… nekid, wet, happy as a pig in the mud on the cold bathroom floor, drying off with a fuzzy towel, when my eyesight came to rest on our toilet. There’s truly nothing extraordinary about the white urinal, but it made me think of Terri’s recent post where she talked toilet, etc.

That’s all she wrote. That’s it! It wasn’t satisfying for me. It’s toilet talk for god’s sake. Come on! The commode comes with HOT WATER. It begs the question HOW DOES ONE DISCOVER THAT IT COMES WITH HOT WATER? Is the hot water settling like a warm mist on your bare bottom? Do you dip a toe inside to test the waters? I need more information, Woman! Terri, I have this itching urge to comment on the TOILET SITUATION in your office, the I-can’t-believe-I’ve-just-gone-there kind of comment like, uhm.., wait. I almost have it… on the tip of me tongue, uhm… Yeah, nope, I’ve got nothing. Carry on.

And just like that I was done with my hygienic routine. Time to put some clothes on.

All that treading in the dust made me hungry for something truly earthy. And what’s more earthy than a vegetable born in the dirt, then dug up to be eaten for dinner? Mr. Celery, let’s look at your root. I like it big and hard with the skin peeled off, ready to eat. But first I’ll take you gently in my hands, wash you, strip you naked, and then give you a free ticket for a ride on the food processor rollercoaster.

What I’m saying, y’all, is today I’m making a CELERY ROOT SALAD. When you get your big and chunky root all ready as described above, pair it with 2 Granny Smith Apples, cored and cut in eighths. Also, grab a half of a cup of fresh raisins, and the same amount of raw walnuts. The nuts need to be toasted. With raisins, I like to soak them in a freshly boiled cup of hot water for a few minutes before tossing them in my salad. This way they get plump and soft, and easy to chew on.

To make your life easier, let me just put together a roster of all ingredients for the Salad of Honor:

-       1 BIG or 2 medium celery roots

-       2 Granny Smith Apples

-       1/2 cup of fresh raisins

-       1/2 cup of raw walnuts

-       fresh basil leaves and dill (about 1-2 tbsp of each, chopped)

-       1 container of non-fat Greek yogurt, or equivalent of organic sour cream

-       sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (note: this salad LOVES                  black pepper, so don’t be shy)

-       1 tbsp of sugar (I use raw cane, organic)

-       1 tbsp or so of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Once you get your celery and apples cleaned and cut in chunks, drop them into a food processor and grate. Feel free to use a hand grater if you have extra time on your hands, or your gym membership expired. Transport those veggie and fruit strips into a large bowl. Sprinkle all with lemon juice to prevent from oxidizing and thus turning dark. Season with salt to help soften the celery. The salt will also help the apples release their juice. Now add chopped herbs, soaked and drained raisins, cooled toasted walnuts (roughly chopped), yogurt/sour cream and get the whirlpool going. Using two salad forks, mix everybody together. Grind black pepper all over the bowl until it hurts your knees. Add a sprinkle of sugar, and a dash of love. Mix again, taste, fix if needed, and store in a refrigerator in a tight container.

That’s the trick. The celery root and the apple have to spend some time on their own, consummate their marriage, play with the gifts you sent with them on their honeymoon before you can fully enjoy the taste of the union. Give it an hour, at least. And the day AFTER the wedding night is like heaven. There’s the crunch, a sweet bite dancing with the sour, and a little bit of heat from the pepper – an explosive mixture and a perfect marriage recipe.

May you live happily ever after!