The Philosopher’s Attic

I have been pondering this for quite a while. Wondering whether I should write it up, adress it or simply ignore it, like some people would say bad behaviour is best treated.
I have a long line of absent friends that disappear for a while, only to pop up once in a while. They’re friends nevertheless and even if you haven’t talked to them in a while, you know that they’ll be there when you need them.
Then there is another class of friends. The ones that I forced (ah, yes!) out of unacquainted love. I never have never walked through life discarding people, just because I was unable to see what role they were supposed to hold in my life. And just because love doesn’t happen, does it mean that this person is forever lost to us? No. Friendship between men and women do exist and they do work… as long as some basic laws are not broken.
Hope has to die: It’s a known truth that hope in love dies last and that you can hold out for years on end, just hoping that one day the beloved one will see, finally know what the lover has seen all along and say “this is right”. If a friendship is something that you hold on to just because you cannot get what you really want at this exact moment (sex, proximity etc.), then the friendship is a lie. And on top of things, you are asking your “friend” to give you something which he/she is obviously not able to give. Unfair? You bet.
Love is a gift: Not unlike faith that comes completely unwarranted, unasked and without inhibition, love is a gift. You can believe in Christ and state that its the one thing that will redeem this world or you can simply state that its due to some basic chemistry in the body that makes love just happen… either way, it either does or it doesn’t. No rational explanation, no Jesuit-style list of pros and cons can convince you, no matter how good the reasons are, no matter how hard you wish for it, you will not change that. It’s hard, it’s painful. Get over it.
Vita brevis est: Life is short. Too short to fool around. Too short to throw people and their feelings out, just because you cannot get over your hurt pride and believe me there is a lot of hurt pride once the word is out.

This list could go on and on… what use would there be?
The Bottom-line is this: Yes, I am getting married. Yes, I am happy. As happy as I can get I suppose and as happy as you could not make me. Yes, I will have a life without you, but not because I wanted it that way. YOU decided it. And if having no contact with me whatsoever makes it easier for you to keep up the story of how I wrecked you over, well, then I will have to live with that. I gave what I could and more. I have tried.
Can you really say the same?

Seriously… how much IQ does it take to fit a posh DVD box into it’s oh-so-nice-transparent jacket?
(Note: it has to be transparent to be able to see which Season of the Series you’re grabbing from the shelf… Duh!)

Well, no matter how much IQ it takes, it’s obviously more than I have. I’ve tried for 5 Minutes now and the back of the DVD box is starting to look more than jagged, “worn” would be a more accurate description.
I swear, I’ll throw it in the bin in any minute now… gosh, I mean, it has to fit, since they did it for all four seasons and someone must have had a brilliant idea about this… You bet.

This week has been my miniature version of an up-and-down roller-coaster. Several Ups and more downs. I spent the weekend in the Valais, celebrating two birthdays of and with my future family-in-law, visited my possible marriage church. A brilliant and peaceful weekend, just the thing I need after the overstressed weeks that lie behind me.
Somewhere in between Tristan and I were anticipating the release of Splinter Cells next instalment. Stop frowning and pulling up your eyebrows. Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory had best invention in on-line gaming: the cooperation mode. You team up with a buddy and play distinctive missions together that tie in with the story of the Single Player missions. We had a lot of fun with those and it did help us to decompress after some hardcore writing sessions while preparing our articles. Of course we thought UBISoft would expand on that and that the new volumen would be at least as good as “Chaos Theory”… hm-m think again. After several pushes of the release date for the PC version it finally got out last Monday and guess what? I’ll give you a hint or better, let’s play a little game: we’re in Business School and it’s assignment time. Your assignement is this: you have a brilliant merchandise that came from a well written line of books about the CIA, spying, information terrorism and the use of fifth freedom procedure in oder to save the world. After three good games that have good storylines - that could easily have been written by Tom Clancy himself, in fact part of them have been - you have built up a loyal customer and fanbase that is pretty diverse. Not only pro-gamers play it, but also the average father of four, because of the whole “it’s not about your frag meter” principle. Your assignment - if you choose to accept it (that was a Mission Impossible hint, got it? Not yet…? It will come…)- is the following: loose all credibility, loose a maximum number of your fanbase and annihilate everything the merchandise stood for.

Too crazy? Well, seems to have been UBI’s choice and wow, did they rock! This has to go down as the most unfinished game that ever hit the shelves. Not only does it not support 70% of all graphics cards (”We wanted to go for the next generation technology…!” - Standard Email Answer if you contact UBI’s support), but it has at least 9 known major crash inducing bugs and even on the cards that can run it, the performance is terrible. Not enough apparently. For PC - which is THE Clan Platform - the game has less missions as on any console version and ends with a nice “… To be continued …” Screen. An unfinished game on every level. At least Tristan can play it, my PC won’t.

And then today the spiral just dropped another notch. My dearest dog - Zulte - has torn her knee tendon and is up for surgery next week. Three months of rehab in total. What a nightmare…

Anyway. Back to work for me and a boring weekend between proof reading (”Images of Chivalry and Knights in Medieval Novels” ) for a friend, myself (my translations - amp; ) and some work on the Mediaevaliter page. Let’s not forget to cure my major brain wrecking flu…
Oh, the fun…

Just a nice little thing I found: The Dark Movie Quiz.

Have fun!

My time btw: 20minutes…

It’s over. All done. All said. All payed for (at least I hope so…) and all counts closed. The Colloquium where I had to play out all the cards I had, is done and over with. I really went to hell and back this time to make it happen. Bordering the nervous breakdown, exhaustive depression and the Super GAU. I worked over 12 hours a day to come to terms with the text and the philosopher I was supposed to rehabilitate, tore my hair out over my decision to quit my well known topics for something new and cursed everything and everyone around me. Sounds like fun? Well, it does, and really now it all seems so futile. And there lies the danger. But I heard the call and I will take it to heart and step down a little to get my energies up again.
So. The congress went GREAT. It was amazing. All organising was up top (thanks to Tristan - the loyal - of course). The people attending were impressed by our work and our contributions. And then the most amazing thing happened: the ones without their PhD and degrees rocked the place. Every single one of our little group that joins together some people from Paris (Sorbonne), from Switzerland and Italy, offered brilliant texts and insights into some of the works of the next years. And me? Well, so did I. And I would not have done it without my love. He stayed up with me until 1:30 the night before my talk to finish up the conclusion, held my hand, calmed my feverish breakdowns, lifted my headaches and made me tea throughout it all. And again, without him, I would have simply stood down and told AdL what’s the what: Boss, I’m ready for the asylum.
I didn’t. I came through and it feels very good. Some were so impressed that I am now with several invitations across the world for congress attendance, conference tours and some job prospects along the road. *sigh* But, really now, I have to take care of my issues. This call was just too close to ignore it. And it all starts with some days just filled with sleeping, reading, watching all three seasons of Grey’s Anatomy and reading Lynda Lemay lyrics. gt;

How do you make a really good style crossover?

You take an Oscar winner such as Hilary Swank, team her up with a Perfume maker that has a history that is over a hundred years old and ties them with every royal house in the world, such as Guerlain and then all you need is a track of the most innovative band in the world, such as Muse, and here you go: brilliant crossover.

Everybody has been bitching around over the internet what a bad choice Hilary Swank (here’s an idea) is for a house like Guerlain… yada yada yada. And at first sight this might even be true. But, oh my, look at how the experiment went (click on the smaller image to get a bigger version). It’s something different. And they really played the “Insolence” theme to the maximum. Instead of taking an “normal” oval-faced 100% beauty ideal looking woman, they went for Swank that has distinctive, recognisable features (that some bashers call ‘horsey’).
The little tryout sample i got last week from Marionnaud last week with the Swank picture struck me, not because it was different in style - since it has the same “hey, get the fan right into my face” kind of look every perfume add does lately - but because they had taken Swank.
And then I saw the TV ad. And that really blew me away. Muse? MUSE ? With Hysteria? (One of my favourite songs, in case you hadn’t guessed… Wow, it’s a bold choice and a real shocker. But in a good way. Go to their page and click “Media”, then on the right side of the screen pick “Videos” and choose the UK Version of Hysteria.

After hearing the song, please have another look at the Guerlain picture. What did I say? Perfect Crossover.

NOTE: Unfortunately the TV spot is still nowhere on Youtube or Google Video… If you find it, drop me a line, I’d like to see it again, but my tv time is really limited at the moment

UPDATE: My better half is a bit more precise than I am this evening as he pointed out to me that the tv spot can be found at the official page of the Perfume (Click on communication > Advertising film > and then on the upper right part of the screen “See the advertising film”… Sheesh I have checked that page twice and didn’t find it… )

Technorati Tags: Hilary Swank, Guerlain, Muse

… for six wonderful months of engagement.
… for 18 months full of love and laughs, desire and completion, tears and trust.
… for unlimited confidence and unaltered nearness.
… for hundreds of tiny flickers of a passion I never knew.
… for making the flickers unite and turning them into my fire.

Thank you for completing me.
Thank you for being with me.
Thank you for loving me.