Telegraph

• finals week
• graduated
• helped my parents around in the U.S.
• cleaned out rachel’s apartment
• cleaned out my apartment
• loaded all our stuff in a 24ft truck
• drove down from Salt Lake City to Angleton, Texas in two days, in a 24ft truck
• got married
• went to Mexico on our honeymoon
• traveled to Switzerland
• started working

will it ever stop?

Good to know…

I’m glad this bank’s got it!!!

Goodbye My Love

My love,

I laid in bed crying, and thinking of you all day. After all these years with you, the time has come to say goodbye.

I want you to know that I have always loved you. You have given me so much – more than I ever could have dreamed of. Of course I disliked you at times, but I have always loved you.

You are the reason I came to America. Through you I found friends for life. Thanks to you I became who I am today.

I can’t believe that after 17 years of swimming I have completed my last practice, finished my last race, done my last stroke.

I am going to miss you.

Thank you for everything.

Wedding Announcement

Kermit and Lillie Licklider

together with

Giacinto and Mariateresa Ferraro

invite you to share in joyful
celebration at the marriage of

Rachel Licklider and Marco Ferraro

Saturday the eight of August
two thousand and nine at three o’clock in the afternoon

Heiliggeist Church
Basel, Switzerland

Dinner and Dance immediately following

Seegarten Park
Münchenstein, Switzerland

Beard

I’m growing out my beard until our conference meet in three weeks. I haven’t shaved since december 27. Looks great doesn’t it :-{>…

At North Texas

We’re about to race SMU and North Texas…

New Flashy Banknotes

The Swiss National Bank announced (a while ago) that they will replace the old series with a newer, flashier, even cooler series.

Interestingly enough the new notes will not feature any faces or famous, swiss sites. On the contrary the bank notes seem to be kept generic. The designer/creator Manuel Krebs however incorporated a very interesting idea. The higher the denominations of the notes get the “bigger” is the picture on the back.

To further explain… the 10 Franc depicts blood cells in the back, the 20 Franc note shows a human body, the 50 Franc note displays a rock mass, the 100 Franc note is a satellite view of the world, the 200 Franc note represents the solar system and finally the 1000 Franc note reveals some galaxy (I have no idea if that is accurate, I’m not big in astronomy).

I like them. Click here to see them all!

Follow-Up on Texas Trip [Update]

I had a great time with Rachel and her parents in Texas. I enjoyed the time off of school and the great company. Here are some pictures: Flickr Pictures

Ich habe ein paar Tage mit Rachel und ihren Eltern in Texas verbracht. Es war gut auszuschalten und die Zeit ohne Uni zu geniessen. Hier geht’s zu den Bildern: Flickr Pictures

UPDATE: Here are some more pictures! Click me

The Nature of Anger

By Marco Ferraro
Honors 2101: Intellectual Traditions I:
Antiquity and the Beginning of the Common Era
Spring 2008
Professor Eric Hutton

Over the course of the past fifteen weeks, we have been reading several texts starting with ancient Greek mythology up to modern day treatise of anger. Two of the more prominent authors we have covered are Aristotle and Seneca, each drastically different from the other in their notion toward anger on the surface. Aristotle also describes anger as a virtuous emotion, whereas Seneca would like to see anger eradicated. However, when analyzed further, the differences between the two are rooted in the nature of anger. Aristotle is convinced that anger is a natural element of the soul, while Seneca disagrees and dismisses anger as unnatural.
The definition for anger given by Aristotle is as follows: “A desire accompanied by pain, for a conspicuous revenge for a conspicuous slight at the hands of men who have no call to slight oneself or one’s friends” (Rhetoric 1378a30). To this he adds that anger should always be directed toward an individual and not toward ‘man’ in general. To Aristotle, anger is a tool of revenge that is triggered by painful desire. The definition he gives in chapter two of the second book of Rhetoric also includes a “conspicuous slight” or in other words, an obvious insult that has been brought upon somebody without obvious reason. Aristotle continues to give more detailed information on the different slighting methods. He distinguishes between contempt, spite and insolence. Each of the three having its own effect on the victim. Ultimately, anger originates from a disregard of somebody’s feelings or emotional state.

A sick man is angered by disregard of his illness, a poor man by disregard of his poverty, a man waging war by disregard of the war he is waging, a lover by disregard of his love, and so in other cases too. (Rhetoric 1379a19)

Thus, to Aristotle, every man has a predisposition to become angry, because every person may be disregarded in his most personal emotion. It can therefore be said that all men expect sympathy for his situation, but when an unexpected event occurs, anger is stirred.

What’s your favorite superpower?

If you could choose to have a superpower what would it be? I asked myself this exact question various times and after giving it some thought I have to say that it would come down to two choices:

1. Stopping Time. Being able to halt time in any situation is absolutely powerful. Imagine somebody fires a shoot at you. -Stop-. Step aside. -Go- And the bullet flies past you without any danger. This power would also be helpful to gain some extra hours to finish a school paper in time, or to rethink urgent matters that need a quick decision.
2. Teleport. How cool would that be? Imagine you’re in danger, but this time your enemy shows up with an atomic bomb strapped around his waist and is about to push the trigger that will turn your near surrounding into ashes and radioactive waste. -Zap-. Teleport to a beautiful island (like Hawaii) or a nearby planet. -Zip-. Somewhere out there somebody just wasted an atomic bomb. You could also use this power as means of transportation. Undoubtedly the most environmental means of travel.

I am still debating which one to choose… -Stop-