Conscientious

[I'm going to attempt to describe something which is probably indescribable given my limitations as a writer. Nevertheless, I felt it has to be done.]

In one of Thomas Bernhard's novels, the narrator he had to get away from the places where he grew up, the places which he hates, to be able to get closer to them.

Check it out! Yesterday, planets Mars and Earth were closer than they'll ever be again, well, at least over the next 60000 years (story). OK, let's just say "ever" because 60000 years ago humans had no culture and no technology (think of a Bush White House minus all the electronic gizmos). And we don't know what humans will do in 60000 years. It's hard to imagine Neanderthals were as excited about all this, though. "Hey, Ooog, I caught this cool deer and did you know planet Mars is really close?"

The essence of photography is probably captured best by little children who are old enough to realize what is going on around them but too young to put it into words - which they yet have to learn: They just point at what they see.

It seems I managed to find the roots of my last name. There is a Polish city called Kolobrzeg that used to be German: Kolberg/Colberg (in 1891, they changed the C to a K - during World War II, the city gained some notoriety because of a propaganda movie made there). Interestingly enough, the original name Colberg (first mentioned in 1255 or so) apparently is derived from the Polish "kolo brzegu" which means (crudely translated) "city by the banks of the sea".

I watched Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 last night. Even before going I was sure that most of the criticism about it can be dismissed easily. People who rely on such people as Bill O'Reilly or, even worse, Ann Coulter shouldn't really complain about "partisan propaganda".

But there has been quite a lot of valid criticism and, unfortunately, the movie makes it relatively easy for almost anybody to do that - including intellectual embarrassments such as Iraq war cheerleader Christopher Hitchens who feels he can finally show off what he thinks is his stunning intellect again, after having been silenced by the utter failure of the adventure he was supporting.

I got this email from "Citibank" today that states "D‮ae‬r Cit‮knabi‬ Memb‮re‬, T‮ih‬sem‮lia‬ was se‮tn‬ by theC‮iti‬banks‮vre‬er to v‮ire‬fy yo‮ru‬ em‮lia‬ ad‮erd‬ss. You mu‮ts‬ compl‮te‬e t‮ih‬s p‮or‬cessby c‮kcil‬ing on the li‮kn‬ be‮wol‬ and e‮iretn‬ng in the sm‮la‬l w‮dni‬ow y‮ruo‬ C‮biti‬ank A‮MT‬-Debit Ca‮dr‬ n‮bmu‬er and P‮NI‬ t‮tah‬ youuse onA‮MT‬. T‮sih‬is do‮en‬ for yo‮ru‬ prote‮oitc‬n - beca‮esu‬ s‮emo‬of our membe‮sr‬ no lon‮reg‬ h‮va‬e acc‮sse‬ to th‮rie‬ ema‮li‬addr‮sse‬ and we m‮su‬t ve‮yfir‬". Something makes me think Citibank did not send this.

Over the last few weeks it seemed to me that I got some more traffic. But it didn't really seem to come from other blogs or webpages. And indeed, it's the Evil Empire's search engine. And as if that wasn't annoying enough (if you want a good search engine use Google!), check out what keywords are being used:

Every day, I'm telling myself that if I don't stop looking at the "news" - especially at so-called political blogs - and get angry about it I'm guaranteed to have my first heart attack the day after tomorrow. Unfortunately, I'm a bit underdeveloped in the will-power area of my brain - which, I guess, is good news for those people who come here to look for links to photography (other things I keep telling myself: Stop spending so much time for cool new photography online). Every day, I look at the "news" and at political blogs, and then I spend a good hour fuming, occasionally posting a little something here on this weblog. I guess you are used to this - you probably take this as the kind of quirks that are to be expected of those artsy types.