This is an unconventional book reflecting various aspects of the author's professional and personal life.

The first part is a concise introduction to some basic concepts of stochastics: probability, distributions, statistical estimates, hypothesis testing (Neyman-Pearson lemma, chi-square test), chanel capacity, genetic optimization, and dynamical systems.

The second part contains footnotes, which further explore and deepen the presented ideas. Still no preliminary background is expected, and the main goal is not to hoard knowledge but to propose an approach to stochastics. The author encourages the reader to perform computer experiments, for he is convinced that without developing and observing random processes theory remains sterile.

An unpublished sketch opens the third part. It was written forty years ago as a playful introduction to stochastics and has become the seed of the book. An autobibliography follows with personal reminescences and some contemporary topics discussed in seminars. In the last chapters the author gradually merges science and life --  the family appears. The book ends with an extended obituary of the time's greatest Hungarian poet, Ottó Orbán, who died during the writing of the book. The last lines are accordingly borrowed from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.