E-Monk's Live Blog

Incomplete list, based on my own opinions only, and most probably I forgot quite a lot of things. Albums: Sufjan Stevens, "Age Of Adz", Chemical Brothers - "Hanna", Elbow - "Build A Rocket Boys", Beastie Boys - "Hot Sauce Committee Part 2". Songs: Justice - On n' On , Lana Del Ray - Video Games , Tim Minchin - Storm , Balkan Beat Box - Political Fuck . Movies: "Limitless", "Source Code", "Adjustment Bureau". Television: Homeland (new TV series), BBC documentary programmes, Dexter, Top Gear. Non-violent and vibrant social protests in Israel. Atheism, rationalism. Hanging around with Eva. No more Harry Potter. Dri Fit/Clima Cool clothes. Museumsinsel (Berlin). Slightly less cynicism, slightly more openness. McLaren MP4-12C (and I apologize for being 8 years old with this last choice).

You can surprise even the most prepared nation on earth (talking about Japan). It is possible to write a song with less than one note (according to Charlie Brooker, referring to Rebecca Black's "Friday"). If economic policy makers tell you everything is under control, get ready for a crush. When the crush happens, if they tell you recovery has started, get ready for a "double dip". Every dog indeed has its day (and this year many dogs reached their respective days). The lessons from France 1889 were not learned: toppling a dictator does not guarantee democracy. Democracy is illusive and often misunderstood, but it's still the least worst political system and it's the most precious asset the Western world has. Germans are to food what French are to cars. And vice versa. HTC still makes better phones than other firms, even when they are having a bad year. The people who you care about most, will annoy you most. It won't stop you from continuin

I listen to the radio. I get eMails and twits using push technology directly to both my phone and my laptop. I check my Facebook page and several news web sites. I read a blog now and then and even write my own opinions on 2 different blogs. Surely I am not an activist or a radical, but I think I'm involved and opinionated. But it's too much. We are being bombarded by so many news items, blog posts, status lines and video clips, all of them are supposed to help us form an opinion or convince us to support a certain side in a political debate. But in most occasions, this information tsunami does not actually make us rethink or contemplate. At best it will strengthen our opinions, at worst it will cause panic, but in most occasions, it just confuses us. It feels like a fog, made of words, sounds, pictures and clips in which we have to blindly navigate, a cloud of memes that struggle to catch on and multiply. And this fog is just getting thicker and thicker and distracts us

It was an intensive week. A lot of driving, a lot of walking, not a lot of sleep and not a lot of food. At some times it was rather stressful, but mostly because of unnecessary worrying from my account and happenings that I could not really control. But considering the amount of road I covered during those days, that week went by quite smoothly. I decided not to make a concrete plan, just a flexible list of things to see and do. I should remember this idea for the next times, it worked nicely. And I rediscovered photography. I never actually left it, but I was hugely disappointed by the photos I took in Berlin. This time though, probably because of my (usually) relaxed stated of mind it turned out very well. I take pictures exclusively for fun and I am sure that the quality of my captures is in directly relation to my state of mind while I take them. The fact that one of the pictures was well received by complete strangers in a photography forum just proves this point. And I enjo