when i read yesterday that today, two red panda cubs would be presented to the public, i decided to pay calgary zoo another visit. here are some impressions of the really cute two little ones:

after that, i decided to pay the dinosaur section another visit, since i heard that it was heavily updated. indeed, things changed. there were a lot new dinosaur models, looking much better, which were even animated – they move and roar.

even though, there are still some artifacts from the past available, and artifacts due to low water:

anyway. i guess i’ve seen enough of the dinosaur section. there are other, more interesting parts of the zoo to see :)

today was a sunny, beautiful day, even though pretty hot. it resulted in another trip on the zürisee:

after that, it resulted in a photo featuring me and two soccer players:

simply beautiful, filling me with happiness.

another thing making me happy are two small presents, one being already a few weeks old, the other being new:

thank you, i really like them a lot!

today i did another boat trip on the zürich lake, after getting up pretty early. it was really nice, as the weather was great (the sun was burning, but not too bad), and it was pretty empty. i got one of the seats in the very front of the boat. listening to great music (unholy‘s really great for that, as is vintersorg’s a cosmic genesis). here are some impressions:

three years after releasing ghost reveries, opeth released their 9th observation, called watershed.
it is opened by the beautiful, instrumental coil, sung by mikael akerfeld and nathalie lorichs. this is followed by the intense, heavy tune heir apparent, which i already have been able to listen to live two times. after that, the lotus eater follows, another heavy track with lots of proggy interludes which was already available for download some time ago. track #4 is burden, a melodious, more mellow, proggy track, the first half of it being sung by mikael, the second part being instrumental, with an accoustic guitar finally shifting downwards, until an abrupt strange ending. then, porcelain heart, which was already released as a video before, starts. again, alternativing between loud and quiet, beauty and wildness. after that, hessian peel, starting mellow, beautiful. then, after a small piano solo phase, the brutality returns, in its beautiful complexity, and complex beauty, the end reminding me a bit of the end of sentenced‘s no one there. finally, hex omega launches, beginning heavy, though slow, turning more mellow, changing back to heavy, alternating. pure beauty, floating through the air, crawling down my ears.
i hate making such statements, but for me, this is the best release for this year. definitely. even though the year’s just half gone. watershed is simply ingenious, such a beautiful mix of death metal brutality, progressive rock; this is audible aesthetics. so damn beautiful.

fire, sometimes so beautiful. flames, licking upwards. sparks, flying around. the beginning of barbecue unfolds its beauty.

today, i took some photos of the cats. i could stay outside for hours, or whole days, playing with them…
enjoy!

red & white.

they’re not always this nice to each other :)

the red one.

the white one.

the sun was shining, and so i decided to go home earlier and take some pictures on the way… here are a few of the results.

one of the two cats:

a picture of the institute of mathematics at the university of oldenburg:

some pictures from outside:

i recently read that there was a study which showed that in germany, the weather is statistical significantly worse on weekends. well, if i compare the last two day’s sky—filled with clouds—to today’s sky—bright light—, i’d say that’s right. well, on the evening, shortly before it became dark (but, well, there was still way more light than on the two previous days), i took a small walk through the neighborhood and shot some photos. here are some of the results.

birds.

i agan managed to catch a flying bird; see the three pictures to the right. i’m not sure whether the one on the left is the same (or of the same kind) as the one on the right…

nature.

zoom.

i also made a few zooms. two of them i think are especially good. the first is this one:

the second is this one:

feathery and fragile fingers reaching out, fumbling for something which isn’t there, not anymore. a scenery emblazed by glaring light, soon being drowned by utter darkness. melancholy hovering like leaves in the chilly air, seizing me. exposing me.

mathematics is nothing but the search for structures. beautiful structures. i myself tend to think i understood something if i manage to have a picture of it in my head, some geometric interpretation. sometimes it’s more easy to understand something if one can somehow draw it, by hand, or using a computer, which can sometimes give insights which would not be possible without it; the best example maybe is the beautiful mandelbrot set. most visualizations are by no means as impressive as the mandelbrot set, unless the viewer is acquainted with the underlying mathematics. like the following one, produced by the programs i wrote yesterdays and today, whose beauty probably won’t unfold if you don’t know what it depicts: