Paul Goscicki

There is nothing better than watching funny videos while having the usual “Christmas-time” depression. Not that I’m that down or anything, but it’s not the first time I’m not happy enough during this special time of the year. And we should all be happy! At least I hope you will be after watching those two very funny videos. First one is the “official” guide to eating Japanese sushi. Here it goes:

(download, 29 MB)

The second one is an extremely well done Bollywood movies parody:

(download, 6 MB)

They really made my day. That’s my Christmas present to you, my dear readers. Merry Christmas!

Now if there was a way to save those videos on hard disk. That would be so great!

UPDATE: When there’s a will, there’s always a way. Thanks, Dzentelman, for those two links, which let you save Google videos on your hard disk. You’ll need FLV Player as well to play them back.

Nothing indicated that this particular ego-search on Google would be any different from the countless others made in the past. It was quite a surprise though, to find someone new occupying the prestigious, first spot on Google Polska in the search results for my last name. I have already accepted the fact that this blog is far, far behind (currently it is the seventh returned result), but this particular contestant was quite shocking. I’m talking about the Wikipedia entry for Leon Gościcki (sorry, only Polish language version available). What is surprising is that he actually is one of my ancestors. Namely, he is the brother of my great-grandfather. It’s a strange feeling to know that he was someone famous enough to have a separate Wikipedia entry (in local, Polish edition, but still). We share the same blood!

I’m shocked.

Or putting it in another words – I have my first glasses! The thing with my eyes is that they are fairly good, just not quite perfect. Up until now I simply didn’t care. I had been certain I was seeing everything as clear and sharp as it is possible. Lately, however, I started noticing that my sight is much worse after working for 12+ hours in front of the computer. My eyes could no longer focus on small text and I was having slight troubles with reading. I’ve said to myself: the time has finally come to deal with this. Without any further ado I had my eyes examined.

The doctor has said it was an inborn defect. Not huge, quite the contrary, but big enough to cause me some problems when my eyes are tired. It’s interesting to realize now how wrong I was back at the elementary school, thinking I had the best sight of them all. After the second sight test (confirming the results of the first) I was on my way to the nearest optician. And today is the day I got my new shiny glasses. Man, are they nice! And everything is so clear and sharp now!

There are some side effects, though. After a little while the glasses become so heavy I cannot bear wearing them any longer. I’m almost certain, however, that it’s only a matter of time until I will get used to that additional weight on my nose and stop noticing them. At least I hope it will be so.

Nonetheless I’m very happy to have them. Have I told you already that this world is so damn sharp?

Photo by Dave Witmer. Used without permission. Hi, Dave!