Friday, June 29, 2007

Dealing with rejection pt. II, III or VI

First off: This will probably sound like a lot of whining. It's not. Not at all. I'm trying to find answers as objectively as possible.
Last sunday I was studying for my exam in European Integration. Meanwhile I was surfing Wikipedia and a lot of other sites connected somehow to the EU. I incidentally found the greatest Job offer ever. The description matched my profile almost 100%. It sounded interesting, challenging, promising. I'm not searching for a job or an exchange right now but this sounded to good to let it pass by. So I applied.
Today I got rejected. Again. Why? As I sad I'm not disappointed because I have a job. It's a cool job. I'm happy with it. It's not connected with my studies so if I get the chance I would change it but other than that I have no reason.
Why do I get rejected? What am I doing wrong? Am I not employable? What do I need to change? Do I lack something? Not enough qualification? Not enough languages? Wrong studies? Is it my name? Is it my nationalities? Age? Luck?
If you are an employer: Please state your exact reasons the next time when you reject somebody. Something more helpful than "despite you excellent application we had to choose another candidate". The question is why you had to choose the other candidate.

posted by Yavor @ 5:25 PM
5 comments

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Fire, walk with me

I could easily continue my ranting about the educational system. I prefer not to. It would be to easy because I have exams right now, hence I'm pissed. In fact the next exam will be in less than 30min. But boy am I mad. Let me correct my statement from the previous post that "I'm quite disappointed" by the university to "it is absolutely ridiculous and makes no sense at all. What the f**k are they thinking?!". I will probably elaborate after the exams in order to be more objective...

Something different: I have become a Twin Peaks addict. I know. I'm more than 15 years to late. But that makes it even more interesting to watch the series now. It's like time travel. In fact we managed to watch the whole first season in less than 3 days with Dessi. Addictive I tell you.

More updates from my side after the exams or when the time is right. Hopefully things are going to turn out as planned.

posted by Yavor @ 1:33 PM
0 comments

Monday, June 11, 2007

Do schools kill creativity?

Currently I'm quite disappointed by our University. That's why I'm having this discussion with a lot of people: "Is university relevant? Is university preparing us adequately for professional life? Should it even?"
I feel that we are forced into conformity in our university. There are certain behaviours and attitudes that are being encouraged and others are being socially sanctioned. When you write a paper with 4 other students for example the focus of the university is explicitly put on the specific topic and not on the team experience which for me should be of equal importance. I argue that for the biggest part of the students it is even more important to develop those soft skills because they will most probably enter the professional life after their studies and will not continue an academic career. Thus the development of professional skills should be encouraged as well and not only the scientific ways of working.
Anyway I would love to hear opinions on this. Is the educational system in our part of the world like it should be or is there something fundamentally wrong with it? Here's a Ted Talk from last year. Is Sir Ken Robinson right? What do you think?

posted by Yavor @ 4:21 PM
3 comments

Saturday, June 09, 2007

You are what you eat? Pfft....

That's quite interesting. What do families around the globe eat in one week: Click.

posted by Yavor @ 6:42 PM
3 comments

Thursday, June 07, 2007

3..2..1.. Fight!

It is with great amusement that I watch the current fight between microsoft and google. I use some google products and they have made my life easier but I must admit that microsoft have some really cool stuff coming up. First cool thing - Surface. Then a direct challenger for Google Earth - Virtual Earth 3D. And now Photosynth:

Just watch this movie and then imagine all 3 products combined:



Looking good isn't it? Guess what? You can already try it: Clicky!

And no - microsoft is not paying me for this post. It's sad...

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posted by Yavor @ 2:21 PM
7 comments

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Chaos, madness, broken bones

To continue the series of me sharing music that is rocking my world I present you my favourite breakcore artist: Venetian Snares.
I have a special relationship with Venetian Snares. Sometimes I desperately need to pump my head with some of his sounds. Sometimes I feel that this music is the work of a genius. On the other hand sometimes I feel that he is extremely boring with his "I just don't give a fuck attitude", and sometimes I feel that his tracks are kind of redundant. Right now I'm feeling excitement about his tracks again. Don't know why. I still can not recognise the pattern...
Anyway. I was browsing the CDs in my car and so I rediscovered his album from 2005 "Rossz Csillag Allat Született". The title seems to be Hungarian and I have absolutely no idea what it means. But this album is just breathtakingly intense. You definitely need to have strong nerves to listen to it entirely. It's a feast of weird time signatures, broken amen breaks, heartbreaking and melting strings, orchestral samples, distorted bass sounds, piercing synths.
The track "Kétpólusú Keresztes Hadjárat" for example starts with a violin that makes you feel like the loneliest person on earth. It is accompanied with really random sounding orchestral samples. The violin seems to be alone in a world that it doesn't understand. But it seems to enjoy it's loneliness as well. It truly tears you apart. After some minutes of self indulgence there's the voice of a girl. In the background there are birds singing. She says:
I used to understand happy... I know that I used to be happy... I was really happy. I'm unhappy now and I can't remember what it's like to be happy I only remember.... I don't remember...
I remember being happy only in comparison... to not being happy which is what I am now.
And then it explodes in a gigantic outburst of chaos, madness, drums that sound like bones breaking and squealing synths that sound desperate and determined at the same time. Just when you think that this ride is over it starts again and again. For almost 9 minutes. But why am I talking about music?! Music should be listened to. Since this is the interwebs (they are visual remember?) here's an unofficial video of the song "Szamár Madár":


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posted by Yavor @ 9:18 AM
1 comments

Monday, June 04, 2007

Balkan Beat Box: Musicians without borders

It's not often that I hear music that blows me away lately. Everything seems to be done already. Nothing is new. Everything is boring. Candy, marketing, ring tones and plastic dolls… And then I turn on the Radio and hear a band. What is this? Is it Bulgarian? No. Klezmer? No. From Serbia? Morocco? Israel? Greece? Spain? Damn it's from all over! I have never heard something as cosmopolitan as that!

It turned out to be a band called Balkan Beat Box. It's the future, the past, everything, now, here. It's music so beautiful that when you hear it you will not be the same again. OK enough of that. Have a listen for yourself and visit their website and their MySpace for more sounds. And here's a review from the Pittsburgh Tribune for more information.

Last saturday they played in Neuchatel. And I missed it. Damn...

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posted by Yavor @ 1:38 PM
2 comments