Saturday 25 July 2015

If your CTRL key doesn't work in the VirtualBox

It can be annoying if you use emacs and your CTRL key doesn't work.

The solution is to disable the CTRL-key mouse function on the Ubuntu host (your main operating system). Got to: System -> Preferences -> Mouse -> Show position of pointer when CTRL key is pressed in the host; Switch it off and the CTRL key should work again!

Sunday 19 July 2015

Zawróć, bo to nie kombinowanie ale wewnętrzna siła przebicia ma Cię prowadzić!

Jan Paweł II:

"Człowiek młody musi być silniejszy od warunków. Żadne warunki nie potrafią go wytrącić, on potrafi się przez te warunki przebić, jak to napisał jeden ze znakomitych duszpasterzy akademickich w Polsce, który był tutaj w Krakowie, u dominikanów, o. Tomasz Pawłowski. Napisał: „Siła przebicia”. Wiem, że ta „siła przebicia” bywa czasem rozumiana jako, powiedzmy, talent kombinowania, ale jest taka siła przebicia, która tkwi w człowieku i wynika z jego wartości, i wobec której wszyscy muszą zamilknąć. Jest taka siła, taka siła przebicia! i ja myślę, że już — ogólnie biorąc — jest klimat po temu, żeby ta siła przebicia, ten rodzaj siły przebicia przynosił skutki. Powiem jeszcze więcej, w tym rodzaju siły przebicia każdy z was musi być twórczy i musicie być wszyscy razem solidarni!" 

"Pamiętam, że kiedy byłem młody, tak jak wy, i czytałem Ewangelię, to dla mnie najsilniejszym argumentem za prawdziwością tego, co czytam, było to, że tam nie ma żadnej taniej obietnicy."

"To jest największy dar. To jest nieskończony dar — Eucharystia, Chrystus. Jednocześnie jest to dar najgłębiej zobowiązujący i na tym polega jego siła kreatywna, przez to on buduje człowieka, buduje człowieczeństwo nasze, przez co nam daje tę siłę przebicia. Bo tak jest skonstruowany człowiek. Człowiek jest mocny, mocny świadomością celów, świadomością zadań, świadomością powinności, a także i świadomością tego, że jest miłowany. Dlatego żebym się mógł przebić, muszę mieć pewność, że jestem miłowany."

"Eucharystia to jest przede wszystkim ta świadomość: jestem miłowany, ja jestem miłowany. Ja, taki jaki jestem. Każdy w swoim najbardziej indywidualnym człowieczeństwie. Miłuje mnie, „umiłował mnie i wydał samego siebie” — jak napisał św. Paweł. Umiłował mnie, Pawła. A on wiedział, jakie miał długi w stosunku do Tego, który go umiłował. Każdy z nas może to o sobie powtórzyć, każdy z nas się może w podobny sposób rozliczyć, mówiąc: „umiłował mnie”. Powiedziałbym, że ta „siła przebicia”, która tak bardzo jest wam potrzebna, zaczyna się od tej świadomości, że mnie umiłował. Jeżeli mnie ktoś miłuje, jestem silny."

"Bóg zaryzykował — ośmielę się powiedzieć — zaryzykował wolność w stosunku do swoich stworzeń, w stosunku do ludzi tu na ziemi, zapłacił za to i to potwierdziło wymiar wolności człowieka w niesamowity sposób, właśnie to, że Bóg za wolność nadużytą przez człowieka zapłacił. To właśnie znaczy: „Do końca umiłował”."

Źródło: http://mateusz.pl/jp99/pp/1987/pp19870610f.htm

Saturday 11 July 2015

Chicago - you don't treat me bad

Some formalities require you to go here and there. I really got used to that and don't complain about it at all. What's more, I still have my stylish blue forder which was given to me in Denmark and keep all my important documents there. This time a Social Security Number (SSN) was to be received. There are two offices near the Hyde Park district, but first one is highly discouraged as a travel destination because it's situated in a rather dangerous or dodgy area which is to the south of UChicago. The other one is in the downtown so I decided to kill two birds with one stone. Apart from running the errand, I resolved to show myself around and visit a couple of the most famous places in Chicago. I left my office after 2 pm and went back to my dormitory to grab some documents and then headed for the nearest bus stop. The first transportation came and there was almost a crowd trying to get on the bus. I wasn't lucky and didn't want to elbow my way through the large assembly. A driver indicated clearly and decidedly that he would not have provided the service if the vision on his left hand side had not been purified. Unfortunately, this was me and another guy standing there. I made puppy eyes but the driver was rock-steady. Although I knew that it was rather the last bus which could have delivered me to the Social Security Administration office on time, I did get off and decided to wait for the next one. The other guy also disembarked and joined me there in my waiting. He was the first one to comment on the whole situation noticing fairly that only he and I had been stranding there. The conversation commenced and it wasn't a chit-chat but the whole experience which made my day. His name was Nicholas. At the very beginning he wanted to borrow two bits (or a meter or a quarter of a dollar) for a ticket and I happily agreed to help my companion. His ventra (fare payment) card did not work in the ill-fated bus. Interestingly enough, the card worked fine in the next, this time almost empty, bus. We got on and off we went. There was a traffic jam on our way so I was running late ... at the end missed the deadline (4 pm) and didn't apply for my SSN. However, I found consolation in the conversation with my new friend. He was visiting his girlfriend in Chicago and was a graduate student from Caltech. It reminded me about the good old days and the Erasmus Program at DTU where I met a few people from the university in Pasadena. Nicholas is studying mechanical engineering but he writes code on a daily basis. Having established this common ground, we were talking about all of the things for hours and at the same time visiting many interesting places in the downtown. We started off from italian cappuccino, then went for gelato in Eataly which is a super fancy conglomerate of italian restaurants. Finally, we went to the signature room at the 95th. The view was stunning and my chocolate mousse cake was delicious. From John Hancock Center we went to Marciano's restaurant for dinner and Nicholas' girlfriend waited there for us. After that we attended concert in the Millennium Park (Grant Park music festival - a Sondheim celebration) . Finally, we turned the tune upside down and went for a sort of hanging out event in the wit hotel. I was shattered when we were going back to Hyde Park but enriched with the experience. All in all, Nicholas made my day and it was the unforgettable one.


Tuesday 7 July 2015

Chicago


There are some dreams in your life and you want to make them come true. I really wanted to come to the US and here I am. I made it in to town no problem! However, we tend to omit the real life experience when considering our future. So, let me present to you some more down to earth details about the whole trip. I left home very early in the morning on Sunday. I love my parents and sisters very much and the moment my bus started heading for Warsaw, I was missing them. My best friend collected me at the bus station in Warsaw and took for a holy mass. Then, we ate delicious lunch and went to the airport. My American friends, whom I got to know at the Bible Talks, met with me at the airport and we were talking only for a few minutes since I had to check in. The boarding lasted about 1 hour and after that I survived the longest flight in my life - about 9 hours. We were flying over Sweden, Norway, Island, Greenland and then Canada.

Greenland
When I reached Chicago, the first impression was that the city had rather a gloomy character with its brown roofs and straight streets.
bird's eye view of Chicago
My sister alight upon one thing that after leaving in Switzerland for about 1.5 years in total, probably any other place would seem to be shabby for me. The interview at the airport was very short and everything went smoothly. Then I took the blue line metro to Chicago Loop (center) and then a red line to the Wrigley district. The place was at least dodgy. Probably, I watched too many American movies when I was a child but this was the time when I was a bit afraid of being robbed. I went to my hostel according to the directions given by Google maps but did not find it. I started asking people at the street for some help in finding the hostel but nobody heard about such a hostel.  Then I decided to ask a person standing in front of a door with small luggage. Bingo! This was the place that I was searching for. Fortunately, the place was well-secured which I checked on my own. It was a very hot night and I wanted to go out for a terrace. Once I opened the door, an alarm went off. I ran quickly to the reception desk and told them not to call the police. Uff, I was there on time. Having experienced all of that and being very sleepy (5 AM, time in Warsaw, GMT+2), I called it a day and hit the hay.
Chicago Loop