“There is an old Cherokee story about a grandfather who is teaching his grandson about life. He says to his grandson, ‘A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil; he is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and superiority. The other is good; he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, generosity, and compassion. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.’
The grandson thinks about this for a minute and then asks his grandfather, ‘Which wolf will win?’
The old Cherokee simply replies, ‘The one we feed.’”
Since the death of our beloved husky named Candy my parents had been reluctant to buy a new dog for almost half a year. They finally recovered three or four month ago and googled for a dog of some other breed. They wanted a fun-loving, kids-friendly dog that would not stink and shed hair. The search took a while.
Then one day I received this photo and a short message from mother: "That's our future dog's dad. Do you like it?" Of course, I do. It is cute, fluffy and will make my parents happy. Besides, according to Wikipedia Great Japanese Dogs are clean and odorless. They are very devoted and gentle with its owners and usually do not show affection on an outsider.
Dog-breeders say that a typical pet Akita (another name of great japanese dog) will follow you from room to room, yet has the uncanny ability not to be underfoot. Your Akita lives his life as if his only purpose is to protect you and spend time with you.
Having received my official approvalthe parents are now looking for our future dog's mom.So all we have to do is to find a mom, to make the future dad and the future mom date, wait for several months and the dog is ours.Piece of cake!
1. If you could time travel back in time or forward in time for an afternoon of hanging out and chatting, what time period would you visit and who would you visit with?
If I could travel in time I'd go to Ancient Rome to talk to Marcus Tullius Cicero, because he was interested in philosophy as much as I do, and because his ideas may be applied nowadays.
2.You are going to be given one superpower.What do you want and why?
An ability to shift to anyplace anytime, because traffic-jams and many cases of emergency require travelling at speed of light.
3.You are housesitting for a friend and you are far from the store.As you open the pantry or fridge, what five items do you hope is stocked there for you?
There is always flour, eggs, milk/ yoghurt, a lot of dark chocolate and some "kitty cat", so I can always bake a cake.
4.If you were able to magically change careers now and be transformed into a wildly successfuland fully trained anything-other-than-a-teacher...What would you be?
I would be an interpreter working at international conferences or on some super-secret projects of Ministry of Defence. I've been dreaming of that kind of work since childhood, as I was and still am a fan of spy movies and world military history. Besides, I once worked for an aviation company. I translated a lot of working drawings, articles, lectures and meetings. Aviation thrilled me. I even learnt how to fly and how to do some minor repair job. The experience I'd never forget.
5. What is your favorite vacation you have ever been on?
Three years ago I travelled to Italy on vacations. I went to Rome, Venice, Napoli and Florence. Florence appealed to me most. I loved walking tiny streets, smelling leather, dining at small cafes and chatting away with locals.These were lovely days.
And now the rules for this little meme, which is a challenging one by the way cos you just don’t know what’s coming your way.
If you want to participate…
1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.” 2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. (I get to pick the questions). 3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions. 4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. 5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
The bad day turned into an okay day yesterday, as I broke a cup, cut a finger, had a headache and watched BBC film "Murder in Rome". The film inspired me to wonder about the purpose of my life, which was definetly not doing the job I'm busy with now. So when the boss reached the office today and officially fired me I kept calm.
This week is officially my last one here. So far so good.
"Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it." ~Henry David Thoreau
The 81st Annual Academy Awards is on the 22nd of February and I'm overexcited, because one of my favourite actresses Melissa Leo has finally got nominated as Actress In A Leading Role.
She plays Ray Eddy, an impoverished mother who becomes involved in a smuggling ring in an attempt to avoid losing her home. The film is called "Frozen River".
That is Melissa Leo's first Academy Award nomination and I'll keep my fingers crossed for her.
Melissa has been acting for more than 25 years. She started as actor's actor and never became really famous. Most of her roles were and still are supporting or bit parts, and she merges into each and every of them really well.
In the 90ies Melissa performed wonderfully in "Homicide: Life On The Streets" as Sgt. Kay Howard. I remeber watching the pilot. That beautiful detective looked up from the papers and said to a newbie "Homicide, we work for God". There was something in her voice that got to me and kept me glued to the tv-show for years. Homicide detectives worked for God, as the God himself was too smart to come 'round Baltimore streets.
Later she took part in "21 Gram", one mesmerizing movie. That was a story of four gentle persons, who would be brought together by a terrible accident that would change their lives. By the final frame, none of them would be the same as they would learn harsh truths about love, faith, courage, desire and guilt, and how chance could change their worlds irretrievably, forever. Melissa's performance was stunning in this movie, and once more I exclaimed that she should be nominated for Best Actress.
I’ve recently laid my hands on a copy of “Woodstock”, the Academy-Award-winning documentary about the first rock festival ever. The press called it “Disastrous Zone” while these were three days of Peace and Music. I’ve never seen a crowd that huge, which managed to get along and behave themselves so well.
The documentary covered all aspects of the event. It interviewed the kids around to find out the cause of their arrival. Some of them wanted to get answers to their lives in music, which seems very weird to me. Music may heal soul, inspire vigour, reflect emotional states, but it is hardly able to give answers to where the road of life is going to. The other young people came to hang around and become a part of whatever it was going to be. Finally, there were people who actually paid for the concert and intended to listen to the music.
Janis Joplin, the Who, Joe Cocker, Santana (to name a few) performed at the festival. They were skinny kids themselves, filled with right ideas, radiating energy and love. It was an amazing gig to watch even on a dvd.
The documentary took me back to college years, when I attended an event of the same sort for the first and the last time. The rock festival I went to was far less peaceful: the kids were rather aggressive after hours of rock music and bottles of beer. It was rainy and the kids dirt-bathed. I remember sweaty and smelly bodies around singing rather well to the bands on the stage. I remember the music affecting me more than any drug exist, I was stoned with rock power. The festival was the most disgusting and the most thrilling experience ever.
I wish I had been at Woodstock festival rather than at the local one.
I loaded my blogger "Reading list" and that was what I read:
I am following a lot of blogs! Is it some current error? Won't I be able to read blogger-friends' updates on my Blogger Dashboard any longer? Or am I just stupid and have to press some button somewhere to see your recent posts again?
The boss called yesterday morning from abroad, reprimanded me for not managing the job (Huh? Which job?) and promised to organise a meeting on Monday for a decision to be announced. I got the feeling that the decision would be my dismissal.
So I'm about to leave the so-much-hated job (or shall I say: to be fired). Whatever it is called I may be out in the streets on Monday, which is unpleasant, because the job search I started in November still hasn't yielded any positive result yet. To top it off I got in a traffic accident.
So I 'm off to try a supernew diet and wash sorrow and pity down with good ol' JD.
Feel free to copy the following to your blog and spread the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again! WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2009
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd.
RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in cyberspace than I could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.
Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers.
Thank you, Reya, for beginning what is now an annual event. And thanks to Moonroot for spreading the word. I'm in.
Coming back from a holiday is never cool, because I start missing the place the moment I leave for home. The recent trip is no exception.
When the equipment was cased and the suitcase packed I went out into the sunlit courtyard to say farewell to the picturesque mountains that had served me a home for two weeks. I never had such wrench and had never been so reluctant to leave. I was watching the vault of blue skies, the might of the the tall snowy gorge, the elegance of centuries-old pinetrees and was eager to become a part of them. Unfortunately, it was not going to happen... yet.
Later that day I arrived home down and depressed, as in my mind I was still up there skiing. I could still see snow-white slopes instead of brownish city slush and smell crystal air instead of exhaust gas. I craved so much for flying back!
Monday was a blur. So was Tuesday. I feel much better now and learn to love the dirty and smelly city again. Have to be back to normal by the end of the week.
I've recently read two wonderful novels written by New York Times bestselling authours. They are "Playing For Pizza" and "Darkfever". Both books impressed me a lot, as one of them is lovely and romantic, while another one is dark and shocking.
“Playing For Pizza” is a lovely light-hearted novel by John Grisham tells a story of a third-string quarterback Rick Dockery who screwed up at an important match and was dismissed from the National Football League. However Rick was not going to give up and made his agent to find him any team that might want him. Against enormous odds the agent eventually found such a team and Rick set off to a lovely city of Parma (Italy) to play for the Parma Panthers. There Rick fell in love with all things Italian and made a journey from an egotistical past, to a true desire and passion towards the sport he loves.
The novel is a wonderful read about building up a character, football, food and love.
I’m a fan of Italy myself. I’ve travelled there a lot and grew to love open-hearted Italians, fancy architecture, cosy villages, delicious meals and wine.
"Darkfever" in a shadowy novel that verges on the paranormal world of myths and legends and the real world, which most people are used to. It tells a tale of a perfectly ordinary twenty-first-century woman MacKayla Lane. Or so she thought…until something extraordinary happened. When her sister was murdered, leaving a single clue to her death–a cryptic message on Mac’s cell phone–Mac journeyed to Ireland in search of answers. As Mac delved deeper into the mystery of her sister’s death, her every move was shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future.
The series was called “A seductive mix of Celtic mythology and dark, sexy danger” by Chicago Tribune and that's what it is. If you like dark fantasies, you won't be dissapointed.
To me the main disadvantage of the novel is an absence of an end. The novel is over at some crusial point, and right after it comes the first chapter of the second book called "Bloodfever". "Bloodfever"ends with the first chapter of the third book "Faefever" , and a little voice in my head is saying that there'll be more 'fever" of some sort.
Anyway, the two novels are perfectly written and you'll enjoy them to the full.
The past two weeks were filled with extreme adventures and passion. It never occured to me that I may develop a crash on mountain skiing so fast.
The moment I slided down the mount for the first time I was hooked. It took two days to gain some paramount skills, and on the third day the cable-way lifted me to the height of 4700 metres and the adventures began.
I was so agitated and scared that had to pluck up courage for several minutes to ski down the narrow route in the teeth of the wind. There was a cliff to the left of me and a steep to the right, which left me with a metre-wide skitrack. Scary. Reckless. Wild.
I was sking downthe Elbrus for almost four hours, while the descending normally takes maximum 30 minutes. The stress was immence and the next day was spent on lying around and walking.
The walk brought me to a lovely cafe at the foot of the Mount Cheget, where I met a man of my dreams. Together we stayed till the day I left. We went skiing all day and danced all night. We shared our life stories and believed we'd live forever.
It was a lovely winter romance with a man of my dreams and mountain skiing. I'm still not sure which I love most. Time will show.
“There is an old Cherokee story about a grandfather who is teaching his grandson about life. He says to his grandson, ‘A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One is evil; he is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, and superiority. The other is good; he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, generosity, and compassion. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too.’
