(well, a third one this weekend.) today, the finnish acts amorphis, swallow the sun and insomnium were playing in the z-7. the last weeks, i was anxiously waiting for this concert, as swallow the sun is one of my most favorite bands at the moment, as amorphis is also pretty good and i’ve been told that so is insomnium.
well. after arriving and seeing nobody i knew, insomnium started to play. they’re doing melodic death metal, and i really liked them. during their gig, i spotted a couple i’ve already met on arena‘s and threshold’s concerts. it’s always nice not to be alone on a concert :)
then, after a short break, swallow the sun‘s gig started. the one i really looked forward to. starting with the first three minutes of gloom, beauty and despair as an intro, they started with a great tour through their whole discography. the complete playlist:

1. intro (first three minutes of gloom, beauty and despair);
2. hope;
3. descending winters;
4. don’t fall asleep (horror, pt. 2);
5. out of this gloomy light (live recording);
6. the ship;
7. these hours of despair (live recording);
8. deadly nightshade;
9. swallow (horror, pt. 1).

unfortunately, there was no encore. (i hope i’ll see swallow the sun as the headliner once…) to the sounds of the twin peaks score, the stage was rebuild for amorphis (last concert, they used twin peaks music as the intro). well. then amorphis played, the headliner for this evening, and also delivered a great show.
finally, everything was over, we walked back to the train station, arrived in zürich, and from there i had to walk home alone. well, same as yesterday, so i’m pretty much used to it :) now i’m looking forward to see how my neck’ll be feeling like, after so much headbanging… but it was definitely worth it!

yesterday i was visiting the helsinki klub in zürich with some friends, where a concert of the alternative/punk rockers boob from berne was taking place. there were a lot of people dancing to the music, and all of us had a great time. they also gave a longer encore, featuring two hip-hop/rap songs, which was, even though i usually don’t like that kind of music too much, pretty fun!
apparently boob has already played in the helsinki two weeks ago; two of my friends have already seen them there, while i had to stay at home suffering a terrible headache…

today, we had the first flakes of snow which did me the favor of actually staying on the ground:

being late. getting there, still in time. being able to stand in the very front. meeting some guys who i met on anathema‘s last concert. listening to anathema. rocking. having a great time. break, after 45 minutes. looking out for other guys who announced themselves for the concert, not seeing anyone. porcupine tree coming up. having another good time. for around two hours. then, silence, again. crowd flowing to the outside. checking out the merchandize. buying an anathema cd, getting it signed by the band, talking to the band. queueing up to fetch my jacket. meeting another mathematician i didn’t expected to see. seeing in the distance another one whom i knew to be there. leaving, alone. taking the tram. happening to see a friend in his kitchen from the tram window. buying some pizza. writing this crap. feeling good.
thanks for everyone who helped making this evening so great. i appreciate that a lot.

well. my project, which i announced recently, is done. for now. hopefully without any bigger problems.

every time i plan to start a new project, let it be a web project, a programming job, a latex document (or a combination of those), i’m thinking hard on whether to use something already existing as a base or whether to do everything myself, from the scratch. for latex documents, i usually reuse macros i’ve written myself. for programs, i use libraries like opengl and zlib (two random names coming to my mind, there are of course a lot more), i reuse my own code, and write the rest from scratch. for this blog, i used wordpress, for usage statistics i use phpopentracker. and, of course, i use php and mysql as backends. even though i could implement the whole stuff myself. if i just would have enough time… but i don’t, and so i have to cope with all the restrictions, specialities, whatever these programs and libraries are throwing at me.
the reason why i’m thinking about this at the moment is a new project of mine i’m thinking about, which i’m planning to code more or less from the scratch (using, of course, some backend stuff like php, mysql, phpopentracker, you name it). i just started drawing some sketches, like its logical structure with hints on the physical implementation. sometimes i wonder whether i should spend more time on such things. despite there probably already exists a system which does exactly what i want, making one yourself is way more fun. although its also way more work.
let’s see if i manage to pull this one through… wish me luck.

no, this post is not about the area of abstract algebra in mathematics, but about the experimental metal project abstrakt algebra founded after candlemass‘ dismanteling by leif edling. they released one album and started with a second, but ran out of money, and leif ended up escaping bankrupcy by re-using some of the second albums material to create another candlemass album, dactylis glomerata (named after a flower he’s allergic to). the 2006 reissue of dactylis glomerata contains as a bonus disk the unfinished version of the second abstrakt algebra album, entitled abstrakt algebra ii (now guess how the first one was called). well. the arrival of that one kicked me out of bed this morning, when the mailman rang the doorbell. but it was worth getting up for it, and even if it is not a very good album, it is not good, it is interesting, and it is one of the albums every mathematician who has a similar strange taste of music than me should have in his cd shelf. of course, together with their first album, which i just ordered. ;-)

yesterday i started reading the xkcd archives (maybe you’ve already noticed that yesterday). if you don’t know xkcd, it’s a webcomic “of romance, sarcasm, math, and language”. here are the ones i found particularly interesting, funny, or whatever:

• pi equals. reminds me of the classic “help, i’m trapped in a fortune cookie factory!” joke.
• what if.
• barrel – part 3. i wouldn’t say “wow!” in that situation, though.
• fourier. poor cat.
• secrets.
• useless. standard approachs suck for love.
• su doku. even i can solve these.
• national language.
• binary heart. if you check the parity of the read ones in every column, you’ll notice most of them are even. is this a coincidence? (and don’t ask why i stumbled about that…)
• laser scope. sometimes the primitive word jokes are the best.
• riemann-zeta. about love & primes. this one is not only for number theorists.
• nihilism. squirrels! cool!
• alice and bob. the real story of eve.
• matrix transform. if i’d ever had to solve linear algebra exercises again, i’d try to turn this one in.
• valentine’s day. nothing to add.
• cat proximity. yay, how true. meow!
• code talkers. another one on cryptography.
• fixed width. nerd talk on irc. i don’t know what scares me more, laughing about this one or thinking that i’m probably knowing people who would really do this.
• exploits of a mom. well. if you don’t know what an sql injection attack is, read about it here.

it’s amazing how fast it is getting dark outside; it’s pretty obvious that summer is gone. even though, today the weather was pretty nice, at least during the afternoon: the sun was shining, and in the sun it was pretty warm. well. after spening two more hours in the darkness (why are there seminar rooms with no window to the outside?), i decided to grab the chance to enjoy the scenery at the zürisee, and then, on the way there, i decided to take a boat trip. and so i did. it was really beautiful, watching the waves, the sun, though it tried blinding me, letting the thoughts wander around, listening to good music (communic, unholy, swallow the sun). it was fantastic. even though the sun began hiding, swallowed by the mountains, the air getting chilly, even cold. the waves are fascinating, changing from a plastic like look to very complex patterns in a minute, somehow reminding me of fractals.
then, coming home, while darkness is crawling upon the sky, changing into blackness, as it is now, only artifical light left. me sitting here, typing, drinking hot chocolate, thinking. the sun is gone for today.

obviously, it works.