Even though I spoil the fun with a loud reaction, it still is worth seeing it.
Yamilet and Leonel, two of Pasion de Buena Vista's fantastic dancers pleasing the crowd at La Bodeguita del Medio in Skopje, Macedonia.
Una verdadera expresión del arte!
Apr 25, 2009
poetry in motion
a real treat for the eyes...
Apr 17, 2009
La pasión
It is asolutely wonderful when the every day life normality is "disturbed" by the awesomeness of the cuban music, the cuban rhythms and especially the cuban people...
I've had the tremendous luck to spend three days with the fantastic group of artists that go by the name La Pasión de Buena Vista (http://www.pasion-de-buena-vista.com/), detach myself completely from the Skopje reality and enjoy the presence of Cuba in my world.
I've had the tremendous luck to spend three days with the fantastic group of artists that go by the name La Pasión de Buena Vista (http://www.pasion-de-buena-vista.com/), detach myself completely from the Skopje reality and enjoy the presence of Cuba in my world.
Cari en una superpose!
Flor, la reina :-)
Flor, Yamilet, Cari y Mary... bailando en la Bodeguita del Medio, en Skopje, Macedonia.
Flor, Yamilet, Cari y Mary... bailando en la Bodeguita del Medio, en Skopje, Macedonia.
un post cortito... pero en castellano
... ya que mi vida en Girona se acabó, al menos ese capítulo, marcado por los estudios de postgrado en la UB, dejo estas palabras por aquí... Un post que fue creado en marzo de 2008, o sea hace más de un año...
Me parece raro que no escribo nada aquí en castellano, ya que toda mi vida cotidiana la llevo en este idioma (bueno, con alguna frase en catalán, pero como todavía no lo domino)...
Pues... un viernes nublado en Girona (lo que es curioso, porque este lugar tiene un número inmenso de días despejados, algo que a mí me encanta), mi mañana, como siempre, está "sazonada" con el sabor de café y el sonido de Radio 3, la mejor que he escuchado aquí.
...
Me quedé viendo mis últimos posts en este y en el otro blog, y pensé que ya era la hora que escribiera algo en castellano. Pero claro, como normalmente comparto ... lo que me está pasando aquí, con mis amigos en Skopje, pues casi todo me sale en macedonio.
...
Después de una semana de mucosidad totalmente fastidiosa, tos y estornudos super-frecuentes, ahora estoy mejor, y con todo el corazón esperando la primavera en Girona.
Estos días, he pasado mucho tiempo pensando en mi vida aquí... Este pueblo (lo siento, pero es un pueblo, no una ciudad) que hasta ahora ha sido como... casi-casa para mí... Como, hogar a medias...
Y como estoy en ese cruce en la vida donde me esperan unas cuantas decisiones bastante serias (y llamarlas bastante serias es quedarse corto), entre cuales, elegir dónde construir mi propia vida (sin llevarla "a medias"), pienso también en las cosillas que me gustan de este lugar. Cosillas que hacen que este lugar sea "casa", para mí.
El gimnasio (Gimnàs Girona) donde voy religiosamente, cada día, y que me ha cambiado la vida completamente... Los días de sol y la claridad de los días de sol (que suerte que los hay muchísimos)... el barrio viejo, que lo he explorado un montón de veces, y cada vez que doy un paseo por sus callejuelas pequeñitas, me conquista su carisma... La taverna vasca Lizarran, sus tapas, y su azabache - riquísimo... El "cinema Truffaut", me encanta... La cercanía del Mediterraneo... el pan florentina del horno que está en la ave. Sant Fransesc... los árboles de la Devesa...
Y hay más... Quién sabe, tal vez si me quedo aquí más tiempo, descubriré otros toquecitos que hacen este lugar especial...
M.
Pues... un viernes nublado en Girona (lo que es curioso, porque este lugar tiene un número inmenso de días despejados, algo que a mí me encanta), mi mañana, como siempre, está "sazonada" con el sabor de café y el sonido de Radio 3, la mejor que he escuchado aquí.
...
Me quedé viendo mis últimos posts en este y en el otro blog, y pensé que ya era la hora que escribiera algo en castellano. Pero claro, como normalmente comparto ... lo que me está pasando aquí, con mis amigos en Skopje, pues casi todo me sale en macedonio.
...
Después de una semana de mucosidad totalmente fastidiosa, tos y estornudos super-frecuentes, ahora estoy mejor, y con todo el corazón esperando la primavera en Girona.
Estos días, he pasado mucho tiempo pensando en mi vida aquí... Este pueblo (lo siento, pero es un pueblo, no una ciudad) que hasta ahora ha sido como... casi-casa para mí... Como, hogar a medias...
Y como estoy en ese cruce en la vida donde me esperan unas cuantas decisiones bastante serias (y llamarlas bastante serias es quedarse corto), entre cuales, elegir dónde construir mi propia vida (sin llevarla "a medias"), pienso también en las cosillas que me gustan de este lugar. Cosillas que hacen que este lugar sea "casa", para mí.
El gimnasio (Gimnàs Girona) donde voy religiosamente, cada día, y que me ha cambiado la vida completamente... Los días de sol y la claridad de los días de sol (que suerte que los hay muchísimos)... el barrio viejo, que lo he explorado un montón de veces, y cada vez que doy un paseo por sus callejuelas pequeñitas, me conquista su carisma... La taverna vasca Lizarran, sus tapas, y su azabache - riquísimo... El "cinema Truffaut", me encanta... La cercanía del Mediterraneo... el pan florentina del horno que está en la ave. Sant Fransesc... los árboles de la Devesa...
Y hay más... Quién sabe, tal vez si me quedo aquí más tiempo, descubriré otros toquecitos que hacen este lugar especial...
M.
the art of relaxing
one example: Saturday eve... First, a movie at Cinema Truffaut, one of my very favourite places in Girona. A cute little cinema, dedicated to the care and nourishment of non-commercial, artsy movies, that always has something intriguing to offer. Saturday's choice was the italian work called "La seconda notte di nozze"...Then, a preparation of a mojito followed (aaaah, that tasty, refreshing drink from the island of Cuba...mmmm, what a perfection)... and then, its consumption, after strategically assuming a comfy position on the couch. Delightful!
a tribute...
... to LIZARRAN, my fave place in Girona, where I have had many a drinks, tapas and good times.
:-)
:-)
Well, I am also very present in a community that is called Virtual Tourist (http://www.virtualtourist.com/), under the nickname of Malecka and in this community I have made some pages about places I have visited so far, or lived in. Great place to find even greater tips about... every aspect of traveling. To any part of the planet. Well, almost any.So... If you've seen my pages there, you'll know what Lizarran is...
If not... it is a Basque tavern located in the very cute Plaza Independencia, where tasty "pinchos" (Basque version of tapas) are served, some incredible white wine, called Txacoli (pronounced: cha-co-lee), and a fantastic red wine, called Azabache. Besides the extraordinary food&drinks, it has a cool atmosphere, nice music, and the people working behind (and in front of) the bar are very kind and make the whole atmosphere even more pleasant.
If not... it is a Basque tavern located in the very cute Plaza Independencia, where tasty "pinchos" (Basque version of tapas) are served, some incredible white wine, called Txacoli (pronounced: cha-co-lee), and a fantastic red wine, called Azabache. Besides the extraordinary food&drinks, it has a cool atmosphere, nice music, and the people working behind (and in front of) the bar are very kind and make the whole atmosphere even more pleasant.
Nov 11, 2008
Obama, elections, etc.
I came across this article on the very day the world was facing the end of ... very interesting elections in the "most powerful country" of the world. Now... don't get me wrong, I too am happy with the election of Barack Obama. In my own, modest, "not-a-US-citizen" kinda way. I mean, hello, he is not "completely white". (those who know me well enough are more than aware that I am far from a racist or give shit about skin colour or whatever) I am thrilled about that...
The thing is... I do not believe that the US foreign policy (and the general state of the world for that matter) depend heavily on the person elected as a president. So... that is why I am sharing this article with you. I read it on http://mediamonitors.net and really loved it, as sad as it may be.
American Election: An Illusion of Democracy
by Elias Akleh
(Tuesday, November 4, 2008)
by Elias Akleh
(Tuesday, November 4, 2008)
"The presidential salary of about $200,000 is compared nothing to the millions worth of bribes a president is promised to receive after office. Such bribes come in the form of easy job on the board of a large corporation with huge sum of salary, stock options, perks, privileges, and large payments for worthless one-hour speeches to some businessmen. One cannot help but wonder where a president’s loyalty go, to the people or to corporations?"
Once again, as it has been happening every four years, the American people are suckered into surrendering their necks to a different yoke of slavery through the process of so-called “democratic election” of their president. Little they know that this president, and his administration, is but a tool used by the power elite – international financiers, military industrialists, energy companies and corporatocracy – to control resources, transfer wealth upwards, keep the populace in check, enslave them, suppress their dissent, and conscribe them into wars of greed against their human neighbors. This power elite, with its handful financial institutions, had dominated most of the natural resources of the world through its control of the money needed to acquire these resources. A natural resources monopoly system was, thus, created in the US, and many parts of the world, based solely on capital gain and profit rather than the well being of human life.
This power elite has gained total control over the American government and its departments, and dictates its laws and its foreign policies. President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) stated the following:
“The bold efforts the present bank has made to control the government are but premonition of the fate that awaits the American people should they be deluded into perpetuation of this institution, or the establishment of another like it.”
Despite his warning the power elite succeeded in establishing central banks, that control and manipulate the money of their perspective countries, and to create the Federal Reserve Bank in the US; a nongovernmental privately owned financial institution that makes its own policies and is virtually under no regulation by the American government. It is a private bank that creates money out of thin air, not backed by precious metals, and loans it to the government at interest. It is the exact old British fraudulent central banking model the Americans sought to escape from when they declared independence in the American Revolutionary War. The Federal Reserve Bank controls, now, the American money supply, inflation, loans, and interest. In 1913 the then presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson, who agreed to sign the Federal Reserve Act in exchange for bankers’ financial campaign support, later wrote in regret:
“Our great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men, who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated government in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men.”
Congressman Louis McFadden expressed this enslaving Federal Reserve Act after its passage:
“A world banking system was being set up here … a super state controlled by international bankers … acting together to enslave the world for their own pleasure. The Fed has usurped the government.”
The Federal Reserve Bank had created a monetary system with built in defaults and bankruptcy that had become the bases of the American economy. Through increasing inflation, control of interest rates and perpetual debts the Federal Reserve Bank keeps the American public in inescapable indentured servitude. This is virtual slavery, where the American public spends all their lives paying the national debt that had reached, lately, trillions of Dollars. This American monetary society, where everything could be bought and sold, including the loyalties of politicians and presidents, is in direct opposition to true democracy.
Democracy is not served where the so-called “interest groups” determine who the president is. It has become obvious to more people the great effect the Israeli Lobby (AIPAC) has on determining who the American president is, and what foreign policy he adopts even though such policies harm the interest of the American people. This Israeli Lobby should be called by its real name; the Zionist Lobby, for politicians serving the interests of this lobby do not necessarily have to be Israelis or Jews as Vice President candidate Joe Biden put it: “I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist”. Zionism is just another name for a colonial movement, which started with “Biblical Moses”, who led the Israelites out of ancient Egypt to occupy Palestine and annihilate its indigenous people. Moses called Palestine the “Promised Land”. The first American settlers (occupiers), pressed by similar colonial system, had also called America the new “Promised Land” and had annihilated its indigenous people.
The road to the White House goes through this Zionist Israeli Lobby. At the podium of this lobby every candidate must pledge unconditional allegiance and service to Israel, a mercenary terrorist state adamant on annihilating the Palestinian Arabs after wiping Palestine off the map, continues to attack its neighboring Arab countries, and violates UN resolutions and international laws. Every candidate must visit Israel and pay homage to Israeli myths at Yad Vashem in order to receive the blessing of American Jewish financiers, who had fattened themselves on slaves trade, drug smuggling, money laundering, and exploitation of the American financial institutions.
Let us remember that this so-called great free and democratic United States was built on land occupation, annihilations of its indigenous populations, slavery of the African nations, and criminal laws legislated by a newer power elite, who wanted to free itself from the old European power elite. This new power elite – the so-called great American forefathers – created laws to divide the land among themselves, and to regulate the exploitive competition between its members, and not to serve the well being of common man. Let us not forget that those heroic forefathers were the rich, the land owners, the largest slave owners/traders, and the monopolizers of all trades. They needed a political system to protect their interests, and decided to have a chief (president) among them – the land owners – to head that political system. For fear of such chief using his political position to expand his wealth on the expense of other members they decided to limit his term to only four years, after which they chose (elect) a successor among them for the next four years. Later on, when people started protesting and moving against the oppressive laws of the president, the power elite decided that it is safer for them to install a nobody, a puppet, as president while they manipulate him from behind the curtains.
The keen observer can easily notice that during late decades the presidential candidates have been progressively less known to the public and with weak political positions due to lack of political experience. The 2008 candidates are clear examples of such observation with Obama and Palin as exceptional examples. Due to their short political careers people don’t really know the candidates’ real positions except what the power elite controlled media tell them. These candidates are propped up, re-imaged, and rhetorically trained to dance on the stage in front of people on the rhythm of offering them few crumbs while giving the fatty meat to the power elite. Carefully analyzing the agendas of candidates on both sides, one discovers the similarities of their goals although molded in different forms.
The presidential salary of about $200,000 is compared nothing to the millions worth of bribes a president is promised to receive after office. Such bribes come in the form of easy job on the board of a large corporation with huge sum of salary, stock options, perks, privileges, and large payments for worthless one-hour speeches to some businessmen. One cannot help but wonder where a president’s loyalty go, to the people or to corporations?
Republican or Democratic parties had been created and financed by power elite to create an illusion of variety, differences, and choice. A third party, like the one Ralph Nader called for, would never be allowed. Candidates are placed on the ballots because they are acceptable servants to the power elite, who control both parties and run the show. Candidates, who aspire to serve the well being of the people, are weed out by excluding them from financial support, from media access, and from presidential debates. Dennis Kucinich was one example of such weed out process.
Without money a presidential candidate could not sustain a fully employed campaign. Without money he could not advance his political agenda through travel and televised advertisement to reach the multitudes. A one minute television advertisement may cost millions of Dollars. Yet Obama had obtained enough money to pay for a 7 by 24 hours televised advertisement by the name of “Obama’s Plan for America”. I am sure he did not get that money through public donations. One wonders what conditions and promises Obama has to pay in return. The same can be said about McCain’s campaign. The American people are thrown into two streams, two parties; Republican and Democrats, built, sustained and controlled by the power elite. These two parties follow the same agenda; enslaving people and expanding monopoly over global natural resources. The occupier of the Oval Office is pre-determined, and the election process is manipulated and geared towards his winning. The last two elections were very clear examples of such a process. The Americans are left without any other choice. Due to self-preservation and ignorance the majority of the people are easily gained to one party or the other by empty promises and imaginary causes. One politician described the public as a soccer ball getting kicked from one direction to the other by political players. In such a game the peoples’ choices are easily misled. The worst form of slavery is the one where slaves believe they are free.
Once again, as it has been happening every four years, the American people are suckered into surrendering their necks to a different yoke of slavery through the process of so-called “democratic election” of their president. Little they know that this president, and his administration, is but a tool used by the power elite – international financiers, military industrialists, energy companies and corporatocracy – to control resources, transfer wealth upwards, keep the populace in check, enslave them, suppress their dissent, and conscribe them into wars of greed against their human neighbors. This power elite, with its handful financial institutions, had dominated most of the natural resources of the world through its control of the money needed to acquire these resources. A natural resources monopoly system was, thus, created in the US, and many parts of the world, based solely on capital gain and profit rather than the well being of human life.
This power elite has gained total control over the American government and its departments, and dictates its laws and its foreign policies. President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) stated the following:
“The bold efforts the present bank has made to control the government are but premonition of the fate that awaits the American people should they be deluded into perpetuation of this institution, or the establishment of another like it.”
Despite his warning the power elite succeeded in establishing central banks, that control and manipulate the money of their perspective countries, and to create the Federal Reserve Bank in the US; a nongovernmental privately owned financial institution that makes its own policies and is virtually under no regulation by the American government. It is a private bank that creates money out of thin air, not backed by precious metals, and loans it to the government at interest. It is the exact old British fraudulent central banking model the Americans sought to escape from when they declared independence in the American Revolutionary War. The Federal Reserve Bank controls, now, the American money supply, inflation, loans, and interest. In 1913 the then presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson, who agreed to sign the Federal Reserve Act in exchange for bankers’ financial campaign support, later wrote in regret:
“Our great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men, who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated government in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of small groups of dominant men.”
Congressman Louis McFadden expressed this enslaving Federal Reserve Act after its passage:
“A world banking system was being set up here … a super state controlled by international bankers … acting together to enslave the world for their own pleasure. The Fed has usurped the government.”
The Federal Reserve Bank had created a monetary system with built in defaults and bankruptcy that had become the bases of the American economy. Through increasing inflation, control of interest rates and perpetual debts the Federal Reserve Bank keeps the American public in inescapable indentured servitude. This is virtual slavery, where the American public spends all their lives paying the national debt that had reached, lately, trillions of Dollars. This American monetary society, where everything could be bought and sold, including the loyalties of politicians and presidents, is in direct opposition to true democracy.
Democracy is not served where the so-called “interest groups” determine who the president is. It has become obvious to more people the great effect the Israeli Lobby (AIPAC) has on determining who the American president is, and what foreign policy he adopts even though such policies harm the interest of the American people. This Israeli Lobby should be called by its real name; the Zionist Lobby, for politicians serving the interests of this lobby do not necessarily have to be Israelis or Jews as Vice President candidate Joe Biden put it: “I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist”. Zionism is just another name for a colonial movement, which started with “Biblical Moses”, who led the Israelites out of ancient Egypt to occupy Palestine and annihilate its indigenous people. Moses called Palestine the “Promised Land”. The first American settlers (occupiers), pressed by similar colonial system, had also called America the new “Promised Land” and had annihilated its indigenous people.
The road to the White House goes through this Zionist Israeli Lobby. At the podium of this lobby every candidate must pledge unconditional allegiance and service to Israel, a mercenary terrorist state adamant on annihilating the Palestinian Arabs after wiping Palestine off the map, continues to attack its neighboring Arab countries, and violates UN resolutions and international laws. Every candidate must visit Israel and pay homage to Israeli myths at Yad Vashem in order to receive the blessing of American Jewish financiers, who had fattened themselves on slaves trade, drug smuggling, money laundering, and exploitation of the American financial institutions.
Let us remember that this so-called great free and democratic United States was built on land occupation, annihilations of its indigenous populations, slavery of the African nations, and criminal laws legislated by a newer power elite, who wanted to free itself from the old European power elite. This new power elite – the so-called great American forefathers – created laws to divide the land among themselves, and to regulate the exploitive competition between its members, and not to serve the well being of common man. Let us not forget that those heroic forefathers were the rich, the land owners, the largest slave owners/traders, and the monopolizers of all trades. They needed a political system to protect their interests, and decided to have a chief (president) among them – the land owners – to head that political system. For fear of such chief using his political position to expand his wealth on the expense of other members they decided to limit his term to only four years, after which they chose (elect) a successor among them for the next four years. Later on, when people started protesting and moving against the oppressive laws of the president, the power elite decided that it is safer for them to install a nobody, a puppet, as president while they manipulate him from behind the curtains.
The keen observer can easily notice that during late decades the presidential candidates have been progressively less known to the public and with weak political positions due to lack of political experience. The 2008 candidates are clear examples of such observation with Obama and Palin as exceptional examples. Due to their short political careers people don’t really know the candidates’ real positions except what the power elite controlled media tell them. These candidates are propped up, re-imaged, and rhetorically trained to dance on the stage in front of people on the rhythm of offering them few crumbs while giving the fatty meat to the power elite. Carefully analyzing the agendas of candidates on both sides, one discovers the similarities of their goals although molded in different forms.
The presidential salary of about $200,000 is compared nothing to the millions worth of bribes a president is promised to receive after office. Such bribes come in the form of easy job on the board of a large corporation with huge sum of salary, stock options, perks, privileges, and large payments for worthless one-hour speeches to some businessmen. One cannot help but wonder where a president’s loyalty go, to the people or to corporations?
Republican or Democratic parties had been created and financed by power elite to create an illusion of variety, differences, and choice. A third party, like the one Ralph Nader called for, would never be allowed. Candidates are placed on the ballots because they are acceptable servants to the power elite, who control both parties and run the show. Candidates, who aspire to serve the well being of the people, are weed out by excluding them from financial support, from media access, and from presidential debates. Dennis Kucinich was one example of such weed out process.
Without money a presidential candidate could not sustain a fully employed campaign. Without money he could not advance his political agenda through travel and televised advertisement to reach the multitudes. A one minute television advertisement may cost millions of Dollars. Yet Obama had obtained enough money to pay for a 7 by 24 hours televised advertisement by the name of “Obama’s Plan for America”. I am sure he did not get that money through public donations. One wonders what conditions and promises Obama has to pay in return. The same can be said about McCain’s campaign. The American people are thrown into two streams, two parties; Republican and Democrats, built, sustained and controlled by the power elite. These two parties follow the same agenda; enslaving people and expanding monopoly over global natural resources. The occupier of the Oval Office is pre-determined, and the election process is manipulated and geared towards his winning. The last two elections were very clear examples of such a process. The Americans are left without any other choice. Due to self-preservation and ignorance the majority of the people are easily gained to one party or the other by empty promises and imaginary causes. One politician described the public as a soccer ball getting kicked from one direction to the other by political players. In such a game the peoples’ choices are easily misled. The worst form of slavery is the one where slaves believe they are free.
Jun 11, 2008
Дарко страјкс агеин
Што да коментирам... комбинацијата од перцепцијата и вештата рака на Дарко, супериорноста на Nikon D300 и неисцрпноста на моите гримаси си го направија своето.
:-)
повторна средба со Виена
И тоа после седум години... И тоа баш на самиот почеток на лудилото наречено „европско фудбалско првенство“... И тоа баш на враќање од Скопје во Жирона, едно интермецо со аристократска арома на виенски меланж испиен со доза пријателски муабет што секогаш, ама секогаш, е најдобредојдена... И тоа баш во еден пријатно топол јунски ден, со сино небо и понекое облаче...
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Apr 22, 2008
personalized addiction
Ten days ago, my dear friend, my fifth limb, my intimate companion, VAIO decided to terminate our relationship. I realize it is not entirely VAIO's fault - the age, the use and the inevitability of the system failure must've played their part - but it still kills me...
So now, being pc-less and having to use another person's computer (and mind you, with a limited access to internet and all of the wonders of the ict world), it hits me, yet again, how pathetically dependent I am... How addicted I have become to this thing called information and communication technology.
And you know what else?! It is so clear to me that... the "personal" part of "personal computer" has reached some freakishly personal levels. I mean... the very keyboards... the inclination of my fingers while typing, the pressure of my fingertips while typing, even the structure of my own vocab which uses certain words more than other, and thus certain letters more than others, have had its impact and so... some letters indicated on the keyboards have already lost some of the colour. And some keys have this... shiny effect, because I constantly press them on the exact same spot.
Then, there is the whole concept of personalization... the background of the desktop (yes, I always put a photo, capturing a dear, heart-warming memory that soothes the soul when looked at), the colour of the messenger window, the emoticons I have added... The way the hard disc is organized, the way my folders are organized. The designation of the location for the specific photos, documents, downloads... the bookmarks (oh, how I miss those, and I had different ones for firefox and for explorer)... the choice of four languages when it comes to the language support (english UK, english us, macedonian, spanish)... the cleanness of my desktop (only the necessary shortcuts were present)...
I'm guessing you get the picture...
Oh, farewell my friend... will miss you...
So now, being pc-less and having to use another person's computer (and mind you, with a limited access to internet and all of the wonders of the ict world), it hits me, yet again, how pathetically dependent I am... How addicted I have become to this thing called information and communication technology.
And you know what else?! It is so clear to me that... the "personal" part of "personal computer" has reached some freakishly personal levels. I mean... the very keyboards... the inclination of my fingers while typing, the pressure of my fingertips while typing, even the structure of my own vocab which uses certain words more than other, and thus certain letters more than others, have had its impact and so... some letters indicated on the keyboards have already lost some of the colour. And some keys have this... shiny effect, because I constantly press them on the exact same spot.
Then, there is the whole concept of personalization... the background of the desktop (yes, I always put a photo, capturing a dear, heart-warming memory that soothes the soul when looked at), the colour of the messenger window, the emoticons I have added... The way the hard disc is organized, the way my folders are organized. The designation of the location for the specific photos, documents, downloads... the bookmarks (oh, how I miss those, and I had different ones for firefox and for explorer)... the choice of four languages when it comes to the language support (english UK, english us, macedonian, spanish)... the cleanness of my desktop (only the necessary shortcuts were present)...
I'm guessing you get the picture...
Oh, farewell my friend... will miss you...
Jan 29, 2008
at the end of the beginning
If we consider the first month of the year a beginning, then... writing at this point (just a couple of days before the very end of January), makes the title of this post logical.
...
Every single december 31st (ok, in the last... say, 12 years) I think of a message that is cleverly synthesised in those recognizible lines:
All is quiet on New Year's Day...
Nothing changes on New Year's Day...
Ok, it is very understandable why that particular change of the date implies a ... chance to start a new, a chance to give yourself a new beginning, turn a new page, have a fresh start, etc... (add any saying, more or less popular, that I haven't), and therefore gives us (I guess all of us) the sensation that something new is about to start. I get that. And in a way I do accept it.
But, I am not that crazy about the actual date change, or celebrating the arrival of yet another year.
And the main reason why is... well, because it only reminds me how fast time goes by. Something I very much dislike. To be honest, I dare go so far as to say that it scares me. It even petrifies me.
Mostly because it appears that I am a character that wants everything, all at once, and I love life and I think no opportunity should be missed and... every single moment ought to be lived to the most, so inevitably, realizing that 2008 has begun, and only one moth before it arrived I turned 28 (which means I will very soon complete my third decade on this Planet), I ask myself what have I done? What have I filled my days with?...
The majority of people are said to have a so-called midlife crisis (though it is debatable how mid-life is defined), or let's say... a time when they take a closer (and a more profound) look back at everything that has been a part of their so-called life, up to a specific moment in that life, and have a... either a more pleasant, or a less pleasant, reaction upon the realization of the truth. Given that they are open and honest enough with themselves to actually admit the truth.
...
Well, I have that... every time the date changes and marks an official ending of a... certain time-period. Whether it's a calendar year, an academic year, or (the worst case) a year of my life.
So it usually is quite exhausting for me to "emit" cheerfulness and positivity during this time. And on the other hand, I'd rather spare the close ones from my philosophical reflections during a time that is, in fact, very joyous for them. And kill the whole "it's New Year, a fresh start" experience.
Anyways...
this last december 31st I was actually in a very hyped-up mood, because I was supposed to go to Barcelona airport and meet my mom and dad, and spend the following three weeks in their wonderful company. So, by default my 2007 was going to end phenomenally and 2008 was to have a smashing beginning. (As it did)
Those three weeks were as splendid as expected, and are now over.
So, this "end of the beginning" of 2008 has made me face (yet again) two sad and very confusing sensations: 1. The whole visit happened months ago and is getting lost in the foggyness of everything that the everyday life brings on; 2. They haven't even got here, because it is absolutely impossible that 20 days go by so fast...
As Mr. Hopkins' character (Bill Parish) so concisely (and realistically) puts it: 65 years... don't they go by in a blink?
What does that make a meer 20-day period...
I knew that getting back to normal would be hard, mostly because being close to my mom and dad, and sharing with them the everyday trivialities that make life... well, LIFE, made me think about how my life is, and how I would prefer it to be, and ... what trivialities I would very much like to fill those time instances we call days.
A state of mind I have had to deal with before. On several occasions. Anyways...
Having in mind that 2008 will be the year when my postgraduate studies will have their crowning moment and my own carefully crafted piece of work, called thesis, will see the light of the day, it is enough to make this year... something to look forward to.
Dec 1, 2007
birthday... vol. 2
A nice, cosy celebration at the Creperie Bretonne, and a giant slice of home-made french cake...
:-) So that I have a ... delicious year!
:-) So that I have a ... delicious year!
Nov 30, 2007
birthday... роденден
the last day of november happens to be the day when I was born. So... don't have a lot to say really, I am not a fan of getting older... but on the other hand, I am a fan of... celebrating the day when my journey on this planet began. So...
To all the great days (and nights) to come! And to be shared with close friends and loved ones.
Cheers.
M.
To all the great days (and nights) to come! And to be shared with close friends and loved ones.
Cheers.
M.
Oct 7, 2007
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