May 31, 2012

First List Completed

I'm tired... But I did it. All the items on the list have been completed. The Celtic knotwork is far more difficult than I originally thought, and the bead ball was quite hard too. The first necklace I started making isn't completed yet, but I made another. The trip planning so far looks like Prague, but that's still under discussion. And the story... the story is a tiny little secret of mine. I started writing "Penpal from Hell" (working title), but I really want to work on another one... one that's just for me. :-)

Now I'm hitting the bed.

About the drink... Tequila Sunrise.

May 30, 2012

The First List of 13 is Getting to an End

This week is a little bit shorter for me in terms of the time I set for myself to get my List of 13 done. After some thinking an ondering, I decided to set my Lists of 13 with each New Moon, so theoretically I'll make 13 of these lists in a year. I don't want to change anything on my original planning (setting the deadline "before June"), but when I did the list (which coincidentally turned out to have 13 items) I wasn't planning making it later into a periodical thing in my life. I didn't check the date, the moon, the stars, the horoscope or anything. Truth to be told, I believe that if I would have tried to come up with something like this from the begining, I would have never occured to me.

However, as result of this idea, I'm left now with a list that doesn't fit into the timetable I set for myself later on. I had two chances: either I extend the list to make it to the next New Moon, or I make a suplementary list, and respect the rules of the first. This second one is the one I decided to do. I plan to keep the periodical activities (those that are of the "x times a week" nature) and replace the others with new activities to complete by the next New Moon. That list will probably be published when the current list reaches the deadline.

This thing about the list made me think about something quite common in our life: our reaction to unexpected changes. It may happen that we have plans and expect something to happen in a certain way, but then it doesn't, or maybe we don't have any particular plans at all, just a regular, normal, comfortable life and suddenly a task falls on us and distrupts our rutine. In such cases most people complain bitterly and act like a victim of the circumstances. However, how many try to adapt to the new circumstances? Just because something is unexpected, just because something falls out of our box or disrupts the flow of our life, it doesn't mean it's bad or that it has to be excluded. It may not be what you expected for, it may not be perfect, but if you embrace it, if you adapt, if you take the time to actually value it without any prejudging, you might be surprised.

No, it doesn't mean that you must accept everything, and lose yourself in the constant adapting to others - let's not twist the message out of its meaning - but it means that by being open and looking for ways to work around certain situations, we can find ways to enhance our life and enrich our days.

May 29, 2012

The Elderly

Once again a movie I originally didn't consider for watching gave me a pleasant surprise. This time around was "The Best Exotic Marigolg Hotel", a British production (from what I understand) directed by John Madden. In it, basically seven elderly Brits go to stay for different reasons at a hotel in India, which looks fabulous on the brochure, but turns out to be a place in shambles. The plot sounds quite like a cliché, and it does lean a lot on clichés (young love against society, the interaction between the wise elderly and the dreamy youth and so on, or the idea of people getting together from different backgrounds and interacting, getting somewhere together, like in a case of "MTV Real World Senior Citizen"), but from the first moment on the story rips away from the cliché, breaks the mold and shows you a naked truth that people isn't willing to realize: how our elderly are treated.

You may say the movie is full of clichés about elderly people, but it did got me thinking about how our societies treat them time and again, and also how we ourselves are treated by society. Then maybe perhaps this awareness is the result of being suddenly closer to the elderly of my own family, which indeed has given me a glimpse into their world and the conditions in which they live.

As most preconceptions about any group of people or "segment", one common mistake is to put all elderly people under one same category and think they are all the same: weak, unable to function by themselves, retarded when it comes to modern life, and above all, a burden to society. Many expect them to live at the margin of society, safely tucked away in their homes or at elderly homes, sitting in rocking chairs, wearing thick glasses and diapers while knitting something for the grandchildren. Elderly people who still have energy and work the land, manage a business or take on whatever job or activity, is looked at with surprise, and people wonder when are they going to break or when will they fall off to give space to modern times.

Our society is disregarding towards them, impatient and rude, and the only time they turn their attention towards them is when they view them as a market segment which can be exploited to sell them goods and services - many of which have been designed and developed by young people with no real consultation about what they really want and really need. Adult diapers, medication, homes for the elderly, even tours for the elderly, as if they had to be taken aside from the rest of the world, as if this way society could prevent they get in the way of modern times. The idea that they are waiting only to die, instead of wanting to keep living, or ignoring that they may still have dreams, that things can hurt them... these all are done to them day after day, and on many levels.

In a way, this situation reminded me that of Childfree woman, and how we are regarded by society. All woman are expected to want to be married and want to become mothers, and want to devote every single moment of their lives and happily give up everything for their children, so when any woman falls off this mold, this expectation, she's pressured to go back into the line and stop disturbing the "flow of society". Well, so is with the elderly. However, there where the rebelious women run against reproval and social bullying, the elderly run into closed doors, and constant ignoring.

Truth is that being elderly isn't being less of a person, though society insist on making you look and feel like an outdated, rejected ex-person, a carcas that should be tucked away where it interferes with nobody's life until they die and leave their place to someone else, someone young. Truth is, however, that life can start over at 70 or 80, that you don't need to be young to enjoy life, and being retired doesn't equal being useless or "out of circulation". We will all get old  sooner or later, and we are living longer and longer lives, so maybe it's time to start making plans and dreaming about the life we want to have after retirement, and not stop on the traditional dreams of a family, a good job, a house with white picked fence and a dog.

If you can, check out this movie, and it may inspire you some thoughts too.

May 28, 2012

Reliable

Elder people often remember fondly the times when "a man's word had worth". Not like back then there weren't people who cheated and lied, but back in the day - according to our grandparents or great grandparents - if someone said something, you could actually expect that person to keep it up. Back in the day "reliable" was a good, expected quality that was cultivated, but which has gone out of practice today.

Today promises sound simply like ear candy of things we sure won't see done. A boss promises us that things will be better and nice at the job, and we automatically read this as an statement that thing will remain the same, the boss don't care about what's really going on (screensaver bosses) or that things will get worse from here on. A significant other promises to make an effort and stop cheating or start helping out with the chores or pay more attention, pick up the kids from school, walk the dog, find a good job, stop spending so much money... and we read this promise as meaning the opposite. A bank promises you a loan or a mortgage with good conditions and affortable payments and you know it means that they will grab you by the neck and asphixiate you at the first available chance. A politician promises to change things in the country and you know that the only thing changing will be the pockets into which goes our tax money.

How can we actually live in a world that's not reliable? A world where your job can disappear any minute leaving you in the air with any of the promised guarantees (severance packages and notice period), which happens more often than you'd think, or the severance packages are "recalculated" on a lot of items, to make it smaller than what it should be? A world where a single word in the news can't be taken at face value, for most broadcasting and newspaper companies have their own agenda and are known to publish only the news that serve their purposes? A world where even parents lie to their kids and where such parents systematically fail them? How do we live in a world where we are surrounded by people, companies, institutions and entities you can't trust?

The problem with reliability goes far beyond these too. Thanks to the current loose policies for graduating people, the many cheap universities and corrupt systems, we have a quite significant number of unreliable professionals who do their job by seeking excuses and finding way to pass the blame to others. As results we get crappy goods and crappy services and all sorts of half assed solutions.

The problem of reliability is global, is everywhere and in everything, and you can often see it in the way people think, "changing their minds" as they change friends or as the political climate changes. And it's not like they really changed their minds, for there's absolutely nothing wrong with changing one's mind - this is part of the process of intelectual evolution, as you improve your personal ideals and philosophy - but they change their speech often so radically, it makes you wonder if there ever was any "mind" any real thought and conviction behind it.

Reliability must be reclaimed, and it is a though process, but just like with the process of teaching people to recycle, to classify their garbage, to reuse and rethink, reject plastic bags and so on, if we start by being reliable ourselves, by passing on this value to the next generation - be it our own children or not - then there might be a future out there where a person's word will worth again.

May 27, 2012

A Break from Daily Philosophy, to some Daily Life

Yesterday's post turned out hard to read, right? For posterity I may go back on it and liven it up, because personally I believe that the topic is quite interesting - you know, talking about immigration, and how nobody can actually say that they've always-always belonged to the place they live in, nor can anyone say that they have a millenary culture that hasn't changed a bit since the begining of times. However the reason for it being so dull and hard to read - I presume - is due to the lack of pictures and my trademark colored text, which I use for highlight. If you have ever wondered what's my system for coloring, if colors and bolds or italics mean something, the answer is "not really". I pick the colors when I open the palette, see what colors I've used and which colors I feel like using. Perhaps normally I tend to used green to mark myself or my personal thoughts, fuchsia for religion or divinity, red for importance of shock, often aggression and violence, dark red for gore and supernatural, and blue for the things I don't like much... though I've used blue also for the things I do like, only for a splash of color. But anyway - I just derailed there - the reason why I didn't do that was because I was blogging from a train, on my way home from Mezőkövesd, where I had accidentally left my mouse (and half my power cord too). Have you tried to use your laptop without a mouse? And get online and blog without a mouse? Some parts are tricky, like I forgot how do you shut down a window or open a new page in your browser, but the rest is simple, only tedious.

Yesterday I went to visit Mama and Papa at Mezőkövesd, but I went without my boyfriend, who has been burried in work up to his eyeballs. So, instead of driving there, I took the train. On my way there I had the mouse and the cord, and so took out the laptop, the mouse and the mobile internet and started drafting up the post without any particular embellishing. Ideas and refining would come later. At Mama's place I then took out the laptop, charged it - I had used it on battery on the train - while we had lunch and then partook in a delicious traditional meal made in a caudron, outside over an open fireplace. The expression in Hungarian is "bográcsozás". It was my first one and it was DELICIOUS! It was basically a thick soup made with pork hoofs and venison, and it tasted like Heaven on Earth.

Inspired by Dragonfly's enthusiasm for photography and her beautiful pictures, I decided to experiment around the garden and took a few (okay, plenty) of pictures myself, from which I'll show you here some.

Waterlily

Flower Alone

Careful Close up under light brise

Flower cluster

Flower field

Household farming.
Families sow their yards to produce their own food.

Then, when I packed my things to go home, the mouse and part of my power cord (the one that's easily replaceable, thanks Hyne) decided to stay there without my conscent. I knew of the mouse the moment I decided to inish my blogging on the train, because I was going to get home quite late (I was arriving at the train station at 10 pm). I new about the cord when I've got home and decided to charge up my laptop. Oh well, after the holidays are over I'll go get myself new ones to have while I go back to Mezőkövesd to get the ones I left there.

Today the day was more calm. It's a Sunday-Monday holiday called Pentecost (also Whitsunday). Don't ask me, don't look at me, I don't really know much about this. Due to this even the stores that open on Sundays were closed, and so will be closed tomorrow too, which means that I'll only get to replace the mouse and the cord on Tuesday. However, by then I might also be able to get some photos printed out.

 I've decided that it's time to continue the embellishing of the apartment, and what better to make the place more lively and more of a home than to hang pictures from the walls? Naturally things are never easy, so I'll have to go over my picture archives and start selecting those I want on the walls. Pictures of us, pictures of the family - though this seems more on the line of "pictures of my family" for there aren't many pictures of my boyfriend's family around - so I'll have plenty to do from here to Tuesday. Then again, not like I can complete many of my repeating tasks from my List of 13 during this time. However, I believe it's fair to let you know that I'm getting ahead with the task of making myself June jewelry. I'm not entirely satisfied with the results yet, and basically because so far I was used to get already made chains for the necklaces, and here I have to make the chain link by link. Also, though I have wire sticks with a stopped on the bottom, there were a few only, so I made my own with bead stoppers, but they have given out sometimes.

For this set I used a picture from a book I've got recently as inspiration, but the one I'm making isn't hitting the mark with me. I guess I still have a lot to learn. :-) But that isn't taking away my desire o continue doing it, but rather make me want to see what else can I do and how can I come closer to the concept I'm looking for.

In beading, one of the biggest limitants are the materials: you don't always get to work with the beads and materials you really want, BUT you can work with anything as long as you get around it and know how to make it work. Beading, in the end is an art part knowledge and part experimenting, and that makes it more rich and more magical. Well, we shall see how this goes on in the future!

May 26, 2012

Question of Immigration

Several news sites, newspapers and magazines have published articles that one way or the other talk about the "immigration problem" either openly or just touching the subject. Somehow with time, and as Europe hits the marker of a big shit storm - otherwise known as a "crisis" - the topic flares up again and again, curiously forgetting what happened in the middle of the last century regarding similar thoughts and questions. In depressed times, people try to find the cause of the mysery in whatever evil - real or invented - around them, and make anything to ignore the fact that they might be part of the problem as well.

One of the favorite evils of all times are minorities, specially when it's perceived that those minorities have grown out of a nicely contained ghetto. Xenophobia and all sorts of versions of racism step in and take away the clear view, the open understanding of things. Hatred for the Jew, for the Muslim, for the Black, for the Latinos, for whatever immigrant of choice, are fueled up, and nobody thinks about what have they done to allow things to go on the direction things have gone.

But lets talk about the topic of immigration, and lets leave the whole economical impact for another day.

For me, as American - though I am European as well - it's rather interesting to watch my European siblings complain bitterly about immigration and how minorities of all sorts are taking away the "European way of life", gradually eliminating the culture and everything that's European to turn the place into an extention of their homelands, thus overtaking, conquering and colonizing Europe and making it disappear. Many stand up now and demand that this "European culture" and this "Sacred heritage" to be defended agains the invading hordes and swear to protect it against the foreigners people of other etnicities, to keep it pure, to keep it alive, almost as if one culture could entirely overtake and erase another.

Europe certainly has a history full of violent overtakings and devastating conquests. Africa, America, Oceania, but even within Europe itself there have been many examples when an Empire or even a religion sweeps up large expanses of land barring and aggresively destroying every bit of the original inhabitants and imposing their own way of life. From the nomads and barbaric hordes to the Romans and the subsequent kingdoms and empires taht took over countries changing languages and customs, through the explorations, discoveries, conquests and colonization of new lands such as America, and reaching even to the sistematic baning of Pagan religions to impose the Christian one, Europe has been at the head of an overtaking that sought to bring the "European way of life" in a uniform, homogen way all around the globe. Yes, others have also tried to copy the pattern, such as the Turks and the Mongols, but basically Europe has lived in fear that others would do what they have been doing, or more exactly, what they belive they have been doing.

As Americans, a land conquered by force and torture, enslaved and robbed, we also know that the impact of Europe wasn't a one way thing, but as Europe impacted America, so America impacted Europe, forming in the touching point of both a new culture. The process too time, and with the years a culture formed that's unique abd beautiful. However, America is a magnified example of something that happens day after day, that's natural and goes on all over the world in less violent colors. Truth is that cultures and ways of life change every day and every minute, and the touch of two cultures, just as the touch of two points of view, normally enrich each other, but at least provoke a change on each of them. Positive or negative, that depends on the people experiencing the exchange, and how are they willing to take it. Do you want to learn from the experience and take with you what's positive, or do you wish to make it into something negative and believe it has taken away from you?

It's interesting to notice that when we talk about culture - being culture what we choose to do what we choose to believe and the way we choose to live - this "taking" is more often than not a question of us stopping something, we ourselves removing it from our actions rather than someone else taking it away from us.

Cultures and ways of life - being something live withing dynamic people who is alive as well - is prone to change. These are not things that can stay frozen in a static way, to be contemplated forever, never changing, but as life changes, and the people keeping it alive change, so does the culture change. The Europe of the XII century isn't the same of the XV century or the XIX century, or the Europe of today. Cultures are bound to change, and this change isn't less important or less dignifying if the burqa is accepted or not, or halal and kosher food are prohibited. Foreigners aren't the ones to be "blamed" for the "losing of the culture" if the people who live in it, has either cared not for keeping it up, or are flexible, curious or live enough to broaden their cultures to accept elements of other cultures, reinterpret them and make them their own.

Why to blame the immigrants? Honestly, what have YOU done for the continued survival of the way of life you wish to upkeep?

Now that's the uncomfortable question, and that's - I believe - the real root of the resentment, that it's easier to blame others than to take responsability for one's actions.

May 25, 2012

As part of my List of 13, I went today to visit a museum close by, the Thermae Maiores Museum. Don't be too impressed, it's not like you would imagine it. If you remember earlier posts (in case you've read them, because in case you don't, you have nothing to remember, obviously), I mentioned that I live in a districts of Budapest called "Óbuda", or Ancient Buda, which is the Northern district of the Capital city... on this side of the Danube at least. In here - unlike in other parts of Budapest - one can find Roman Ruins. Indeed, here was located the province of Pannonia, the North-Easter one of the Roman Empire. The Capital city of this provinec was Aqvincum, which is basically where we are located now.

Though there's an Aqvincum Museum, which I intend to discover before June, according to my List of 13, there's this Bath Museum I have been seeing a couple of times now, that has piked my curiosity. It is an inconspicuous place etched under a bridge, between the lines of a main road, but under the level of it, in a nook of a subway pass. It displays no artifacts, it has no vitrines, and only a few plastic covered posters stand here and there tell something, quite dryly about the history of this place. The entrance is for free, so anyone can come in and take a stroll along the ruins, but it seems not many people are interested in coming to take a look .

The place was completely deserted when I've got there, and truth to be told, I have never seen a single soul walk around the place. It is dirty, it has bits and pieces of junk rolling around, and it could really use some serious dusting and sweeping of cobwebs and seeds and petals from the nearby trees. Then there are parts that kinda look disappointing because you see some wall parts with a layer of red brick in it, and to my very, very limited knowledge of Ancient History, Romans didn't use symetric, factory made red bricks in their construction. Then again, that's me, and I've never really studied Ancient History (Costa Rica's Education Minister considered back then a waste of time to teach anything in school that isn't Costa Rica's history... over and over and over, so aside from systematically forgetting Costa Rican history, not much else stuck to me).

I still quite enjoyed the experience because it gave you the chance to walk around the ruins freely. It didn't smell like Romans, if you ask me, but actually getting that close to the structures, and being able to walk into them gives you an idea of what were the sizes of the rooms back in that time. To my amazement, these rooms and places seemed to me much bigger than some of the rooms I've seen that have been kept from the Medieval Times.

The information available was quite little, so I'll probably conduct some research on the matter, and make the Aqvincum Museum my next stop, just to learn a little bit more of life in Pannonia, and the life before Pannonia was conquered by the Romans. This question, at the same time, entails the topic of immigration, of the moving of people from one land to another, either by mass migration, by "colonization" or by conquest. Yesterday's conversation comes to my mind and for an instant I wonder if it is so hard for the Europeans to understand, because they haven't lived what we Americans have. But that's a topic for another post.

May 24, 2012

Faith and Objects

A lot of people - more than those who are willing to admit it - have superstitions, or place faith in rituals or objects beyond what would be rationally explainable. Many centuries have gone by over our human heads, and we have collected all sorts of knowledge, carefully sorted them and catalogued them in a big inventory of knowledge accepted as such, and called "science", and yet we humans continue to step outside this inventory of knowledge and defy what's clearly explained in there, with faith and believes that have not reasonable explanation, and which are often spread by telling.

I was talking today to a dear friend of mine, about humanity and such, and while he said that mankind is changing, whether we want it or not, I told him that change as it might, two things don't ever change: people's need to whine and their need to tell stories. He agreed to the first, but not so much to the second, for he said people are no longer interested on what others have to say. My refuting of this point don't really come here, but as I rolled now this thought in my head, it came to me, that people is still more than willing to listen to the passing of this sort of magical knowledge. Just think about the number of superstitious tricks you know, or even the types of spells you've learned. How many of you have actually learned to throw the Tarot, or how to use a pendulum or a Ouija board?

Regarding some difficulties with someone, a friend of mine was quick in advising the use of charms and amulets to ward off the evident negative energy and evil eye coming from that source. Many also wear heirlooms and religious symbols on them not only to show their heritage or religion, or not at all for that reason, but for protection. From the "lucky earrings" or the "lucky necklace", to the scapular you've got at Confirmation, the amulet you've bought at one of your trips and all the way to charms and amulets made following magical rituals (or being Blessed by a priest), people collect enormous amounts of these artifacts and put their faith in them. Little mean to them the Ten Commandments and other religious regulations, as often even for praying there's no better known gesture than pressing your holy book tight to your head or chest and plead for your need. Little means also the rationality that tells you that no glass bead can protect you from robbery, or someone meaning harm to you. 

Are we less religious because we turn to an object or a ritual? Because we throw a coin in a fountain or arrage our home following the Feng Sui? Are we less religious because we inforce our petition with the lighting of a candle, or wear a charm to ensure luck, protection, strenght or love? A Pagan author I read, said in his book that he refused to wear magical jewelry or even think of any object as particularly magical because he didn't wish to tie his magic to a thing, as if this thing was lost, he would feel he lost his magic. However, just as we treasure souvenirs from our trips, pictures and little things from our relationships and the most significant parts of our lives, I believe that amulets and charms have magic on their own, basically in the form of allowing us to keep our mind clear and focused on our purpose. They are a material reminder of what we want to achieve, what we want to avoid, and help us unload our mind from unnecesary worries and distractions.

It doesn't make us less religious, it simply remind us that we are human.

May 23, 2012

Tired... Shopping

I've completed another item of my list... and half of another. No, I didn't get the things to get closer to complete those two mysterious items. In the morning there was no jogging because we had an appointment with the vet. Interesting vet, by the way. The office was extremely unkept and dirty - at least to my standards - but the vet himself was nice and quiet. Everything is okay with Cinder, but for the three of us, we've decided to have her sterilized. This will happen on Monday.

Time kinda slipped off our hands, here, and then there was some rain and all, so by the time I left to get going with my program, it was already late. However, I managed to watch the first movie of the week - and the selection went to "The Hunger Games", a bad movie that wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Do not misunderstand me, it was cheesey and very "expectable", but all in all it wasn't so terribly bad. Not another "Twilight", if you ask me, and much better than "Dark Shadows".

Then I went to do what I couldn't do yesterday: buy myself summer fit black clothes. The first store I hit was H&M, where I tried out some 17 clothes (17 is the number of hangers I can still hold in one hand, it seems), and this time around came out with 4 matches. Yay! Then hit C&A... not extected, but out of 3 blouses I ended up with 2, then had to hit a lingerie store because - for the first time in my life - I need a body shaping slip. Yep, I've reached that age, it seems. Then I bought two dresses that looked nice, but would be better with a slip that tucks my belly in, so I've got one.

By the way, slips are a nightmare! I hate clothes you have to fight and subdue first.

Finally I went to MNG, where I had my hopes really high, tried out some 14 pieces... and came out only with one that isn't perfect-perfect, but it's good.

Right now I'm tired, so I'll got to the fridge, open myself a Smirnoff Ice, look for something yummy to much, make the bed and fall into it until tomorrow.

As an after thought, though, I've been thinking about task 13, and it is possible I'll start the horror story I've been talking to a penpal of mine about. ^_~

(Note: I didn't get that dress, but I'd love to!)

May 22, 2012

Hard to Get Black

The "List of 13" already made my day. It's really awesome to have something like this, like a box  containing 13 adventures to complete before June. I planned to get the first task done - had even checked out some pieces I wanted to try out on the Internet - but it happens that getting black clothes is far harder than you'd imagine. Yes, buying black clothes is a veritable nightmare.

Today I checked out a Marks&Spencer, a Tatuum, an Esprit and an MNG, looked at hundreds of clothes, tried out at least 15 dresses and bought a Grand Total of none. Yes, four stores and 17 dresses later I've bought none. It was already hard to fund Summer-fitting black clothes based on cut and fabric, but then, as I tried the selected ones on, non of them fitted me well or were well cut. For once, I discovered that I'm not a 12 (US sizes) as I thought (or a 14, as I originally thought), but an 8 (which is weird, because I actually gained weight), and yet the clothes didn't fit me. Smaller clothes were too tight on the wrong places, and bigger ones drowned me, while those that were supposed to be good weren't flattering at all, with odd angles, with tight and loose spots at the wrong parts.

In this quest I realized one sad thing: prints and colors are often used to disguise the imperfection of the clothes made. Also, the simplest cuts and shapes can reveal the biggest flaws and shortcomings, and today I seem to have found them all. However not everything was lost, as I managed to complete the second task: get myself (at least) a pair of black jeans. This one was a very happy, very joyful experience. Without thinking I went to a Levi's store, where I simply said to the sales guy that I wanted a black pair of straight cut jeans. Without searching all over the place, he went for the perfect cut, and pegged me for a pair three sizes smaller. The sweetheart, he didn't know I always get a pair one size bigger since I like my pants just a tad big (I hate to wrestle myself into my pants, or even the feel of clothes being snug, and prefer that soft, slight looseness of clothes a bit stretched out. I know jeans normally stretch, so you are supposed to buy a pair that's very tight, but I still prefer them already bigger).

Slipping into the perfect pair, at the perfect size was like a dream. Legs sliding around my legs, waist line somewhat bigger than my waist, but that's nothing a little fitting can't fix, and hips just perfect. Why can't everything be this simple?

To finish the day, I tried to complete my first movie of the week, but I couldn't bring myself to watch either Battleship nor 21 Jump Street, so I went to my favorite café restaurant, and ordered a delicious Raffles Singapore Sling and some washi rolls. Both of them were to die for. So I checked also the cocktail of the week.

I'll give the first task another try tomorrow at a different commercial center, and also try to slide in one of the movies of the week. If things go well, I'll also try and get two things I'll need to prepare for two more of the tasks, but that will be a secret until tomorrow. ^_^

I've been thinking about making this List of 13 something constant in my life, or at least for a while. I've already been thinking about new tasks to add, new little adventures and tasks to include. 13 is a magical number for all the ideas and thoughts it provoke, so that's why I'd like to keep on that the number of tasks and adventures I'll set for myself. I haven't decided to the period I'll give to each List of 13, maybe 4 weeks for each, so that in a year I get 13 lists as well... from Full Moon to Full Moon, or Waxing Moon to Waxing Moon, New Moon to New Moon... who knows. The ideas are good, the projects and lists are fun. I'll decide when I make up my mind about it... and maybe by the time I make my next list.

May 21, 2012

Monday Lists

It's Monday again, and I'm not regreting it! That's one of the good things of not working: not minding the Mondays but LOVING them! The series I like are back on the TV, and we are not subjected to the otherwise boring weekend programming. Yes, weekdays are more "crime" and less "family", and who would rather watch a washed off re-run of Family Ties rather than another episode of CSI (or a re-run of Murder, She Wrote)? Stores open at regular schedules, and life gets to normal. I try to get back to my rutine, waking up to go jogging, and thinking about the future, a future that's about to change any day now. It's curious feeling to know that any day now the reply that will define your days for the next few years is about to come.

In the meantime, I'm soaking in with the begining of the Summer - not that I like it, but I can't stop it, so I better do my best to enjoy it. Thus while some major things about my future get sorted out, I've a couple of things to do to get myself occupied. Here's my To-Do List for the next weeks:

1. Get myself more black clothes that fit the Summer weather.
2. Get at least a pair of black jeans (all of them are in Costa Rica now)
3. Make myself some black jewelry
4. Try out some of the jewelry techniques I've seen on the net (bead ball medals and bead tubes)
5. Try and practice some Celtic knotting for jewelry making.
6. Explore my district.
7. Go check out what's there to see at the District's Main Square.
8. Go check the Aqvincum museum.
9. Check at least a museum per week.
10. Watch at least two movies per week.
11. Drink at least one cocktail a week.
12. Plan a trip to one of the following destinations: Praha, Germany (Giesen, Ratisbona, Munchen, Berlin...), Italy (Venice, Florence, Tuscany...), Kiev, Switzerland (Zürich, Geneva), Belgium (Meise, Bruxelles).
13. Get started with a new story.

There are many other projects written up in my book, many other tasks in my list, and many things to be thinking about, but so far I'll go first with this 13, and hope to have them done before June. After that may come another list.

May 20, 2012

Steal and Pretend

Based on a few notes in a datebook, I've started some research about the Massachusetts' Bay Puritans' ban of Christmas on 1659, and the actual background behind the idea that - as we can see today - didn't really got far. The ideas haven't crystalized enough, but as I was spinning the idea of how first Christianity took over Yule to make it a Christian celebration, (and Halloween/All Saints' Day), they claim it to be theirs only to then throw it away declaring it Pagan. Then today at Mass I heard a quote from the Bible where Jesus talked to their disciples about following the path He has shown to them, even though they get to be chasen and condemned, and done so by people who say to be acting in God's name. This gave a new twist to the plot, where the very words of Christ were twisted around and used to serve the interests of a part of society. Isn't it particularly funny that back then Jesus and his apostoles were condemned by main stream religions, outcasted, while they talked about love, and stood up against the stiff, unnatural structures that pulled mankind away from God, and now Christianity chases those who stand up for different ways to approach God or Divinity?

But I won't go into that right now, that perhaps will find its way to another post, but today, as these thoughts went around in my head, many plagiarism cases came to my mind. Some of them have shaken careers, as it has happened in Hungary, when it came to knowledge that the President had stolen parts of other people's work in his dissertation, and then a former Prime Minister was accused to plagiating the thesis of a brother-in-law. The first case provoked the demise of the President, and the second is still under investigation. However there are other cases of plagiarism, where people shamelessly take the work of others and present it as their own, or don't even mind putting their names on it, but present it namelessly and let people draw any conclusion.

From plagiarism at the office, where the argument often is that "we are not in college anymore, so these things don't matter in real life anymore", to scenes copied from an internet free story into a published book, or an article from an online magazine copied into a forum or a blog, claiming that either "things in the internet are free" to "imitation is the highest form of admiration". But be it as it may, stealing and presenting things in another light - either directly or indirectly - is still a disgusting business. Stealing is stealing - an curiously I believe there's a Commandment in every civilization, every society and every religion against it - no matter what you say or how you wish to explain it. Be it as it may, when you steal and claim that thing or concept to be yours, you are setting off a bomb that will be defused in the future. If you steal for a piece or a work, how do you explain that you can't produce another piece like that? It may happen at any time that the job gets found out, then what would you do? Pretend it's nothing? And if it's such a small matter, why weren't you able to do it by yourself?

The thing with stealing, it's that it's a contaminating business: you may steal once, but from the moment it gets discovered, everything you've done and you do in life will be seen as product of stealing, stamping it upon every single act in your life. Thing is that, as it happens with people, so happens with what people build. A person who's reputation is stained by theft, is ruined and nobody would ever thrust them again, but also a company that steals or an organization that lies can be thrusted. So, how much harder would it hit a religion, that started out on honest, good intentions and derailed in short term solutions to bring its teachings to the wide world. And if those short term solutions were based upon lies and merciful compromises? What happens when so many of these have been used that the bases of a religion are weakened and cave in under the pressure of the truth?

The funny thing is that the reality of the Divine isn't touched by it - that uses no plagiarims - but the means to reach to it, to understand it, to commune with it can be corrupted and suddenly let a lot of people at loss, and civilizations could collapse because of too many lies and too much theft.

May 19, 2012

Those Small Differences

There was a time when I would have never thought I would look for bead jewelry. It was at the financial high peak of my life (understood this not as the time when I made the most money, but when I spent the most money), and I had "graduated" from what's called "fantasy jewelry" (meaning jewelry made of lookalike metals and rhynestones), and wanted to wear only real things. My motto back then was "if it looks like emeralds, then they better be emeralds". I leaned more and gave more importance to the working of the metal then, and prefered many filigree silver jewelry, quickly taking this taste even to pieces where the metal nearly worked only as the setting of a stone. However, in that time too I also developped - in accordance to this new philosophy - a liking for jewelry made of organic materials, particularly wood, but also feathers, seeds and leather.

Then, as it happens in every working environment I've known (long enough, in Costa Rica), the office black markets and secret bazaars brought back the bead jewelry. From the daughter of a coworker, who was taking classes in jewelry making, to the niece of another who had a severe illness and in her long stays at the hospital learned to make jewelry, I got back to the beauty of the plastic and glass creations that had something many other pieces didn't: they were handmade, each based on unique creativity. From these informal artisans I started filling my jewelry box with different pieces, until I found my friend and biggest handmade jewelry dealer of all times: my friend Dragonfly. As you all know by now, she's also my master in this art, and the one to first introduce me to how to work strung jewelry, and some tricks on wired jewelry as well. Then, I attented also to a one hour free class that my bookstore in Costa Rica - Librería Internacional - had arrenged for club members.

With this knowledge I set myself to start making my own jewelry, dreaming with the day I'd be like Dragonfly, and make the night before the jewelry I would wear the next day, that would fit perfectly my clothes. (That has been the case only a couple of times, but mostly on the last days of May, when I realize I don't have enough black jewelry to wear in June. Then again, every May - and this May isn't the exception - I worry I don't have enough black clothes to wear.) However, aside from the knowledge, another important thing is needed for the jewelry making, and that's the tools and the supplies. I started the way any other woman in my position would - I took my dad's pliers - but my dad didn't have threads, beads or wire. Now, in Costa Rica there's a large beadshop chain known as Zodiac (well, I know of three of their stores, one of which I haven't visited because I don't like the place), and then there was a small beadshop in the city were I lived. With different sorts of arrangements, there's always a central shelve unit where loose beads are displayed in small boxes or compartments, from where you can take them and they'll be charged by the unit, while the walls of the place are lined from ceiling to floor with bags and strings of beads, generally arranged by color, though not necesarily following the chromatic order (meaning that all blues are together, and all reds are together, and all greens are together, but it doesn't start with the reds, follows by the oranges and goes on so, ending with the violets). (Zodiac, however, started as a New Age store, with plenty of material for the Pagans and people seeking alternative routes to traditional religion, but the bead business proved to be more profitable than the spiritual enlightening.)

In here I started buying my beads, wires, cords and clasps, and ended up giving back my dad his tools and getting my own pliers. However, it didn't matter how much I searched the shelves and bags hanging from pegs, or revolved in the small boxes and bins for the beads, I never seemed to find the type of beautiful pieces Dragonfly uses for her creations. I was certain she had another supplier, so I pressed her for more information, but she said that all she did was spend a good time looking for some worthy pieces. Eventually I  invested some time to turn around each piece looking for the best ones, though when it came to the small metalic parts, I never managed to find the polished, pretty looking ones she uses on her jewelry.

When I came to Hungary, I left behind a rather large stock of beads and supplies, but trusted I would find here proper stores. Little I knew it wouldn't be that easy at all. Yeah, Hungary has that about herself: one thing is what you see on the net, and another what you find in real life. Many of the stores advertised on the net didn't exist in real life - either because the stores had closed, or because they only sell online - and their supply isn't always what you need. One of those, for instance, had a huge supply of beads, but was short of tools, wires and threads. Now, what can I do with beads when I can't string them up or wire them?

Things became more friendly when I found my current beadshop. My only sour surprise with them was that they don't take cards, and you know I'm not what you'd call a "cash loving person". However, this is the place where I saw the bead world of Hungary. The names of the beads, the sizes, the shapes, and the colors! I had struggled so much in Costa Rica to find purple or violet beads with no avail, finding by accident  some lilac beads that stood closer to pink than to violet, but in here, filled in tubes and small packs, there were displayed many tones of purple, violet and lilac, and also brown beads of such erathy shades I had never imagined before. I noticed the lack of beads that could help me make ethnic pieces. No wood carved rose beads, not colored wood beads... two or three only with a more runic taste to them. No coconut shells, or carved wood medals, no seeds turned into beads either by coloring, carving or simply by piercing. However a world of porcelan, glass and painted beads spread before me. "Ethnic" here is different, here it's Ancient, Traditional, Old and even Pagan, in a sense different that than from the Discovery, Conquest and Colonization (known and embedded in the soul of all Americans), but rather in a sense of what we were when we had many gods and or fields were soaked in the blood of battles, attacks, wars and looting.

It's the same craft, but the techniques are different, and the magic is different too. Here, there's a different sense when you go Earthy, and primal, but even when you go more modern the feel in the making is different.

Another thing that's missing are the chains. There are not already made chains, but you are supposed to make them link by link from wire. However, there are necklace bases of thread, cord, lace and even thinner wire.

I have the pieces gathered for a couple necklaces, and am looking for inspiration for earrings as well. I haven't started any of them yet, but hopefully will have at least the black ones ready before June. Once I have them, I'll probably display them here. However, in the meanwhile, I'm happy just planning and looking around for beads and ideas and letting the magic gather up before I use it.

May 18, 2012

A Day of Small Adventures

Perhaps today is going to be yet another one of those days - like Tuesday - that I won't be sure I've lived. Damned, I need to get serious with TV shows so that I can set a day tracker in my life. Today I just kept forgetting that it was Friday, and though you may ask why do I need to know which day am I in when I'm not working, well, because others do and businesses keep different hours and Wednesdays, as I recently discovered, the movies can be seen at a reduced rate.

There was no "level 2" and nothing particular to nag at my nerves today, but as my boyfriend prepared to go out to work, I though about yesterday, and how I wanted to go to the movies (after having gone on Wednesday after Level 2), but I didn't go for I was too lazy and otherwise occupied with being lazy, watching some TV, reading some political/financial magazines and busying about the Internet; I though that maybe today would be a good day to make it up for what I left undone. As an after thought, I smiled thinking how on Wednesday - for Level 2 - I acually dressed according with the color of the day suggested by Llewellyn's Witches Datebook, without knowing. I wore brown head to toe and was looking SMASHING in it.

I had gone for the beads, as you know, but haven't bought all I needed to string up a decent set, so I thought that today was just perfect to go over there and hit the glasses and little compartments with beads and make magic. After having taken a look at my book on jewelry, it was easy to go there with a purpose, so I came out of there with a hefty bounty of many, many colored beads of different sizes and shapes, loose, packed in small bags and little tubes. The owner of the tiny place was nice to me and gave me a 10% discount considering me already a "regular". The place was buzzing with ladies so at home around beads and jewelry supplies, talking about the techniques they were most versed in, and referring to bead and supply details I have never heard before. To my amazement, I was quickly included in the conversations and was part of sharing the experiences of how we love to make jewelry, but end up with more pieces than what we can wear in a lifetime. I believe my friend Dragonfly-cr can perfectly relate to that.

From there I rushed to the movies at a close-by commercial center - just like I did in Wednesday. My mission was simple: The Raven followed by The Avengers. I thought I was going to see one good movie followed by one bad movie - but I wanted to see the bad movie to get the jokes on Internet about it. As it happens, I saw a lame movie followed by a comic-comic movie. Thor was handsome, and so was Captain America, and Scarlet Johanson's sidekick, and IronMan was the heart of the movie... though I had to keep myself in check so I wouldn't shout "Go Sherlock!".

These are my third and forth movies of the week, as on Wednesday I saw the terrible "The Woman in Black" followed by "Dark Shadows"... which was just as disappointing. It was like I went to see - and paid! - a really bad episode of Supernatural, with no plot at all, and lacking the two handsome Winchester brothers and their slash, and then went to see a washed down version of "The Monster Family meets Beetlejuice". Oh well, at least today I saw The Avengers and there were handsome guys in it.

Haven't hit the movies so hard in ages, but then again, if I don't do it now that I've the time, when else would I do it? Only, just for insurance, next time I'll hit another movie complex, so that I don't get to be the regular-regular who watches two movies in a row... like I do.

People really don't come to the movies much in Hungary. The Raven was deserted, and the premier was yesterday. Well, The Avengers was full, and the premier of it was weeks ago. Wonder how will it be for the premier of Brave.

In between the movies, I went to have some light, late lunch at one of my favorite restaurants: Leroy. Though this was the one where I can ask for gyozas - and they prepare them superbly - I wanted something new. I asked for a Miso soup - which was particularly horrendous, tasting too much of vinagre - and completed the order with a Tennessee Highball (Jack Daniels, giner ale, lime) and an order of hamachi sashimi. Believe it or not, that was my first order of sashimi of my hole life. I wanted something light, something wholesome, and what could be more wholesome, more healthy, more light than fresh, raw fish slices?

Well, I didn't regret my decision. The order contained three thick slices of hamachi  - which I understand is white tuna - fresh and juicy, served with the mandatory ginger shaves, some wasabi and a siding of cucumber. The pieces were simply exquisite, and each nearly melted in my mouth as I took a bite from them. Perhaps it's not the cheapest thing one can order, but it was amazing and absolutely worth it. Then of course, maybe a Tennessee Highball wasn't the proper drink for it, but it was all amazing and got me out of the fiasco mood after The Raven and ready for the Avengers, even if I had to deal with Ms. Johanson's annoying acting. There goes another actress falling off the wagon, forgeting the requierements of her craft in the name of a fame gained on their physical atributes... Pitiful.

At least the sashimi was good.

So, adding it up, I tried new things and I hit also the old ones, and from all of them I reaped fabulous experiences and a great chance to relax, lay back and enjoy life, because that's what it has been given to us.

May 17, 2012

The Little Passions of an Artisanal Jeweler

A friend of mine suggested the other day, that I should try and make a living our to making jewelry. The idea - truth to be told - seems somewhat farfetched for me. Me? An artisanal jeweler? Not that I look down at such a beautiful job, but more like I'm not sure about my skills at jewelry making, nor would I know how to start such an enterprise. Could I even start selling them? And if I do, could I keep up the pace with the making of the jewelry? Could my creativity run far enough to make enough exciting necklaces, bracelets and earrings? My handwork - crude as it is still, goes mostly to please my friends, making them humble sets for birthdays, Christmas or some particular occasion, and even so, to make a set for a friend I often spend months and months trying to come up with a good idea, with something inspiring, trying to get a concept of what that person makes me feel, what I think of them, beaded up and strung up. Then there's a hunt for the beads and parts I need - which never, EVER, goes as easy as I'd like it to go.

This was my jewelry making box back in Costa Rica.
Even this contained only a small part of my supplies.

Most of the time my problem is that I can't find the pieces I want, or that I would like a particular piece, a particular design, and all that ends with me thinking that I should take a course of goldsmith and silversmith, and other similar crafts that would allow me to not only string or wire up beads and other elements into handmade jewelry, but also be able to make the pieces - beads, medalions and such - to make even more personalized and organic pieces. Then, however stupid it might sound, I tend to think of the jewelry I make, as a form of magic. In a piece I craft - even if it's composed of synthetic pieces - there are thoughts about the person I'm making it for, and good wishes. Wishes of happiness, of peace, of health, of success, of love, joy and such. It's not like they are magic charms that would bring upon them love or money or any of those things, but they carry my energy and my love and good wishes. Though I could imagine making them simply hoping that the person who wears them will have happiness in their lives - while wearing or not the piece, that shouldn't matter - could I keep it up if I'm doing it for a business?

My jewelry supplies now.
This is all.
I particularly like the porcelain beads.

I've bought a cardboard box and a pair of pliers perhaps some two months ago or more. They stayed on a shelve for a while. I wasn't feeling like making jewelry, though I love making it. I dreamed of making lovely, chunky ethnic-like pieces - much like those Dr. Bones uses in the series - but never got around to make them. After over three months, I know only one beadshop... and that's more than the number of yoga centers or scrapbook stores I know. That one beadshop - though magical - is so tiny they don't really cater for extravagant pieces to string up ethnic pieces.

The beadshop was full, however, of beads and supplies I have never seen before. Wires of different thickness - and I mean, different sizes measured by a tenth of milimeter difference! Then beads beautifully displayed in tiny test tubes and little glasses. I found tubes of purple beads, which I haven't been able to find nowhere else, and all sorts of glass medalions and such. Then, the other day - right after yet another disaster experience - I decided to go soothe my soul at the beadshop. I remember a remark my friend Patricia added to one of my posts about a necklace (a "Mother Earth" necklace, actually, which I included because the design was so beautiful, organic and nearly primitively religious, I felt it related well to the topic) and though about trying to use it as inspiration to string up my own Mother Nature necklace. Well, there were not enough supplies there for that necklace, and some of the wood beads that would have worked where outrageously expensive, so I simply went around the tiny place carefully looking at the supplies. Then, before I new it, I was packing up a small wood plate with metal compliments, a couple more of pliers, some wire, a 7 compartment case, earring hooks and an assortment of glass and porcelain beads. The pieces by themselves didn't speak to me about no piece to be made, I just bought them because they were pretty, and I have never seen anything like them in Costa Rica.

I'd like to start making some jewelry again, as not only I love new jewels, but I enjoy making them very much. However, there are still many supplies to be gathered for that, and many experiences to be collected to fuse into my next pieces. Handfuls of my handmade jewelry stayed back in Costa Rica, and only some pieces made it here (particularly my black creations, as I need all my June Jewelry with me, for they are otherwise hard to find), but a new place and new experiences need new pieces. Who knows? Maybe in my next piece I'll find the commercial inner jeweler in me, but until then, my handmade spells remind free of charge and gifts of the heart.