russtaglibro

Malplenaj domoj

2010-02-27T22:51:33Z

Kvieta krimulo korea
kun ino en am' spontanea
en domojn invadas,
neniam ŝteladas -
amparo ne ege obea.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423866/

Kvieta maltrankviliga interesa zeneca filmo de la aŭtoro de "Printempo, somero, aŭtuno, vintro, ... kaj printempo".

Quiet disturbing interesting zen-like film by the creator of "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, ... and Spring".

Królik po berlińsku

2010-02-18T14:01:41Z

Kunikloj loĝantaj berline
murzone feliĉe rutine
ne scias ke muroj
kolapsos, kaj turoj,
pro fal' komunisma ruine.

http://google.com/search?q=cache:LcM1WW7UHqUJ:www.dokweb.net/cz/get_file.php%3Ffilename%3D../admin/user_files/downloads/201002_rabbitalaberlin_press_kit_eng_187.doc

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1410281/

Tre interese dokumenta filmo pri kunikloj kaj la berlina muro!

Samprograme oni montris filmeton Esterhazy:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1391058/

Sendistoj

2010-02-11T22:43:32Z

Laboron ĵus perdis japano
kaj mankas al li vivoplano.
Pro nova laboro,
kadavra honoro,
lin trafas kaj ploroj kaj amo.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/

Kortuŝa bona filmo!

Naŭ

2010-02-11T22:14:08Z

Itala kinarto kaj Gŭido
pelata de sia libido.
Allogas lin muzoj
kaj amaj amuzoj,
sed vivo disfalas sen gvido.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0875034/

Tre plaĉis al mi Naŭ. Bona muzika fantazio pri arta kreemo, obsedo, amo, ktp. Nun mi volas vidi 8 1/2!

I really like Nine. A good musical fantasy about artistic creativity, obsession, love, etc. Now I want to see 8 1/2!

Password ponderings

2010-02-06T08:36:58Z

I'm in a password pondering mood lately...

From the point of view of security:
1. Your passwords should be unique for each account (so that if somebody discovers one of your passwords, they can only use it to access one of your accounts, and the others remain safe)
2. Your passwords should be hard to guess and hard to discover by brute force, and if someone discovers one of them, it's not obvious how to generate others. Ideally a password would appear as a long random string with digits, uppercase and lowercase letters, and punctuation.

But we are often lazy, and it's hard to remember a large number of random passwords. Heck, it's hard to remember even one password if it's truly a long random string. So occasionally I brainstorm about how to achieve unique long random seeming strings that are still easy for me to produce.

For a while I have been using a system that algorithmically (manually) produces random-looking passwords with digits and letters, but which are practically unique for each site I visit. It involves mixing a fixed constant string which is non obvious but easy for me to remember (call it the hash salt if you like), along with some simple hash string of the domain name which is easy to do by hand.

I won't reveal a specific system used by me, but here's a fictitious example of what I mean; my password for livejournal could be something like:

v8p6b5jq

which would be sufficiently inexplicable if anyone found it, so that I'm confident they wouldn't extrapolate to find my passwords for other sites. Yet I wouldn't need to write or memorize this password, because I easily compute it on the fly by:

1. Fixed string "v8p6" comes from "Vroclavo, Polujo" (my city and country names in Esperanto, which have 8 and 6 letters respectively)
2. "B5" since "livejournal" has 11 (10=a, 11=b, ...) symbols, of which 5 are vowels. That 5 is used in the next 2 steps as well:
3. "j" is the 5th letter of "livejournal"
4. "q" is the first letter of "livejournal" + 5 (l, m, n, o, p, q)

As another example, the password for "yahoo" with that system would be: v8p653hb. (Proof left as an exercise for the reader...)

OK, so a system like that is pretty nice, since I only have to remember the algorithm and apply it, which becomes a very quick automatic habit. In practice, it works for me.

But I began to have paranoid worries about the system I was using. Our Most Assiduous Reader may have noticed that the example system lazily uses only lower case letters and digits. It's better to use both cases, and also to use some kind of punctuation, not just letters and digits. And it's "only" 8 symbols long. I'm seeing more and more security authorities advising longer passwords, with 8 considered as maybe a bare minimum of safety. So I am changing my system again, to use longer passwords, with mixed case, digits, and punctuation.

And I want to have more "randomness" in it. Someone who found several passwords of my previous system would have a better chance of actually starting to figure out the system itself, as they start to notice which parts are constant and which parts are changing, and how.

So I was thinking "how can I get effectively random hashes out of a domain name like livejournal or yahoo". And I quickly thought of md5 sums. E.g. the md5 of "livejournal" is "667083d27188509b9800c762e237d5bc". There's no way in hell I would memorize that, but it's easy to compute an md5 from the command line, and if I'm on someone else's computer and don't know any md5 program on it, there are zillions of websites with easy to use applets that will compute an md5, easily found via googling for "md5". So no matter where I am, I can easily compute md5s as part of my password process.

So I began thinking OK, salt the domain name a little (i.e. don't just use the md5 of "livejournal" directly since that's too "obvious", but use some simple algorithmic transformation analogous to the earlier example scheme: e.g. use "11livejournal5" or something), and use the md5 of that modified string as a password.

OK, that sounds cool - md5s are practically random and long. But they don't use uppercase or punctuation: their alphabet only has 16 symbols (0-9, a-f), which is a bummer from the point of view of diversity of symbols in the password.

So I decided to combine a few additional letters and punctuation according to a simple but varying system. So the approach is:

1. compute md5 of a salted variant of the domain name - this is easily cut-and-pasted.
2. add some additional simple but varying punctuation and uppercase.

E.g. the system could produce passwords analogous to this:
25c47c79b20fcaea4bd703e105703156X7=F
acaa8f9b612f363796ad8efe8a196050B3+3
where the first 32 symbols are md5 hex digits cut-n-pasted, and the other stuff is trivially computed and typed by me, but rather opaque to anyone else.

So how does it work in practice? I was unsure at first if this would be too annoyingly cumbersome to use or not. But geeky enthusiasm prompted me to try it at some of the sites I use and see how it feels in practice.

The extra step of computing an md5 of course makes it take a little longer than the previous simpler system. On the other hand, I was surprised that it didn't seem annoyingly slower. I would have stopped there, content with a new password system that felt much more secure to me.

BUT...

Certain websites put limits on the maximum length of a password. (Which seems really stupid to me. Passwords are not stored anyway, hashes of the passwords are stored. The system should let you type as long a password as you are willing.)

E.g. several sites I use say a password cannot exceed 20 characters. Grr. I tried anyway to see what would happen at some sites which claim a password can't exceed 20 characters:

* boardgamegeek.com accepted it, no problem, and everything worked fine. Apparently its password documentation is simply false. I could log in, change the password again (which required entering the current "too long" password), etc, no problem. Cool, I thought!

* bankofamerica.com accepted it, and permitted logins, but then when I tried to change my password, which requires typing the old one, it refused. Uh-oh. But the site has an alternate way to reset and change the password, which works fine even if my current password is "too long". Hmm. Annoying but still usable.

* livejournal.com however REFUSES to accept a password over 20 characters. Grr. Dealbreaker. Simply using the full md5 is no longer an option, damn it.

* fidelity.com - a financial site where password security should be much more important than most site - has an appallingly lame password policy: they cannot exceed 12 characters AND cannot have puncutation - only letters and digits! It's like they want people to use weak passwords! Grr. Double dealbreaker, with respect to length AND special symbols. (I sent them feedback complaining about this.)

So that led me to modify my scheme to use a substring of the md5, producing shorter passwords. And unfortunately to having to make a special case of fidelity (and any other sites I may discover in the future which require only letters and digits).

But it's a pain extracting part of the md5 instead of just copying the whole thing, and I dislike that my scheme is "compromised" because of a couple of lame sites.

So it leaves me wondering: is it better to use really long and random passwords for most sites that permit it, and have a handful of exceptions I must remember? Or is it better to use a still pretty good/random uniform system that works for all sites?

And then the more I pondered, the more I got annoyed by the fact that the md5 part of the resulting passwords has only the 16-symbol alphabet (0-9a-z). So I started brainstorming further, about running the md5 through a base64 encoder, to produce a string that uses a 64 symbol alphabet (0-9, a-z, A-Z, +, /). On the one hand, it bugs and worries me having a fair amount of the password be only 0-9a-f; on the other hand, an additional conversion step is proportionally a lot more hassle, especially since one "should" convert the actual binary md5 bytes, NOT the ascii/hex 0-9a-f representation, to produce the full range of possible base64 outputs.

Of course I could write a simple program or script to compute some more complex passwords from the command line, but I want a system that is conveniently usable from any computer. I could put such a program on my own website with a web interface I could use from anywhere, but I don't want to be stuck if my site is inaccessible or down. The nice thing about the whole md5 idea is that zillions of websites all provide md5 generators, so I have no doubt I will always be able to compute a simple md5.

Or one could skip the whole md5 thing to simplify the process, and just use the base64 encoding of some salted version of the domain name. E.g. "11livejournal5" becomes "MTFsaXZlam91cm5hbDU=" - but THAT seems WAY too directly instead of randomly hashed, and the length depends on the length of the input, and thus too susceptible to being cracked.

Plus, there's still the question of fidelity.com which lamely enforces on a maximum of 12 symbols and refuses special characters (including base64's possible use of + / and final =). I'm thinking that it needs to just be a special case, instead of dumbing down and compromising the password space just to accomodate fidelity.

Feedback welcome, especially from tech/security geeks. What do other people do? I'm guessing different people reading this do everything from the totally primitive "one password for every site" to "one password for all ordinary sites and unique but personally memorable passwords for important sites" to "truly random unique passwords for each site". Does anyone else use "very long" passwords, and if so, what are typical explicit upper limits on length you have bumped into? (So far I'm seeing several with 20 and one with 12.)

Arimaa, and $10,000 AI contest

2010-01-14T20:53:43Z

We are enjoying the boardgame Arimaa (http://arimaa.com), a combinatorial game that seems quite interesting as a game (simple rules but deep strategy). I'd read about it for a while; we played it with a real set at BGG.CON on our US trip; and then Anna got it as a BGG Secret Santa gift, so we are playing it a fair amount lately. Arimaa also has an open $10,000 challenge to game AI programmers to make a program that can beat the 3 strongest human players. It seems potentially much harder than chess, for instance. (Typical games of chess and Arimaa last a few dozen turns, but chess has an average branching factor of a couple dozen possible moves, while Arimaa apparently has an average branching factor of 17,000 or so.) Arimaa's attracted a fair amount of attention from various academics and programmers of AI for other games like Go, e.g. David Fotland (long-time programmer of "Many Faces of Go") has also been working on an Arimaa player. The website has a cool bot ladder of successively harder AI players to play against as exercise, as well as allowing internet play against other humans, with a page of problems, and forums, and videos of strong players discussing the game. So check it out, if you are a game player or a programmer.

http://arimaa.com (learn the game, play online, links to various programs, papers, etc)
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4616/arimaa (boardgamegeek page about Arimaa)
http://arimaa.janzert.com/bf_study/ (interesting branching factor study)
etc

Arimaa estas interesa strategia ludo (simpla regularo sed profunda strategio), kies aŭtoro ankaŭ ofertas $10.000 al iu ajn kiu verkos programon por ludi, kiu povos venki la 3 plej fortajn homajn ludantojn. Sufiĉe multaj talentaj homoj jam provas. Indas esplori Arimaa, se vi ŝatas ludojn aŭ vi estas talenta programemulo. (Mi pensas pri vi, ghewgill! :)

blanka rubando

2010-01-13T22:11:58Z

malgranda germana vilaĝo,
mistera perforta kontaĝo,
atakoj, akuzoj,
sekretoj, konfuzoj...
homaro en vera sovaĝo.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1149362/

Interesa stranga filmo - se David Lynch imagus Twin Peaks kiel germanan vilaĝon antaŭ la unua mondmilito, ĉi tio povus esti la rezulto, eble kun malnovstile nigrablanka helpo de Guy Maddin.

Interesting strange film - if David Lynch had imagined Twin Peaks as a German village before the first world war, this could have been the result, maybe with the retro black and white help of Guy Maddin.

Rewers

2010-01-13T08:06:33Z

Virino en griz-Varsovio
kaj viro en kaŝ-milicio.
Post fiko, veneno,
kadavro - jen ĝeno.
Sed ĉion ja solvas ĥemio.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1514837/

Renverso: Timema polino en la 1950aj jaroj estas amuze premata de la patrino serĉi edzon. Tiam aferoj iĝas surprize hitchcock-ecaj...

Reverse: A shy woman in the 1950s is amusingly pressured by her mother to find a husband. Then things turn surprisingly Hitchcockian...

Avataro

2010-01-09T09:11:49Z

fiekspluato
alikulturaniĝo
bluerotiko

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/

Evidenta intrigo, sed sufiĉe spektinda filmo kun mesaĝo necesa por iuj ŝovinistoj sensciaj pri historio. Iuj komparas ĝin al usona imperiismo, ekzemple al la invado en Irakon, sed ĉar temas pri privata firmao kun privataj soldatoj, ne nacia armeo, efektive pli pensigis nin pri naftofirmaoj kaj similaj firmaoj kiuj ekspluatas malriĉajn landojn, ekzemple kiel en la lastatempa dokumenta filmo "Crude" (pri nafta poluado en sudamerika ĝangalo). La sciencfikcio de interkorpa konscio interesis, kaj ankaŭ la bluerotiko. :)

An obvious plot, but a film worth watching with a message necessary for some jingoists ignorant of history. Some compare it to US imperialism, e.g. the invasion of Iraq, but because it's about a private company with private soldiers, not a national army, it actually reminded us more of oil companies and similar firms which exploit poor countries, e.g. as in the recent documentary film "Crude" (about petroleum pollution in the South American jungle). The science fiction of inter-body consciousness was interesting, and also the blue eroticism. :)

Dekstremuloj plendas ĉar google festas Zamenhof anstataŭ "Bill of Rights"?!

2009-12-15T21:50:46Z

Hodiaŭ mi miras vidi komentojn en diversaj blogoj de usonaj dekstremuloj plendantaj pri tio, ke hodiaŭ google montras Esperantan flagon pro la 150a datreveno de la naskiĝo de Zamenhof. Ili asertas, ke devas esti ia bildo pri la 218a datreveno de la usona "Bill of Rights". Ho ve. Ili verŝajne pretas interpreti ion ajn kiel atakon kontraŭ Usono. Mi (erare) supozis ke ĉiuj komprenas ke tiuj fojfoje unutagaj montroj de google estas nur amuzaj kapricaj aferoj, kiuj estas influitaj de proponoj de la publiko, kaj krome, ke 150a datreveno de io estas iom pli trafa ol la 218a por tiaj montroj. Sed por iuj konservativuloj, tia simpla montro verŝajne estas usona-malamanta survango...

Today I'm boggled to see comments in various blogs by US right-wingers complaining that today google is showing an Esperanto flag for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Zamenhof (who initiated Esperanto). They assert that there should be some image about the 218th anniversary of the US bill of rights. Sheesh. They are apparently ready to interpret anything at all as an attack on America. I (erroneously) supposed that everyone understands that those occasionally appearing one-day doodles by google are just amusing capricious things, which are influenced by proposals by the public, not to mention that the 150th anniversary of something is somewhat more eye-catching than the 218th for such displays. But for some conservatives, such a simply display is apparently an America-hating slap in the face...

My favorite such anti-Esperanto pro-USA comment is from here:

Hey all you ACLU, pro-leftists, anti-American, commie-loving, homo-marriage loving, pot smoking idiots: TODAY IS BILL OF RIGHTS DAY!!! WTF is wrong with you people???? Who gives a crap about a guy who wants a one-world language outside of English, really?! Oh yeah, that would be the PETA loving, vegan eating, no-bra-wearing, Al Franken-loving, George Bush took-down-the-towers, "I live my life by using one square of toilet paper and everyone else should be forced to do the same by Obama", idiots like you.....that's who! Choke on your Esperanto and your hatred for America!!

Me? I'll have the Bill of Rights and especially the First & Second ones, please!!!

reveninte de Usono

2009-12-02T15:02:46Z

Ni revenis de novembra vojaĝo en Usono. Estis bona sed laciga vojaĝo! Per ia misŝanco, kvin el la ses lokoj, kie ni loĝis, havis katojn, kaj mi suferis pro alergioj la tutan tempon, ve. New Orleans tre plaĉis, Hjustono estas Hjustono, bonis revidi aŭstinajn amikojn, BGG.CON bonegis, Novjorko amuzis, Konektikuto estis bona dankofesta loko. Nun mi hejmas ree kaj revenas al "normala" vivo!

We are back from the US. A good but tiring trip! Somehow we ended up staying with cats in five of the six places, so I was suffering from allergies the whole time. It was very nice of various people to host us in any case, especially several friends (U & A in NO, M & A in NY) of A's brother, and in Austin Wendy (who also arranged a Madras Pavilion dinner, yay), then Matt and Brandy. BGG.CON was also excellent, and 'twas great to spend more time with Marty. Thanks to Marc for the ride to Dallas, William for the Chinese cakes, Clayton for some driving, PJ for hosting gaming, hi to many old RussCon etc folks like Jeffles, UD folks, and such like... New Orleans was excellent, good family time in Houston, fun times in NYC, etc. Now to return to "normal" life! I've already played a newly acquired wargame (Texas Glory) with Piotro. :)

Austin Fri Nov 13 - Wed Nov 18

2009-11-01T11:41:45Z

We're visiting the US, not for as long a time this time. If any Austin folks want to try hooking up with us when we visit Austin for a few days (Nov 13 - 18), or have suggestions about nifty stuff going on (e.g. new veggie or Thai restaurant, interesting theater event, silent film with live music, boardgaming, etc...) contact me.

jestem mistrzem w Scrabble :)

2009-10-19T12:11:30Z

Wygrałem w turnieju Scrabble po polsku dla cudzoziemców. Były tylko 3 rundy. To nie bardzo poważny turniej bo było tylko 6 osób (1 amerykanin, 2 czesi, 3 niemcy) i tylko ja grałem kiedyś w Scrabble wcześniej. Ale bardzo przyjemny turniej! Anna grałą w głównym turnieju (12 rund i może 90 osób) ale jej nie udało się wygrać (ale nie była ostatnia :). Dobra atmosfera i bawiliśmy się dobrze! Dzięki organizatorom!

Mi venkis en turniro de Skrablo en la pola por eksterlandanoj. Estis nur 3 raŭndoj. Tio ne estis tre serioza turniro ĉar estis nur 6 homoj (1 usonano, 2 ĉeĥoj, 3 germanoj), kaj nur mi iam ludis Skrablon antaŭe. Sed estis tre amuza turniro! Anna ludis en la ĉefturniro (12 raŭndoj kaj eble 90 homoj) sed ne sukcesis gajni (sed ne estis lasta :). Bona etoso kaj ni ĝuis ĝin! Dankon al la organizintoj!

I won in a Scrabble tournament in Polish for foreigners. There were just 3 rounds. It wasn't a very serious tournament because there were only 6 people (1 American, 2 Czechs, 3 Germans), and only I had played Scrabble before. But it was quite fun! Anna played in the main tournament (12 rounds and around 90 people) but she was not fated to win (but wasn't last :). Nice atmosphere and we had fun! Thanks to the organizers!

http://www.gp2009.scrabble.wroclaw.pl/index.php?r=comment/list

Moja fajna nagroda / mia bonega premio / my excellent prize:
Dzieje Polski - atlas ilustrowany
http://www.demart.com.pl/content/view/549/
Dziękuję! :)

Casablanca

2009-10-16T07:43:46Z

Virino tre bela kaj sveda
kaj viro kun fum' cigareda
piana ludisto
nazia rezisto
finfine ŝi estas tre ceda.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/

Julie & Julia

2009-10-15T15:20:33Z

Julioj ne estas francinoj,
sed franckuirartdisciplinoj
unuan inspiras,
Do ambaŭ kuiras
francaĵojn, fojfoje kun vinoj.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135503/

Ĉerizfloroj

2009-10-12T13:32:58Z

Kaj Rudi kaj Trudi germanas,
sed revoj de ŝi pli japanas.
Post morto li saĝas,
do Rudi vojaĝas,
dum kiu Ju lin akompanas.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910559/

Sengloraj bastardoj / Bękarty wojny

2009-09-22T17:21:38Z

Judino malamas nazion
ĉar murdis li la familion.
Dum filma debuto
kun brulekzekuto
ŝi ŝanĝas milithistorion.

"La tim-maŝino"

2009-09-17T06:09:40Z

En junio anglalingva verkisto Ken Scholes en sia blogo proponis etan konkurson verki mallongan noveleton inspirita de mistitolo "The Tim Machine". Mi amuzis min per noveleto kiu miksis la anglan kaj Esperanton preskaŭ duone-duone. Surprize, mia noveleto plaĉis al la ne-Esperantistoj juĝistoj. :)

http://kenscholes.livejournal.com/90471.html?thread=606823#t606823

In June, writer Ken Scholes proposed in his blog a little contest to write a very short story inspired by the slightly messed up title "The Tim Machine". I had fun writing a little piece which mixed English and Esperanto in roughly equal parts. To my surprise, the judges liked mine. :)

easy virtue / wojna domowa

2009-09-05T13:04:42Z

Junulo kun usonanino
edziĝas pro ama inklino.
Ŝi bele ekscitas,
sed tute ne britas,
kaj plendas patrino, do fino.

Patrino tro strikta, malvarma,
aristokrateca, ne ĉarma,
malbona humoro,
tro multa pudoro...
Malgaja rezulto, eĉ larma.

La patro de tiu junulo
plu vivas en ia nebulo.
Post monda milito
li iĝis ermito
bonkora laŭ propra regulo.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808244/

PS to Wendy: You're a fan of Colin Firth and/or Kristin Scott Thomas, right? So you should definitely see this movie.

SES estis bonega

2009-07-21T08:10:00Z

Ni pasigis tre plaĉan semajnon en SES en Slovakujo! Jen kelkaj memorindaĵoj:

1. Kursoj pri Esperanto, je 4 niveloj. Mi volontule asistis en la 2a nivelo dum la unua tago, tiam partoprenis la 4an grupon. La 1an grupon gvidis Stano Marĉek kun sia rekta metodo, kaj ni vidis surprize efikajn rezultojn: survoje de Bratislavo al SES ni ekkonis slovakinon (Lenka) kiu sciis nenion pri la lingvo, sed semajnon poste, en aŭtobuso kune al Bratislavo ni babilis kun ŝi kaj ŝi mirinde multe sciis kaj povis konversacii kaj eĉ diris amuzan ŝercon. Forta rekomendo por la komencantaj kursoj de Stano! Nia 4a grupo estas ĝuinda, kaj plaĉis al mi nia instruisto Marta. Mi ĝuis kelkajn konversaciojn kun ŝi pri Esperanta kulturo kaj ties ofta malemo plibonigi propran lingvan nivelon (multaj Esperantistoj atingas nivelon sufiĉe fortan por konversacii, kaj tiam ŝajnas prifajfi pluan studadon). Mi spontanee aranĝis diskuton pri konkretaj teĥnikoj por ĉiutage plibonigi vian Esperanton. Mi sentis min pli taŭga kaj memfidi helpi al novuloj dum SES ol antaŭe, kaj tiu sento plaĉis al mi.

2. Vegana manĝoservo! Kutime E-aranĝoj prifajfas veganojn, sed organizanto Petro Balaz (mem vegetarano) zorge kaj bone aranĝis ne nur vegetaran sed ankaŭ veganan manĝoservon, kiu efektive enhavis pli bonan manĝon ol la "normala" vianda manĝoservo, laŭ pluraj enviaj komentoj de la viandemuloj. Estis pli-malpli 20 vegetaranoj kaj 5 veganoj, el 90 homoj sume!

3. Filmoj: ni montris niajn malnovajn filmojn kun subtekstoj de ni. Antaŭe ni perdis entuziasmon pro tio, ke eventoj forpuŝas filmojn ĝis ia malfrunokta horo, do homoj tro lacas por spekti ilin. Sed SES havis malplenan posttagmezon programon, do ni ekmontris filmojn posttagmeze, kaj homoj ŝajnis ĝui tion, speciale "Estas mirinda vivo" (kiun mi montris du fojojn, pro petado). Do mi reakiris emon fari alian filmsubtekstan projekton. Eble "Fight Club"?

4. Ludoj: ni portis plurajn ludojn kaj ĝuis ludi kun diversaj homoj. Lastatempe aperis plaĉa kvazaŭlingva ludo "Dixit", kaj ni ĝuis ludi ĝin en Esperanto, do kun homoj kiuj kunhavas komunan lingvon sed ne komunan nacian kulturan fonon. (Antaŭ ni ludis ĝin nur kun poloj, kaj fojfoje mi maltrafis polajn aludojn de kunludantoj.) Mi ankaŭ kreis propran Esperantan version de kartoj por "Once upon a time", kunrakontada ludo, por helpi komencantojn. Cetere ni ludis kelkajn neprilingvajn strategiajn ludojn; la plej populara estis Blokus.

5. Bona etoso daŭris tra la semajno. Estis 90 homoj el 23 landoj, de diversaj lingvaj niveloj, kaj iel mi tre sentis min hejme. Iusence la aranĝo mem ne havis multajn aparte specialajn unikaĵojn, tamen ĝi estis unu el la plej ĝuindaj semajnoj, kiujn mi pasigis en Esperantujo. Mi ĝuis multajn konversaciojn kun novaj kaj malnovaj amikoj, kaj plaĉis al mi ke estis ia fokuso sur lingva studado kaj pliboniĝo.

Post la reveno mi forte havis la "mi sentas min sola"-senton reeniri Neesperantujon. Bonŝance kaj amuzkoincide, en nia trajnkupeo de Katovico al Vroclavo estis maljuna nekonata al ni Esperantisto, kun kiu ni babilis la tutan vojon. Li iris partopreni ekumenan kongreson, kiu nun okazas en Vroclavo. (Ni ne partoprenas ĉar la specife kristana programo ne allogas nin, tamen ni helpetis aranĝi, kaj finis la panoraman tradukon ĝustatempe por ke grupo de ekumenemuloj ekskursu al panoramo, kie oni aŭdigos la Esperantan version. Ni iris hieraŭ por kontroli, kaj la voĉregistraĵo de Arono sonas bonege!) Ĉiuokaze, ni antaŭĝuas la UK en Bjalistoko, kiu komenciĝos semajnfine!

We just spent a very good week in Slovakia at the Esperanto event SES. Some highlights:

1. Esperanto courses at 4 levels. I assisted as a volunteer in the 2nd level course on the first day, then was able to simply enjoy being in the 4th group after that. Stano Marĉek guided the 1st level (for complete beginners) using the direct method, and the results were remarkable. We had met a Slovakian girl Lenka enroute from Bratislava to SES, and she knew nothing of Esperanto, not having really studied it yet. At the end of the week, we traveled with her back to Bratislava, and she conversed with us and even told a joke in Esperanto. Really impressive results, and a strong recommendation for Stano's beginner course! I also enjoyed our 4th level group and its teacher Marta, and enjoyed some conversations with her about how to encourage more Esperantists to continue improving their language level. I spontaneously arranged a presentation about concrete techniques to keep improving your Esperanto every day. I also felt more comfortable/confident helping newbies than I have in the past, and that was a good feeling.

2. Vegan food! Usually events ignore vegans, but this time we were treated well, with excellent vegan food service, thanks to organizer Petro Balaz. It seems meat-eaters were sometimes envious of the good food vegans were getting! There were roughly 20 vegetarians and 5 vegans, out of 90 people.

3. Films: we showed the old films we'd subtitled. At such events, films often get low priority and are shown late at night when people are too sleepy, so we'd lost enthusiasm for doing more films. But this time the afternoon programs were rather scanty, so we took advantage of that and showed films in the afternoon, and people enjoyed it (especially "It's a Wonderful Life", which I showed twice due to "popular demand"), so I may convince myself to subtitle a 3rd film... perhaps Fight Club.

4. Games: we took some games along and as usual enjoyed playing boardgames with people from various countries in Esperanto. The hot new game is Dixit, which involves language, so we were curious to play it with people who share a common language (Esperanto) but don't share a common national cultural background. (Until now, we'd only played it with Poles, and so I sometimes miss Polish cultural references in the clues people give when playing.) That was fun! Also I made a custom set of "Once upon a time" cards with Esperanto text, to help beginners. Plus we played various non-language-related strategic games, of which Blokus was the most popular.

5. The whole week simply had a very happy social atmosphere. In a sense SES was not particularly exciting in terms of its program, but there was a special feeling to it. And I really appreciated there being a focus on learning and improving.

I really felt melancholy having to leave and return to "real life" especially with Polish still being such a difficult frustrating language for me. By lucky coincidence, in our train compartment from Katowice to Wrocław, we met an older Esperantist en route to the ecumenical Esperantist conference and enjoyed chatting with him! We're not participating that ecumenical event since the Christian lectures and masses aren't particularly interesting for us, but we'll probably join them for the Panorama excursion with the Esperanto version we helped make, mostly inspired by wanting this Esperantist congress to be able to enjoy the Panorama with an Esperanto audio program. (We went yesterday to the Panorama and checked it out - the sound of the Esperanto version, read by Arono, is great!) Anyway, we're excited about the world congress in Białystok, which starts this weekend!

Panorama Racławice, SES

2009-07-08T08:04:54Z

Mi transdonis la Esperantajn sondosierojn faritajn de arono por Panorama Racławice al la panoramestro, kiu poste retpoŝtis dankon pro la profesia kvalito de la registrado. Tio estis kontentiga traduka laboro por ni kaj amuza kunlaboro kun Arono, kaj ni feliĉas, ke la panoramestro tiom volonte akceptis Esperantan version de la prezento, do ekde nun estos ĉiam eble aŭdi la programon en Esperanto. Ni iros al SES en Slovakujo ĵaŭdovespere, sed post semajno mi esperas havi ŝancon iri kaj aŭdi la panoraman programon surloke!

We gave the Esperanto sound files which arono made for Panorama Racławice to the panorama director, who later emailed thanks for the professional quality of the recording. That was pleasing translation work for us and fun cooperation with Arono, and we're happy that the panorama director was so eager to have an Esperanto version of the presentation, so from now on it will always be possible to hear the program in Esperanto. We're going to SES in Slovakia Thursday night, but after a week I hope to have a chance to go hear the panorama program on site!

naciismo, kosmovojaĝado, kaj flagoj?

2009-07-06T14:56:42Z

Lastatempe mi legis la libron "Interpopola konduto" de Edmond Privat, pri problemoj de naciismo. Mi multe pensas pri la temo ĉi-jaro, ankaŭ pro antaŭa legado de similtema libro "Eŭropa identeco" de Zlatko Tiŝljar kaj aliaj tekstoj pri la temo. Nerilate al tio, mi sonĝis hieraŭ nokte longe kaj intense pri plano de mi kaj Anna vojaĝi kosmoŝipe trans la universo kaj forlasi Teron por ĉiam. Ĉu temas pri eskapo for de nacioj kaj naciismo? Mi ĵus sekvis hazardan ligilon de jaylake al http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/07/flags-of-forgotten-countries.html kie mi legis citaĵon de sciencfikcia aŭtoro Arthur C. Clarke: "Estas esperige simbola la fakto, ke flagoj ne flirtas en vakuo."

Lately I read the book "interpopola konduto" (conduct between nations/peoples) by Edmond Privat, about the problems of nationalism. I'm thinking a lot about the subject this year, also from reading another similarly themed book earlier "Eŭropa identeco" (European identity) by Zlatko Tiŝljar and other stuff on the subject. Unrelated to that, I had a long intense dream last night about Anna and I planning a starship vojage across the universe and leaving Earth forever. Maybe it is about an escape from nations and nationalism? I just followed a random link by jaylake to http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/07/flags-of-forgotten-countries.html where I read a quote by science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke: "There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum."

hazardaĵoj

2009-07-05T16:39:21Z

Mi malvarmumis dum pluraj tagoj, kiu ĝenis min. Hodiaŭ ŝajnas pli bone. A2na trovis metodon kuiri veganajn patkukojn kun mirteloj - sukceso! - tiam venkis min en "Age of Steam". Ni pli-malpli finis tradukon de priskriba teksto por la panoramo pri Racławice, kaj Arono konsentis provi voĉlegi kaj registri ĝin, por ke vizitantoj al polaj Esperantaj kongresoj (UK en Bjalistoko kaj ekumena kongreso en Vroclavo) havos ŝancon viziti tiun muzeon kaj aŭdi la programon en Esperanto, sed la afero ja estas urĝe lastminuta pro nia prokrasto. Mi ankaŭ faris organizan laboron hejme, kiun mi volis, do ĝenerale estas bona dimanĉo!

http://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panoramo_pri_Racławice

I had a cold for several days which was annoying. Today seems better. A2na found a way to cook vegan pancakes with blueberries - success! - then beat me in Age of Steam. We more or less finished the translation of the descriptive text for the Panorama about Racławice, and Arono agreed to try recording his voice reading it, so visitors to Polish Esperanto congresses (UK in Białystok and an ecumenical congress in Wrocław) will have a chance to visit that museum and hear the program in Esperanto, but it's very hasty and last-minute due to our procrastination. I also did some organization at home which I'd been wanting to do, so generally it was a good Sunday!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racławice_Panorama

Hamleto - tiel staras nun la demando

2009-06-29T13:49:40Z

Mi ĵus spektis matinean prezenton de Hamleto fare de ĉina trupo (http://www.sta.sh.cn) en la ĉina, kiel parton de la ankoraŭa teatra festivalo en Vroclavo. Mi komprenis la dialogon eĉ malpli ol mi komprenas polajn teatraĵojn, sed la rakonto estas sufiĉe bona konata, kaj la aktoroj talente esprimis la emociojn kaj agojn. La spektaklo estis iom eksperimenta, kaj plejparte estis efika, kvankam mi ne bone kaptis la evidente simbolan signifon de multaj franĝbalailoj, kiuj aperis plurfoje kaj en la finalo. Poste mi pensis, ke tio estis eble la unua teatra versio de Hamleto, kiun mi spektis (mi vidis filmojn). Sed mi vidis multegajn Śekspirajn teatraĵojn en mia vivo, do mi ne scias. Ćiuokaze, mi sentas iom da inspiro legi pli el la klasika Esperanta traduko de Zamenhof - ĝis nun mi legis nur parteton, kaj la lingva fluo kaj ritmo ja plaĉis al mi.

I just watched a matinee presentation of Hamlet performed by a Chinese group (http://www.sta.sh.cn) in Chinese, as part of the ongoing theater festival en Wrocław. I understood the dialog even less than I understand Polish plays, but the story is sufficiently well known and the actors expressed the emotions and actions with talent. The production was rather experimental, and for the most part worked, although I didn't really get the apparent symbolic significance of many mops which appeared several times and in the final scene. Later I thought, that this was maybe the first theatrical version of Hamlet which I've seen (I've seen films). But I've seen a huge number of Shakespeare productions in my life, so I'm not sure. In any case, I feel a bit inspired to read more of Zamenhof's classic Esperanto translation - so far I've only read a little bit of it, and the language flow and rhythm was pleasing.

interlingva intermuzika Psio Crew

2009-06-28T06:59:21Z

Ni iris al koncerta festivalo hieraŭ vespere en parko sur insulo apud ni. Ni alvenis dum ludis pola grupo Psio Crew (sonas kiel /pŝo krev/). Ili ŝajnas interese miksi regean, hiphopan, ĵazan, kaj tradician polan popolan muzikojn (eĉ kun 4 violonistoj, kun 2 en tradiciaj montaranaj vestaĵoj) kun nekutima plaĉa muzika rezulto. Krome la bandonomo estas vortluda, ĉar "Crew" devenas de hiphopa tradicio sed la pola vorto "krew" /krev/ estas sango, kaj "psia krew" estas popola esprimo "hunda sango" (kiel "damne!"), sed en la silezia dialekto oni prononcas "psia" kiel "psio". La tuta afero estis amuze metaeca...

http://www.psiocrew.pl/

We went to a concert festival yesterday evening in a park on an island near us. We arrived while a Polish band Psio Crew (pronounced /Psho Krev/) was playing. They seem to interestingly mix reggae, hiphop, jazz, and traditional Polish folk music (even with 4 fiddlers, with 2 in traditional mountain garb) with an unusual fun musical result. Plus the band name is wordplay, since "Crew" references hiphop tradition, but the Polish word "krew" /krev/ is blood, and "psia krew" is a folk expression "dog blood" (like "damn!"), but in the Silesian dialect they say "psia" like "psio". The whole thing was amusingly meta...