Jun 30, 2008

32 bottles of beer on the wall

whadda...

this stupid thing got fucked up again.

Dear people, may this be the éesson to all: You must never hire assholes to deal with computers. The motherfuckers working at this company fucked up again the Internet. No blogger, no Facebook, no youtube...I was wondering why every once in a while they go like this. Do geeks have a period? Well, it seems it's more a matter of "licenses". The Licenses go void, and so for a few days you are free until they pay the new licenses again. THEN they take revenge and forbid access to sites like the ITU's site. Oh yeah, because "Telecommunication standards" are so obscene!!!! Why isn't stupidity a deadly desease? It would be so much better if people would just drop dead from being stupid... Okay, a lot of countries would have no Government, BUT it wouldn't be that bad.

Stupid people are a nuisance that must be avoided. Stupid people with power are a migraine.
--
« Every schilling you save puts a man out of Work for a Day. »
- John Maynard Keynes

Jun 29, 2008

Happy Birthday To Me

This is some way to celebrate my birthday. It's been a whole week-n-some drinking EVERYDAY. And when I say everyday, I mean EVERYDAY. Beer, beer, beer, beer, Smirnoff ICE, beer, beer, Shota Draco, beer... I have a new beer glass too. Went out on Saturday with Shimmy Gin and we went to this super cool place at this mall we always go (elitists of us, we only go to VIP movies, you mind, where I can drink more beer), and we were looking at this incredible collection of designer glasses, all of them imported from--------

Shit, this entry got trunkated. so sorry, I can't continue it.

Jun 27, 2008

Cat Ate Your Tongue?

My, my, my. Don't tell me you have been left speechless?

*phonecall*

I guess not. Fuck. Do I need a recorder?

Two hours later.

Oh, so face-to-face is better for you? My... why can't I just tell you in your face to do your own work? Stop pestering me with YOUR stuff. Fuck, have some shame, and do your own things! I know I'm the Mastermind, the Brain, the « THINK » in ThinkPad... but this ain't IBM, it's HP. Really. In its common meanings. My lateste test results somewhat give me hope. Maybe I'm the problem. Maybe you are stupid because I see you as so, not because you are. I wish so hard it's all in my head, so I can take a pill to fix it. It's better to fix my head, that fixing this generalized idiocy.

Went to the company doc, and he refused to give me happy pills. As a matter of fact, he was trying to take away my Clonazepam.

"You shall take Prozac when you feel like crying."

This man is idiot.

"Prozac has no effect on me. " Note to self: remember why I need my Prozac for... "It did, but it doesn't anymore. Clonazepam helps me."
"Clonazepam gets you depressed. You should not take that."
"No, clonazepam and all benzodiazepines make me feel great."
"Those are not for treating depression, but anxiety."
"And I have anxiety. It's right there, in my test results. I'm not depressive, I'm anxious."
"No, no... Clonazepan will make you depressed."
"Doc, if that feeling is what you call depressed, I want to be depressed every day! It's a great feeling! I feel relaxed, cool, no worries!"
"But after that you feel depressed."
"I have never felt depressed after my benzodiazepines."
"You do."
"Doc, who is the one taking those pills?"

Impressive. He wishes to tell me how do I feel? Like he knows? There goes understanding. Fuck. No sicj days either. I've got only an EKG for next week. I feel cheated.

Jun 26, 2008

Questions of History

  1. How could the Turks go so far in the times of the Ottoman Invasion?
  2. What made them invincible?
  3. How could children from the conquered lands become jannisaries?
  4. How did they convinced Prince Radu the Handsome, brother of the Infamous Dracula, to yield to the advances of Sultan Mehmed II?

No idea. These Turks must be very cunning....

^_^

« Touch »


When your heart dictates the moment
And the room feels like you own it

And all you see is for the asking
But just one look is all you're after
It opens a whole new world

It's not what you're saying
But it's everything you do

It drives me crazy

And it's all because of you


Slide over here
Skin against skin

Melt into me

Forget where you begin yeah

Cause everyone needs a touch
Everyone needs a touch

You're like a desert
I'm like rain

I poor down you soak me in


It's amazing

It's just like a new horizon
Somehow you make me
Feel just like I'm flying


Slide over here
Skin against skin

Melt into me

Forget where you begin yeah

Cause everyone needs a touch

Cause everyone needs a touch


No matter who you are or where you're from
Somewhere down the road gonna nee someone yeah

Cause everyone needs a touch

Everyone needs a touch


Wearing nothing but the summer breeze

Baby doing what comes naturally

Doing what comes naturally


Slide over here

Skin against skin

Melt into me

Forget where you begin yeah

Cause everyone needs a touch

Everyone needs a touch

Tarkan's

Jun 22, 2008

A Box of Books

I'm putting up a box with books I don't want. It's not like I'll give them away, but I hopr to be able to sell them at a used book store. Recently I received a package from a friend os mine in the US, with a bunch of books I'm not really interested in, and which cost me quite some money. Oh man, I'm so pissed off, I could spit fire! 40€ gone for a bunch of books of het porn of the dominance-submission type. Really, that's not my trip. Wouldn't minded it so much, if I wouldn't have to pay such an exhorbitant fee for them. I know, I know, there are countries where 40€ are just a coffee and a croissant, but here 40€ is a month's worth of lunch. I'm pissed. I would have rather used that money on a new Swatch watch, which I OBVIOUSLY deserve. Now, I did not bought the books, but a friend of mine send them to me for two reasons:
  1. She has no more space in her shelves and needed to get rid of the excess
  2. She thought I might like them.
Okay, I read "Claiming of the Beauty" by Anne Rice (Anne Roquelaure, as she signs those novels), and it was exciting when I had not discovered the full extent of gay literature (a passion that must be cultivated, you don't just born with it), and I would fall upon anythng containing hints of it. But now that I have seen what's out there, even if its not so good, why would I go back to books which might hint of it? Books written by amateurs in the truly "fanfic" fashion of those deprived of talent, writing to get off with words, inventing "original fanfiction" because they don't have what it takes to make a story of their own. I have read plenty of fanfiction (still read when I get the cravings) and have written my share, so I know the difference in styles, and I can say that these bound stories should have never gotten out of the Internet. Their quality is so poor they should have never been the cause of the death of trees to make a distribution on other means. Where are the editors? This kindof crap makes me think that self publishing should be prohibited.

So, since I'm thinking about hitting the used books stores, I thought I could as well get rid of my poor purchases as well. Oh yeah! There go old books gotten that I would never read again (save the one about Dracula, since I hope to have a second round with it, and then I wish to do my own resaerch, for whic I need the references in it), and some other craps. I guess the used book store owners will look at me weird by delivering almost 20 books of porn ranging from S&MB to gay sex. I do not expect to recover those 40€, but it will be good if I could at least recover 3€. That would make my day. Then again, I hope they give me money for the books, and not "purchase options". I guess this would be a hard batch to sell on Internet... from here.

Last week of June. I'm growing... so sensitive. These days I can feel him and see him in everything. I read his letters yesterday, and I felt so tempted to transcribe them here. I wish so hard to make him live here too, not only in my heart. His words are simple and beautiful, and you can't believe that this are the words of a kid who would take his life away. He's still the light of my life. I remember not only every day I spent with him, every place we went too, how beautiful, and how hot he looked, but also his letters, the feeling of receiving them, reading them... and every dream I had with him. I love him so much, so much, there's no other love in the world that could ever match this one. I love him.

Jun 18, 2008

Another profile up

I'm... LinkedIn. Go figure. Now what? Lets see what the wind blows my way.

Jun 15, 2008

Notes After the Storm

I felt the desire to write today, a compulsive need brought to me by what I have read today, but as I was going to sit and write, a storm broke the sky darkening it, lashing deafening lightnings and whipping the air with harsh rain and winds. I was taken by fear, but not some psychotic fear for the storm, for I do love them, but from power shortenings, power cuts that could harm Omi. I should really buy him a UPS. I feared each second that a thunder would hit close and the power would oscilate and flip something inside him, breaking him beyond repair. I had turned him on, and he was working slow, Internet getting caught on him, and I couldn't make my entry. My hand was firmly around the cable, ready to pull it out and save him if the light as much as flickered. I feared terribly for my baby.

Today I had to wait for the storm to wind down, so I could leave my impressions of the day.

My first action of the day was to read Anais Nin's journal, as I don't seem to have enough of it lately. There's not enough time to spend with it, reading about her life and the life of those in her life. I read more about her tormentous relationship with her father, and her turbulent thoughts on the matter. Open admission of incestuos thoughts and desires. She starts her visits to Dr. Otto Rank, a former disciple of Freud. His ideas, as she exposes them are somewhat misogynistic, denying the woman's possibility to be an artist. He says, according to her, that a cured neurotic man becomes an artist, while a cured neurotic woman becomes a woman. The man has invented the soul, so women have no acces to the soul. He throws in an array of "conforting prizes" such as women having acces to intuition, instinct and such, emotion and feelings, while men are rational. I hated that description. Dr. Rank continues saying that no woman can be an artist, or a good one, and those few who have (by 1933) managed to create something, they do it thinking and creating as men.

I sense a basic contradiction in the words Anais transcribes in her diary, or her "sketchbook": for once, Rank breaks with the psychoanalysts because he do not "label", and concentrate on the artist letting each individual create their own world, not trying to fit them into one general, social world, as Dr. Allendy did. He says that traditional psychoanalysis goes almost all about sex, but sex isn't all. Okay, I stress that and confront it with this thing about "women not being like men". We are of the same species, why would be be so different if it is not due to the traditional social roles imposed to us? There isn't a male way of thinking, or a female way of thinking, there's just "thinking" and that's different for every person, may that person be male or female or none of the above. Certainly, I have no idea what's like to be a man, for if there is such a thing as reincarnation, I do not remember the times I have been a man. I know my perspective, being born in this gender, but I do not feel being bound, being different than my male counterparts. Well, maybe only when I'm with my period and I wish all male motherfuckers to experience the same discomfort, but if I were a man, if I'd get my balls hit, I would certainly wish for all the female bitches to feel the same discomfort. Male of female, I'd always be the same and I'd think the same way. Socially, I might not express it the same way, but I don't see why would I think, act or feel differently. There are things that do not depend on a pussy or a dick-and-balls, and they are a lot, so why would they be different depending on the equipment you have between your legs?

What makes a man different from a woman? What would make their thinking different? You can't say that the man is a natural "provider" who from ancient times sought to protect the family and the turf, because women do that too. Look at all the single moms out there, or look at all the single women doing great. You can't say that women are softer and caring and the heart of the family, because there are single dads out there, and a lot of men care, even if they don't have a family on their own, they care for their pets or plants just as the traditional woman would. Ways of thinking? Yes, yes, I have said that men think within a digital frame with only two values to express all thoughts: sex and no-sex; while women use an "analogue" system with a wide arrange of values, all of which represent different feelings, which they use to express all thoughts. I do not deter from this, BUT this is a social programming. Men are brought up repressed from all values, forced into the digital system, while women, socially repressed from the "sex" value (they must be virgins, not whores), are pushed into the analogue system. But the thoughts, the core of thoughts are the same, aren't they? It's as if men were taught to speak French and women were taught to speak German. The language, the protocol is different, and it might not allow direct communication, BUT it doesn't mean that the things both of them express aren't the same, or similar.

It's the social protocol what takes us apart, but under this, we are all the same. If we could only stop thinking with our sex and use it for what it was intended, for fucking, life might be so much uncomplicated.

Another thing bothered me deeply. Rank also demanded Anais to stop writing her journal. What's wrong with this people? Is it that everybody thinks that what they can't see is all about them? Ugly stuff about them? I keep a journal ans I have taken to carry it around with me werever I go. I would feel at loss without it now. Leaving it at home, by my bed, would drive me insane with unease.Not because of the things written in it, fuck, it's all in Hungarian, but because what would I do if I want to record something at some moment and I don't have it with me? As it is, most of my entries I do when I'm not home. At lunch, at a seminar, while waiting for a meeting, during a power failure at the office, while waiting for something to download, for a printing to be done, waitign for someone, when I'm alone at the mall (which I actively seek)... what would I do if my journal were not there? What harm do these doctors see in the journal? Her journal might not be different from any other journal written by anyone else.

I think these doctors feared the secrecy of the journal. Some paranoid feeling might have taken over them, fearing to see themselves portrayed in those pages in a way different than the way they are. Thoughts are fine as long as they remain locked in people's heads and they don't speak them, but when they are out, and the image one have of other materializes and it is realistic and do not fit the image people have of themselves, they feel threatened. Might be a natural reaction, but are not people entitled to have their own vision of the world and their own vision of others? If someone who hates you thinks poorly of you, you retaliate by doing the same, but then again, that person hated you in your face and you expected the ill thoughts, but what happens when a friend, someone who has been nice to you thinks ill of you? Many consider that treason. Treason, I say? Why should anyone think only positive things of their friends and acquintances? People is human and they have their flaws you don't have to love. What if you recognize them and even point them out or down right hate them? Why should anyone accept someone fully? I hate stuff from my friends, and I vent about it in my journals. Why not say it into their face? Well, not all social bonds can take negative comments. That's why. Compromising because there's more good than bad in a relationship does not mean that you have to accept the good, or ignore itor bear with it. Be human. Hate it. Express it somehow . Express it to yourself.

In her journals, Anais also dos something really stupid: she lies to herself. What's the point of that? She lies when she tries to explain why she does this or that, why she reacts this way or the other, or when she tries to explain her feelings, and the actions of other people. There is a chance that she's lying because she knows others will read her journal --- sorry, diary --- but then again, she constantly insist on being honest only to the diary. Is it so? No, it is not. She gives excuses to her behavior and the behavior of others. She lies to others in order to "give them what they want", as if people wanted lies, but then, is she lying to herslef to give herself what she wants? Shouldn't people go for what they want, and if it si impossible, be informed of that so that they can readjust their goals or live with it? All deceptions are bound to evaporate. You can't hold up a lie forever. Truth do not exist, but the facts and the perceptions of facts people try to cover with fabrications and lies eventually surface. There's only so far a lie can stretch. Lies, like everything human are limited.

Jun 11, 2008

Hoops & Yoyo

The designs asre ugly, I admit to it, but I can't get enough of them! Gara love them. Really. Do not posses anything with their mug on, but a friend of mine and I send Hoops&Yoyo cards to each other quite often. (Well, we used to send them far more often when I moved into this new building...) Hallmark, which is our "source of cards" of choice, has created a site for them with a lot of interactive stuff you sure can't download into your mobile just now (sorry GPRS), with a lot of links that send you back to the begining. Yep, back to Hallmark. Cards, gifts... they certainly don't have enough, if I may say so. What do you do with two mugs, two ding-dong plastic buttons and two termic jars? Hello people! There must be something more out there you ain't showing! For fuck's sake, this is the Internet, and the Internet is supposed to be more stocked up, have more variety than my local store! Nope. It ain't the case. So, will I be buying?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA !!

No.

Come on dudes! Show me some respect here!

It's early, but not too early. Have loads of job to do, and I have the feeling I did something extremely insulting and extremely exposing, but I can't remember what it was. Something I said? Something that came to light? It's like a memory was triggered by what I was reading last night from Anais Nin's journal. It was so... How can I properly express it? Well, se wrote about how she remained silent as Antonin Artaud, a very extreme character I would have never talked to from the begining, was acusing her of being an evil, deceptive person. Okay, her fault for going around waving lies upon lies to make people happy. Her fault for talking to that mental case in teh first place. From the begining, she tried to make frineds with him, though she thought of him poorly, but since he's an artist and all that, she wanted to know him better. It's something she took from her father, I believe. Anyway, the silent character turns out to be a terrible mental case that lives in nightmares, that suffers constantly and seems to seek this kind of life. In a way, Antonin Artaud reminds me of a friend of mine, Marc.

There's a violent need for a dramatic life, dramatic days and he must, must be the victim. Must be the outcast, the suffering, the one cheated on, the one who must close himself and remain a mistery because everybody is out there to take advantage of him, hurt him, because nobody understands him, and nobody fits really into the world he lives in. Artaud falls in love (or so he says) with Anais, and triest to have a more physical, sexual relationship with him, which she doesn't want because, though she likes him as an artist, truth is she doesn't like him as man. So she invents a story, but eventually let him kiss her... when he can corner her into it. Yes, right then I thought « WEAKLING!». I belive that if she would have told him face to face that she doesn't love him, period, that she appreciates him as a FRIEND and as an ARTIST but that's as far as her feelings go for him, then she could have saved herself a lot of trouble.

Artaud acused her of not loving her, of leaving him, of her feelings being shallow and whimsical, and that she exchanged him, replaced him with the love she has for her father, which, according to Artaud, is an abomination. (Well, Anais clearly has an Elektra Complex going on...). She remained silent, and according to her notes, denying nothing. Well, what else to do? Unless Artaud's outburst rends me speechless, I would have countered saying that I may have softened reality (actually, I would have never lied), but that he can't blame me for what he chose not to notice until it was way too evident. Then I guess, it's easy to judge from outside. At the same time, it made me think about a couple of things. Sometimes how hard can it be to tell something to someone?

As you age, as days go by, you can become more and more tough to certain things and flap down an answer to them. This is it and if you don't like it, like we say in Hungarian « fel is út, le is út ». ("There's also a way up, there's also a way down". It's a way to say: go anywhere you chose, just go.) One friend is having a hard time for a guy she likes but he ain't making the first step, and ain't giving her any clear signals of his feelings. Another friend is suffering also for a guy who is chasing her, who she doesn't find attractive, but he doesn't seem to undestand her subtle messages on the matter. A friend is suffering because the girl of his life doesn't want to acknowledge his love.

What do we do? We remain silent.

Unlike you would think, in some cases matters of feelings do tie up my tongue and I struggle and don't get to express myself properly, but I always seek to enjoy teh feeling, happy that I'm human, I'm alive and I can feel. Feeling ain't a curse, but a beautiful blessing that makes life richer. Every feeling should be cherished. Then again, usually matters of work is what tangle me the most. These are situations where I feel my losses could be higher than my gains, so I try to keep a balanced scorecard. But what about the rest? What about feelings? what about the one sided experiences that are killing us? I have only one thing to say: speak up. When we were babies, we cried for everythign we needed. What happened now? We subdue most thing, even unnecesary things, in hopes of things solving themselves, problems fading away, but this is not the way things go. Furthermore, there's a terrible social phenomenon that also adds for things, specially between men and women, to get particularly bad.

Traditionally, women are taught to be "hard to get". Never say "yes" at first. Women are systematically told to lie and lie, never to be honest, because honestly isn't a ladylike behavior. Men think that if they just persevere and press long enough, women will yield. But what happens when a woman says "no" and means it? There's no way she can express so. Women are told things that are expected from them, not what they really think, what they really feel. For ages they were even instructed to hide their brains, to suggest things instead of speaking them up front, so how do you know she's being honest, and when is she being "ladylike"? I don't wonder poor men find it hard to understand us, and then, when a poor christian finds his way to a woman like yours truly (and there are a lot like me), has no idea what to do or how to reaxt, because this bitch is telling him what she wants, what she things and no means just that: no. If you want something, someone, say it. Ain't no shame in saying yes at first, kissing in the first five minutes, hitting the bed in the first two hours, as long as you are clear with what you want and you are doing what you want.

I'm not saying it's easy, but wouldn't this be an easier world if you could come up front ans say thing as they are? The first step to being understood, is to speak clearly.

Jun 10, 2008

Honey, face it: You CAN'T negotiate

I would comment on the news, but I don't really feel like it. Plus I've... 20 minutes of worktime to go and after that I'm out to go to the gym and sweat my ass off with Spinning followed by my first class of "Super Fit", in hopes that my dear friend Lau is there, and she better be there! So, going into a superficial analysis in why I raise an eyebrow at Ben Bernanke saying that "things ain't that bad" at the U.S. with a raise on the unemployment rate from 5% to 5,5%... (which is basically an added 10% of unemployed people to the existing ones, which is roughly 16,5 million unemployed people in the U.S., four times more than the whole population of Costa Rica.) No, no, I won't go into that. I have no time.

Nope, I'll just scribble here a few quick-notes about a recent activity.

  1. Yes Darling, it was about you when they where hinting about sneaky, low people who would do anything for money. Well, maybe next time you'll think twice before sending an e-mail hinting that money can buy conscience and health.
  2. I always knew you had no talent for negotiating, but damned, I never imagined you were so BAD!!!
  3. Okay, FOCUS ON YOUR GOALS!!! Is that so hard to achieve? Oh... I guess for you it is.
  4. He's cute, but if you want him, you can have him. He hardly would ever make it to become my one-hour fucktoy.
  5. I wouldn't be so proud of being lucky, Honey. I'd be proud for the things I have achieved. Ohhhhh... now I see your point! Yeah, Honey, oh boy! Lucky you! Good go! ^_^
  6. Please, do learn the proper use of make up or stop wasting it!
  7. Helping others won't kill you!
  8. "Thinking" is not, I repeat, is not kryptonite!
  9. Hell-O, cutey! Have someone told you you look like .... a low budget, "tropicalized"... oh shit, honey, you are nothing like Viktor Krum. Bummer. Well, are you good at something? No, really, are you good at something?

Jun 5, 2008

Punish the Free thinking, Freely Expressing Blogger

Coded message. Oh fuck, I gara fucking change that! What? Do you mean it's for real? People can't possibly do that? Okay, again: how old are they? When they went through adolescency, how did they manage to avoid growing up? We all shake our heads disapprovingly, but it still happens, at it seems that "we" don't disapprove it so much, since we evidently let it happen. But what the FUCK am I talking about here? People fired for what they write in a blog.

Yes. Please look at this. You see a blog, lets say a blog like this one, and what do you see? Well, in this particular case you may see some broad ranting about a fucking buch of things, and quite freely using the word "fuck" as verb, adverb, noun, adjetive and so on. (Used to abuse of the composed term "Goddamed", but my friend Roo, very Christian, God bless her, used to smack me in the head each time I did it, because it was an offense to God. Fuck, on the other hand, was perfectly fine. So is Hell.) Anyway, breaking it down to it's basick "blocks", a blog is a place people use to express themselves. It's a space to be free, to talk your head out. It's an online journal where you write whatever the fuck do you want to write. Indeed, one must be responsible with what one writes, with what one says, accept consequences, but the matter at heart is that you are entitles to express what you say. It's a basic human right. So I think my boss is a pansy. So what? It's what I think. I might not say it, but I still think it. If I say it, at least I'm being truthful, expressing myself and my boss, who maybe isn't a pansy, have a chance to talk with me and clear out the rough edges. By expressing things, you can, actually work them out. Say a coworker of mine, Cynthia, thinks I'm too much of a spoiled, snobbish, freak bitch. Aside it it being true, if she doesn't say it out (she hasn't) we wouldn't get the chance of working things out.

There are things, of course, that can't be worked out. For instance... you think the chick on the workstation next to you is so ugly each time her mother sees her she turns to her father and say: "Man, I should have given you a blow job" (joke taken from Phat Galz, a movie). You can tell her:" girl you are so ugly you could put out the Sun just by looking at it", but it ain't gonna help. Nor does it help if you extern your opinion and tell the guy at the Customer Service Office: "Honey, you are so stupid you must have failed even your bloodtest". Stupid people (specially above 25) remain stupid forever. Ugly people... well, it's not a matter of telling them, but sending a picture of them to Extreme Makeover... house version, in some cases. Anyway, either when you express that someone is stupid, or ugly, or someone far to ordinary to be let into decent gatherings, it is your personal opinion, and you are entitled to it. You will always have it, because your mind is private and up there you'll think the fuck you want, but I have news for you: you can express it. You can let it out and say it.

However, some people do not think the same, and either they have the compulsive need to believe everything is about them (know a few cases, which also are the reason why I fled the livejournal...), or because in their little minds they are so obsessed with the image others have of them, maybe because their self-image depends of what others think of them, that they go ranting about every critic. Sure, you are also entitled to be offended at something said, either about you, or about a group you belong to, or a group you are supporting... For instance, I'm not gay, but I care fro them and I feel their struggle, and each time they are offended, I get offended too. I am a woman, as many of you know, and even so, I get offended when men get diminished. Also when women get dininished on the base of being women, and stupid men pretend to keep up the idea that we all belong into the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant; but I also find it terribly offensive when someone tries to make believe that a man is in the obligation of supporting the woman and the kids. And I mean like they expect to keep a non working woman home, paying all her things, working his ass off, so that the stupid bitch can get bored and work her fat ass at an expensive gym. I feel offended when they mock a man for crying, for showing a weakness, for showing care, for giving into a broader form of expression. It upsets me when men, my fellows, are denied of us women have. (Sometimes a job is denied to a capable man in order to give it to an incompetent woman only to fulfill a quota to pacify feminists.)

Whatever. Back on track, you can get offended, but you must learn when is it right to take things to your heart and when understand that that's the way someone thinks and will think forever and that will never change and it doesn't matter because it causes you no harm.

Here are some pointers that could help you decide when to bath in oil and let it slide, and when to take it in hands and speak up.
  1. When it can put in in disadvantage to achieve your goals, which any other people (not in your condition) can achieve, when it cuts you from opportunities others have, when it causes you serious harm economically, socially, legally --- speak up.
  2. When it hurst your pride, but other than that it causes you no harm --- let it go by.
Psychological harm is dangerous, and you should step up, but I'm giving no pointers on this matter, because I'm not an expert. From what I know, and can deduce, ifit makes you uncomfortable and diminishes your normal productivity, you must speak up. Now, what does « speak up » means? It doesn't mean fighting verbally, engaging in an insult contest, or harming the offender by any means at hand. It means to talk it over. Let the person know you do not agree with what has been said and find out why did that person said the things he or she said and then explain your point and explain why you disliked what you disliked. You know, the "civilized approach". I know, it's so "old school" XX. century style. what can I say? I love XXth century. It was cool. Mindless fighting, and taking revenge will get you nowhere. People will keep thinking what they think, they might be even reinforced on the negative vision they have of you, and even get proofs of whatever evil thing they claim of you. Who knows? Even add to the list of "flaws".

Not this is people. So it happens, and we have heard cases around the world, of people FIRED for saying something non-flattering on their blogs. Yes, people have been fired upon saying on the Internet that their boss is as stupid as a watermelon with a "fuckhole". Whose boss isn't stupid or do not behave every once in a while like a moron or the most stupid thing since toothbrushes for snails? Yet some do take it to their hearts and they do fire people over that. Unbelievable. I'd say, if I ever get fired for expressing my mind and writing on my blog that... some muckety-muck of the company is as dumb as an ass, well, I would like to see them write that down as the cause of letting me go. (I actually either say it in their face or make it crystal clear, so anyone fireming for the blog is also a major coward.) Then again, it means also that I was hired to bulk up the worker-base, not because of my work. If my personal opinions of someone, no matter how muckety-muck have more weight than my job, AT MY JOB! that means I wasn't being properly considered, estimated, valued. However, this is a case, when you are fired for speaking your mind, when you should speak up. By saying something about other people, saying what you think, you have not caused them harm, other than maybe harm in their pride... if they allow it, but they are causing you harm, so you must do something.

It has been a struggle to let people know that work is WORK and no personal feelings are to be mixed in it. Sure, you can put limits to relate to people you do not like, as long as it doesn't get into your work, but at work, WORK is first. Outside work is another matter. Why is that so hard to understand?

Jun 3, 2008

This One is Sweet

Article at the New York Times:

China Lists Dos and Don’ts for Olympics-Bound Foreigners


HONG KONG — Do not bring any printed materials critical of China. Do not plan on holding any rallies or demonstrations in China. Do not think that you are guaranteed an entry visa because you hold tickets to an Olympic event. And do not even think about smuggling opium into China.

That is some of the eclectic advice issued by the Beijing Organizing Committee on Monday, in a document listing 57 questions that foreign visitors to the Olympic Games in August may have: “Does China have any regulation against insults to the flag or national emblems?” “After eating or drinking at restaurants or hotels, if you have diarrhea or vomiting symptoms, how do you lodge a complaint?”

Published: June 3, 2008

Okay, just out of curiosity: do Americans know what's asked from us when applying to a regular tourist visa? Stuff like:
  1. Are you a terrorist?
  2. Are you a Nazi?
  3. Did you were part of the Nazi Army during World War II?
  4. Have you commited war crimes?
This are the ones I remember from 2000... before the Twin Towers thing. Okay...

  1. Do you think I'd say "yes" if I were? If giving a false answer would be punishable by revoquing the visa, don't you think that by answering truthfully to this, in case of a terrorist, and say "yes" would also mean to deny visa? Or are you giving the visa to a terrorist because "he admited to be one"?
  2. I'm a half-blood Hungarian! How could I be Nazi!? Plus, I was born in 1976. No Nazis. (Those you think of are called neo-nazis)
  3. Yeah. I came to the world 37 years before being actually born and joined the Nazis. Get real.
  4. Wouldn't you have me in a list if I did? The only war I've been in, and even then as an expectator, was the Pepsi-Coke brand war.
I'd suggest journalists and other commentarist to check on what their own country does before criticizing what other countries demand from visitors or their own people. Kinda quoting a great figure of history, "don't look at the wire in your brother's eye, but look at the entire telecommunication network in yours".

Jun 2, 2008

Again: Food of (Bio)Fuel

The letter "F" has become quite fashionable these days. All the "most commonly used words", or most of them, start with this particular letter, which, oh my, is the sixth of the alphabet, and so considered by many as the "satanic letter". So which are these famous words?

  • Food
  • Fuel
  • Farm
  • Farmer
  • Famine
  • Fashion
  • Free Trade Agreement
  • Funding
  • Fraud
  • Fuck.

On one hand we have Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, the current Secretary General of the U.N. (he has replaced my fave, Kofi Annan) has decided to urge the countries to do something to improve this catastrophic situation, by means such as cut back on taxes upon food and farmers, as well as all the commercial obstacles they raise towards import and export of food. It also includes, though American papers hardly make any mayor mention of it, cutting subsides. Yes, American farmers have outrageous subsidies from the Government, which allows them to produce and sell at whatever price they want with a minimal cost, which puts out of the market a lot of foreign farmers. Funny thing is that this not only happens in the US, but also abroad, where the American farmers put out of market the farmers of poor countries in their own country. Mr. Ki-Moon has requested, so, to cut back with this measure, as well as other measures that, according to him, have driven the world to the skyrocketing of food prices. Uhum. among the things that have to be cut back, and I can't but agree with him, is the production of biofuel. Really, farming land and crops used to make FUEL rather than FOOD?

Naturally the US had to protest.

"According to our analysis, the increased biofuels production accounts for only 2 to 3 percent of the overall increase in global food prices," said Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, who will lead the U.S. delegation in Rome. "This is not distorting the global price of food," he added. "This is how we're going to create energy independence in this country. And we urge others in the face of this rising price problem with energy to look at alternative means, one of which certainly is biofuels."


... may I asky ou something? Are you being handsomely paid to say all that crap, or are you actually so stupid to believe that? The energy independence would come when you don't depend on the energy more. You have a country full of fat assed people. Take their gas off and make them walk. Biofuels still have some carbon monoxid emission! It's FUCKING BURNING, YOU ASSHOLE! So it ain't as eco-friendly as you'd like it to be. Then, how could int not be distorting the price of food when it's either made out of food or it uses the land that could be used to make food? The distortion comes from the root of the diverting of the supply, you moron! Don't they teach you that in Harvard, or Princeton or whatever fucking top money Ivy-League University? Say what. You go to a cheap State University instead and MAYBE you'll pick up some knowledge. How about that?

People should really lay off cars, and it might be difficult to go one on one, moving to bikes and stuff, but if it is in the hands of the Government, they really should go and do it. We all know that taking the Americans' cars is like castrating them, but they must learn that the balls and cock are attached to their body, made of flesh, not a mechanical appendix.

Subtle

It's June. We all know that. The 30th is my birthday. We all know that.

Boss: What kind of smell-stuff you you prefer? These burning slapsh thingies or the burning sticks of inciense?
Me: ... (GO FOR BOOKS!!! BOOKS! I LOVE BOOKS! MEDIEVAL STUFF IS ALWAYS A SURE WINNER!!!) Well... due to my asthma... these burners. They use oils.
Boss: But there are so many of these scents. Which do you like.
Me: (My favorite scent is the "book" scent. Want me to make you a list of books I like? Please? There are some great books on Serbia... Or how about something about Bulgaria? Monasteries in the Middle Ages, or a book by Umberto Eco?) ... China Rain...
Boss: Does it smell like rain? Hahahaha!
Me: (Yeah, like you raining on my party...) Hahaha! No, it's just the name. Like with perfumes, you know? I don't actually smell like Hera, but that's the name of my parfume.
Boss: Really?

In which world does he live in?