1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next three sentences in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

In a society that values privacy such as the United States, employees consider it important to have their own space. Because privacy is highly valued, higher-status members of an organization often have larger, more private space. Finally, in a mixed society, views on space fall somewhere in the middle; a combination of public and private spaces.

(Some random business studies text book that some moose left on the table instead of returning it to the shelf in the library)

Because I'm still not quite over how cool They Might Be Giants really are, I'd like to ask all you wonderful people (because they ask in their myspace page that fans spread the link around) to watch this :
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=19482974
Their new music video The Mesopotamians. It's wonderful, you'll love it, I know I do and I think [Viking] in particular will enjoy it :3

PC versus Mac a la PHD Comics
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=13
Heh. :)

Also, I need to find my nearest G.A. meeting. >_>
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=25

http://www.artomat.org/

I want. ._. I want it all. I want a machine that sells art, I want to put my art in a machine that sells art and I want to buy art from a machine that sells art. But the closest one to me is in Vienna. >.<

It is a fantastic idea, combining something commercial and artistic, it's beautiful.

For the knowledge of the lazies, new voice clip by yours truly:

http://elftown.eu/stuff/MallorcanWaterIsBad.mp3

Escaping the Elvis-theme for a moment (yes, there will be fanart later :P), I absolutely adore the song Birdhouse in your soul by They Might Be Giants.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fW_hSNHZiBc

The video is fantastic too. It's like... I wanna live in a place like that, I want to dance like that, I want a bicycle like that (well actually I already have one). I want to be them. o.O

Edit.
This beautiful piece of poetry was found in Urban Dictionary (and has nothing to do with They Might Be Giants)

Feel the bodies pulsing all around
Polite violence enticed by sound

A living mass of mindless pain
Shoved out only to push in again

Lost in the moment, forget who you are
Lost in the music, hear only the guitar

Bass line drumming in your ears so loud
See the vibrations more then you hear the sound

Bash and clang of the drums echoes in your mind
Give in to the violent motions you’re sure you can find

Kick, push, punch, scream, and shove
An unbridled expression of hate and love

Move with the crowd that surrounds
Shoved down towards the shaking ground

Groans of joy escape a smiling face
Hauled back up to keep with the pace

Sweat and blood mixed and shared
The gift of being unprepared

A moan escapes from exhausted lips
The crowd freezes and the mood dips

Limping away with a scream for the band
You just moshed, and you can barely stand

I really love all the responses I've got to the previous diary entry, in gbs, messages and MSN and everything. And I've got more and more interested in the concept of Elvis-moments and I emailed the wise man with all kinds of questions and comments. And in turn he emailed a man in Memphis, who is some kind of an authority on the matter. So I'll definitely keep investigating. :)

Meanwhile, keep an eye out on the Elvis-moments, everyone. You don't have to be a fan of the man.



In other news, Man with a Movie Camera is possibly the most beautiful work of cinematic art ever made.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_with_the_Movie_Camera
And the soundtrack by the Alloy Orchestra is absolutely gorgeous as well, I'll be sorting it out for myself in mp3 format in some way, and will possibly be shareable. :)

Quickedit:
Oh mah gash, you can watch the film in here!
http://www.archive.org/details/ChelovekskinoapparatomManWithAMovieCamera

Another recommended reading -piece: What if Elvis Presley Had Never Been Born?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/08/16/nosplit/bmelvis116.xml

I have been told by an infinitely wise man that everyone will have an Elvis-moment in their life.^* A moment that the King influences the life of the person in some way, that they can never again overlook any Elvis-reference, they will be forever reminded of that special moment. I'm really looking forward to my Elvis-moment. :3




^{*(Do not argue with this point, please, even if you disagree with it. I really don't want to hear any counter-comments.)}

http://rhof.blackmill.net/mp3/Sleepwalk.mp3
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qnhRNxnTNeM

It's decided. It's set now. Sleepwalk must be played in my wedding/funeral.

I found this amazing quote today. it's aimed at [Kayne]:
2004-06-30 [Aradon Templar]: Where are you from, switzerland?

XD It just sounds like an insult.

WTF? Is there seriously no V For Vendetta wikis in Elftown? O_O Tell me this isn't so, tell me that everyone's just picked a really stupid wikiname that I can't find and just weren't smart enough to put keywords in... Please?

On a different note, here is something awesome to think about:
"...loss of existentialist co-ordinates experienced in the metropolis. The modern city, filled with strangers, is the quintessential realm of random encounters; an intoxicating world of possibilities shadowed by the risk that a single step off the main street could plunge one into an abyss... But how do you remain true to yourself when the whole environment is corrupt?"
Peter Lyssiotis and Scott McQuire: "Liquid Architecture: Eisenstein and Film Noir"

Sorry, another link-diary:
http://physics.unl.edu/history/histinstr/intro.html
Historical science equipment. They are shiny!!

Recommended reading: The Work Of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm
(Don't worry, it's not communism)

And then a nice picture of a machine. :)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/visibleproofs/media/detailed/ii_b_508.jpg
-"What is it?"
-"who cares, it's pretty!"

Another awesome artist whose gallery I want to share with you (sorry [Viking] it's the one I showed to you earlier, so it's a bit boring for you)
http://www.ronpippin.com/gallery/g_05/01.html
(Please notice that there is much more under "new work" than just the 10 images in the gallery this link opens to)

I love Ron Pippin's work because it's something I could do as well. The air around it kind of pseudo-scientific a la Victorian gentlemen (when the sign of a sophisticated gentleman was that he had all sorts of scientific equipment, even he didn't use them, they were status symbols). The old cases and machines and bones and all kinds of little curiousities... I love it all. I think that is a keyword for both Ron Pippin as well as for me: curious.

Awesome artist's website I found through browsing a magazine. :)
http://www.tomotterness.net/exhibitions_subway.html
I hope you all click that, because the first image that loads will just eat you. :3 But I heartily recommend browsing through the whole site, at least in "exhibitions" and "public art".

I'd also like to point out one thing about the work. It stretches from the 80s to present day, and it is all very unified. You can see that the artist has found a thing he's good at and enjoys making (probably not, at least not all the time, but he sticks with it, it's a passion), that is his thing. And I think that's one of the distinguishing marks of an artist, a proper artist. And I think it is wonderful when people find that, something they can keep up for decades, doing it over and over again in a new way... Cartoonists have to do that for a living, but artists do it because they just have to. Whether someone pays them for it or not. I hope my machines are like that for me. That I'll be drawing machines and getting heart-attacks just because a near-accident photo I take is so beautiful to me (even though it isn't to anyone else).

Suomalaiset ystävät olkaa hyvät ja tehkää menonne seuraavalle wikisivulle: Suomirokkia.

Apologies for my non-Finnish friends for the disturbance.

Brian Setzer is the love. <3
<URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8GbJYceG7s>

Yesterday I realised/discovered/decided that my favourite John Lennon -song is Watching the Wheels.
<URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XM4oQGp6uw>

Also I feel the need to say: "Yoko Ono did not break up the Beatles. The Beatles broke up the Beatles."

I still don't have any form of string instrument at my disposal. *fingers aching to get a hold of a guitar*

Today I got an email from PayPal saying "blahblah your account may be limited" and there was a link that in the email was paypal.com but after clicking it was paypalonline.com. I thought "that's funny, I didn't know I have a PayPal account" and replied saying "if there's an account associated with this email address, please close it down, I don't use PayPal." I got a response back that looked kinda like an auto-reply, saying a lot of things and mentioned "if you receive suspicious emails, forward them unaltered to spoof @ paypal.com so I did that. And they replied saying "thanks, it was a phisching email, you've helped PayPal fight phisching."

I've noticed that I have become an online-cynic. That is, I don't believe anything anyone tells me, especially if they are a stranger. Like the other day someone contacted me in Facebook, and said "I'm the long-lost sister of a friend of yours! I've sent her a message here on Facebook but she hasn't replied. Can you call her or something to make her login?" and I lied to her saying "I don't have that friends phonenumber and I dont see her around very much" because I didn't want to get involved in case it was a scam. Apparently it wasn't o.O; I hope my friend won't be too angry at me for stepping away there >_>