15 years

I used to play SEGA a lot. There was this one game I gave up on. The protagonist was some sort of a weird creature; as you go through levels you collect pieces for something that looked suspiciously like a moonshine machine. There was one level with four buttons you had to jump. They all had to be somehow pushed simultaneously. It was so unsolvable I gave up.

I was going back to Berlin this weekend; I was falling asleep and I came up with a perfectly viable the solution. 15 years. You jump, repetitively.

Somehow, it is Wallace's thing. There are two ways to half-raise a flag: to actually half-raise it, or make the pole twice as tall..

briefly

Briefly,

i'm back from Florence & Rome. i was told the other day: "i fucking hate Rome, that's why i'm staying". well, i sort of fucking hated it either but am used to other methods of self-punishment. Florence is narrow and crowded, like a never-ending marketplace or a metro station after 5pm. Rome is not so narrow but that is generously compensated by the abundance of motor vehicles. i had fun, it's nice to socialize with friendly eclans, drink wine on the Medici church stairs, eat out at least once a day and have cheap Italian coffe; but now i feel like spending a week in a solitary confinement, away, away. i spent 2 days in Brest. i skipped trolleys and buses because they looked too crowded. Berlin is the best place i've been to so far but i'm thinking of Paris this summer.

i've read a big article about David Foster Wallace in the New Yorker. coincidentally, they have posthumously released his third novel three days ago, The Pale King. it's on the library.nu already, of course. i'm buying Kindle in two days. i have finally started Infinite Jest, that over a thousand pages monstrosity, which is a mighty fun read.

i can see a blind spot in my left eye. i don't take it as a troubling sign, rather an opportunity to explore, phenomenologically, and factually, the interplay of sensations my eyes and brain produce. so far i have managed to see my own face in the blackness of a closed eye. that was moderately troubling. i have big plans of teaching myself not to be deceived by all optical illusions.

i have many other plans. i forget things so i developed a habit of carrying a small notebook and a pen with me. it helps. i even like to reread it. sometimes i don't understand what i meant by a sentence or two but it's ok, i'll have more.