It takes a hell of a lot for a rap album to appeal to me. So often it's one track or two that's good while the rest is very mediocre. This one is a mixed bag surely but the overall impression is a very decent one. And Norwegian music to boot, it seems to be coming in leaps and bounds.

Having heard only a couple of tracks before I was excited to see what the album would be like. It was released in 2002 so by no means brand new but as I hadn't heard it before, it was all new to me. The opening track "Introducing" makes a very good impression (which is unusual) and from there it goes slightly downhill but still very worthwhile.

Track rating
Introducing :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:
Last Lieutnants :cool: :cool:
Barcelona :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:
Moving Up :cool: :cool:
Put It On :cool: :cool: :cool:
One Of Them Days :cool: :cool: :cool:
In Between :cool: :cool:
Trust Me :cool: :cool:
Ras Steven Skit
Feel It :cool: :cool: :cool:
Boatdrinks :cool: :cool:
It's Paper :cool: :cool:
No Cure For Life :cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:

7/10

Asymmetrical relationships are defined by a lack of (you guessed it) symmetry in the relation, a lack of balance if you will. To keep it simple, let's just say that one party is more keen on the relation than the opposite party.

Asymmetrical relationships can be very exciting, to be around someone you're attracted to (be that in terms of intellect, wisdom, life perspective, physical attraction or any other aspect) is a pretty special feeling. We've all been there at some point, most notably as kids in the company of adults. But these relationships lack balance, they're unstable and they have no long term [stable] future. That means if you want to maintain it, you have to compensate for the unbalance somehow. But the ultimate goal of any relationship which is sought is to make it a balanced one. A balanced one is very comfortable and needs little upkeep. To narrow it down, let's qualify that we're discussing close, balanced relationships. Distant relations can be just as balanced but because the level of intimacy is so low, they are much easier to change or break.

So balanced, close relationships is the objective. How to get there? Conventional wisdom (or let's try recent experience) shows that asymmetrical relations cannot be balanced, at least not easily. It would have to take a very significant shift, one that is unpredictable and presents great risk to the outcome. Aside from that, the relation will break sooner or later, it's unbalanced and unhealthy. Having played on both sides of the net, I should know to handle it but it seems that certain consequences are inevitable. The feeling of guilt factors on the "victor's" side while the feeling of being hard done by is present on the "loser's" side. Inevitably, the victor is less torn up about the break up than the loser is.

So what to do after termination? A logical course of action would be to acknowledge that the relationship was unhealthy and would have to die sooner or later. Still, the force of habit is strong and it takes time to forget and get used to the new situation. I may know that it was inevitable but it's hard to accept it. I also feel a strong urge to judge but then I keep asking myself do I have the right to judge? What would I have done? I pretty much know the answer and I might have handled it less well than I was treated but the feeling of being wronged doesn't go away. Another argument is knowing that the bond is cut, there's no way back (nor should there be) and the only person still thinking about it is me. So why waste time on it if I'm the only one? Seems logical enough but that doesn't work either. Some things are just hard to forget.

It would be comforting to know that whatever has happened, at least one has learnt how to avoid the pitfalls. But in reality, all one has learnt is that they exist and that one will be equally prone to being trapped the next time around, even knowing that they're there. Not the best outlook surely?

Ps. This one has been in the pipeline for quite some time but I felt it was time to get it out of my system.

First of all, I've noticed some unforeseen activity on some back entries. Surprised as I may be, fun to see other people actually reading this.

Disclaimer: I'm afraid this is going to get very technical very fast, there's no way around it.

So I've been running a home server for a couple of years now, running www, mail and file services. I've also experimented with others from time to time. I never really paid much attention to security because hell, why bother if you're not forced to, eh? A potentially costly dismissal.

Today I turn on my computer, kontact starts automatically in my kde session and I see I'm getting 4000 identical spam messages from the imap server in the closet downstairs. Feels funny because with spamassassin I've been able to battle spam quite efficiently and I only get a couple of messages weekly that I have to filter by hand. Well, something's not right so I start checking my spam filters. It seems they aren't filtering these messages properly. I also took a closer look at the mail headers only to stumble upon the fact that there is only one mail hop in the trail. That means the messages seem to be sent from my mail server, oddly enough. The reason I'm also getting it is because I've set up postfix to bcc myself all outgoing mail, so that I can keep track of messages I send.

Sure enough, a couple of hours later I get an email from my ISP threatening to shut down my connection unless I can stop the flood of spam emanating from my computer. First things first, shut down postfix to stop all outgoing mail. Then I start looking at the server more closely. No strange processes spotted, nothing suspicious in lsof.. Then I see some changes in /tmp and /var/tmp. A couple of tar archives, some files unzipped, seemingly a binary compiled here and there. And under conspicuous names, like bash. :wth: Ran chkrootkit but it didn't report any changed binaries. This is odd, I can't figure out how those email messages are being sent. The files I spotted are all irc bots it seems, which would be a classic purpose of cracking a box.

But knowing I have no choice, I tar'ed up the whole filesystem and started reinstalling. I wonder if I can find out more about the damage on closer inspection.

It's been a while since I've done a movie review but this one's so unique that it's worth mentioning.

It's the kind of movie that I both love and hate, because it both challenges and frustrates me. In this case it's far more good than bad, because it's so engrossing. The premise is that 7 people get trapped somehow in a cube. A cube of square rooms, not knowing where they are in the cube or how they got there. Some of the rooms are trapped, going into them is imminent death. The people are all very different in background and personality, the flick has its share of psychological skirmish. But most perplexing is the configuration of the cube and how they are trying to get out of it. Along the way of course we find out something about each person and they all influence in each other in how they respond to the evolving situation.

I'm not a fan of gore stuff and there isn't that much of it in the movie (at least considering how much more there potentially could be) but that's the major downside for me. I'm also not satisfied by the ending, of course I rarely am even with stories less complicated than this one. But the story being told is fascinating and I can see it being one of those times where every viewer takes something unique out of it, because the backdrop is so abstract that you simply have to set your own reference points.

The most interesting movie I've seen in quite some time. It's a Canadian low budget production btw, which could explain why it is so interesting rather than something out of Hollywood.

8/10

So I have this daily routine going now. At some point during the day, usually multiple times, I open the balcony door to get some air in my room. Sooner or later, there is this wasp which flies in and spends the rest of the day interminably buzzing at the window, looking out from inside, like it's trying to fly out. After observing and concluding that it's not gonna stop, I get sick of the buzzing and I bat it out on the balcony. That usually knocks it out cold but it's back the next day. I'm getting bored with it so if it comes around today, I might just swing the bat a tiny bit more, so it lands in the neighbor's yard.