On A Day Like This

Elbow - On A Day Like This
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Someone tell me how I feel
It’s silly wrong but vivid right
Oh, kiss me like the final meal
Yeah, kiss me like we die tonight

My Word of the Day 3

EXILITY

Be Grateful!

It’s a good idea to look back and reflect on the year that’s just coming to an end. What are you grateful for?

1. What made you happy?
2. What energized you?
3. What barrier did you overcome?
4. What changed you?
5. What triggered your creativity?
6. What deepened your spirituality?
7. What kindness did you experience?
8. What did others do for you?
9. What inspired you?
10. What made you feel good?
11. What difficulty taught you an important lesson?



Gratitude is a mind state that leads to happiness and contentment. So, it’s good to go forward into the new year with a grateful heart. We can get caught up in negative emotions, like resentment or anger. But such emotions are destructive and painful for you as well as for others.
Whenever you notice that you’re energy is negative, ask yourself:
“What am I grateful for?”

Carolling

Scene: a group of people have just finished carolling at Mr. Scrooge's door. He replies:
- Utter crap!
- Thank you very much, sir! Can we get our Christmas treat?
- Yes, indeed you can.
- What is it?
- It's a door in the face. Here you are!


I am soooo looking forward to seeing this:

Heavenly Voice

Brand new discovery: Elizabeth Frazer

Elizabeth Fraser - Moses
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To read more about her musical past, click here.

Let It Snow

If You Believe...

It seems that for some people and countries everything is possible.
The 4 people behind the Pirate Bay, a file-sharing website, were condemned this May to a year in jail and a 3 million pound fine. As a result, some Swedish people gathered into the Pirate Party and managed to secure 7.1% of the Swedish votes for the European Parliament, which proved a smashing success.
So, we have eba and her failure of a sailor, they have the real Pirates...
More here.

Il neige sur la ville...

Comme il neige dans mon coeur... (pour paraphraser le poete Verlaine)

Socializing

- SO, WHAT DO YOU DO?
- THE QUESTION IS WHAT DO I DON'T...
- WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?
- WHAT THE HELL DOESN'T THAT MEAN?

BeMused

Haunting song - Undisclosed Desires, MUSE



I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognize your beauty is not just a mask
I want to exorcise the demons from your past
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart

Dancing Amelie

A Poem

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

W.E. Henley

My Word of the Day 2

SYCOPHANCY

Philosophy Bites

Every society has notions of what one should believe and how one should behave in order to avoid suspicion and unpopularity. What we call "common sense" actually dictates what to wear, whom we should esteem, which etiquette we should follow and what domestic life we should lead. To start questioning these conventions would seem bizarre, even aggressive. The more people adhere to certain conventions, the more difficult it is to question the status quo and thus, we stifle our doubts and follow the flock. OR, we continue to read!

My Word of the Day

EQUANIMITY

When God is Playing Rock

... and Satan is ruining the song... :)

Shortest Story Ever

There is a one line story circulating on the internet and which is attributed to Ernest Hemingway. It goes like this : "Classified: Baby Goods. For sale, baby shoes, never worn."
Could you create a story in just one line?

Ecstatic Process

Snow Patrol and Martha Wainwright setting fire to the third bar...

Dandelions and thoughts

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.

Yesterday is but today's memory, tomorrow is today's dream.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Your life is an island separated from all other islands and continents. Regardless of how many boats you send to other shores or how many ships arrive upon your shores, you yourself are an island separated by its own pains, secluded in its happiness.

If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

ALL QUOTES BY KAHLIL GIBRAN.

We Are the People that Rule the World

Say we want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And on the street


John Lennon - Power to the people
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Declaratie de Scarba

Preluata de pe Jurnalul National.

de Victor Ciutacu
21/09/2009

Trec peste limbajul de tinichigiu al ospătariei proferat în autoinvitaţiile de la posturile publice de radio şi tv, total nespecific unui lider politic european modern. Mă concentrez numai asupra fondului. Care fond a scos din Traian Băsescu, nu ştiu şi nici nu mă interesează dacă înainte sau după ciorba de potroace acrită cu multă zeamă de varză, enormitatea potrivit căreia apar în fiecare seară la tv unii care-s scârbiţi de ţară şi-o ponegresc. Cum bănuiesc că mă număr şi eu printre "trădătorii de neam şi ţară" care-i strică serile Olimpianului de la Cotroceni, simt nevoia să intervin, în numele meu, cu nişte specificaţii tehnice; aşa, ca de la inginer la unul care se laudă că ar fi şi el inginer.

Domnu' prezident, după cum bine vă alintă Mona Pivniceru, raportez cu smerenie că eu, tonomatul cu euro, nu sunt deloc scârbit de republica pe care o iubesc, unde m-am născut, am trăit şi continui să vieţuiesc. Ştiu că v-ar avantaja să vă scutesc de prezenţa mea, dar sunt al dracului de căpos şi mi-e drag să trăiesc în spaţiul carpato-dunăreano-pontic. Da, sunt scârbit până la limita regurgitării, dar nu de ţară şi popor, ci de dumneavoastră, de anturajul dumneavoastră, de clica de aproximativi pupincurişti fără scrupule şi avizi de bani care vă-nconjoară. Iar scârba mea e pe cale să atingă cote apocaliptice.

Pentru că orice om normal priveşte uluit cum înalta funcţie de preşedinte al României a ajuns să fie exercitată prin birturi şi oboare. Pentru că orice om normal care vă priveşte vede un activist comunist trimis în misiune în străinătate de regimul dictatorial pe care, peste 20 de ani, avea să-l condame în Parlamentul democratic. Pentru că orice om normal vede cum aţi lucrat o viaţă întreagă la stat şi aţi ajuns milionar în euro. Pentru că orice om normal vede cum, în timp ce peroraţi împotriva sistemului de cumetrie, v-aţi aranjat pe viaţă tot neamul. Pentru că orice om normal vede cum, în ţara pe care ar trebui să o reprezentaţi cu demnitate, v-aţi pus muzele ministrese şi, în ciuda tuturor evidenţelor, continuaţi să le ţineţi în braţe. Înclin să cred că sunt un om normal, domnule Băsescu. Pe cale de consecinţă, în cazul în care n-aţi priceput încă din scurta mea enumerare, dumneavoastră îmi provocaţi scârbă.

JUST SAY YES

One of the million reasons life is still a happy place to be :)

Snow Patrol Just Say Yes
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UPDATE: The video premiered just minutes ago on msn.com.

A Rich Time Traveler's Wife

Who could believe in Romania, the land where people stopped buying books a long time ago, mainly because they are as expensive as the originals published abroad, that in the US a writer can receive 5 million dollars for her second book???

Six years after the publication of her blockbuster best-selling novel, “The Time Traveler’s Wife” ,Audrey Niffenegger has sold a new manuscript for close to $5 million, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. It is an especially significant sum at a time of economic uncertainty in the publishing world. Yet, some people still think culture sells (at least in some parts of the world...)

For those who don't have the money or the patience to read a 500 page book, "The Time Traveler's Wife" has been turned into a movie which premiered this August, with rather disappointing reviews.
FYI: The book is one of Madonna's favorites...
The trailer here.

HAMLET IN 2 MINUTES

BACK TO SCHOOL

This is going to be a tough year, especially for my beloved 12th grade. Good luck, children of the century!

Asta e BOU-ul ce ne conduce!

"Paradoxul poate consta tocmai in aceea ca nemultumirea tuturor poate consta faptul de a fi o lege buna".
Intrebare: Cata minte iti trebuie ca sa faci o astfel de afirmatie?
Raspuns: Nu ai nevoie de minte, e suficienta o limba si locul perfect unde sa lingi...
Intrebare: Daca ar fi la bac, la proba orala, ce calificativ i-ati da?
Raspuns: Nu s-a inventat un calificativ pentru un astfel de cretin ajuns la putere doar pentru ca a avut o limba suficient de lunga si de abila.

Extrapolat, asta inseamna ca tot ce nemultumeste pe toata lumea e bun! Socrate si-ar trage pumni in gura ca nu s-a gandit la asa ceva...

NU MAI POOOOT CU CRETINII ASTIA!
LA VOOOOOOT!

09 / 09 / 09

Today is the 9th of September, 2009. This is going to be the last time we experience this alignment of numbers, after last year's 08/08/08... Next time, that will be on 1st January, 2101. There is even an animated movie to be released today, entitled simply "9".
Are you superstitious? Do you have a lucky number? My astrological sign, Taurus, states that 9 is my lucky number.
Did you know that, for example, the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine? So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.

Here's a beautiful song, with lucky number 9:

Katie Melua Live 9 million bicycles
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The Script

The Script are my newest revelation. They are an Irish rock band from Dublin and their debut album, released in August 2008 went multi - platinum. This year, they have supported U2 in their 360 tour, Take That and Paul McCartney.
First single, "We cry", second single "The man who can't be moved" and third, and my favorite track on the album "Breakeven" which you can listen to right here:

Breakeven - The Script
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Hide and Seek in the White House

It seems the most powerful and protected location on earth can definitely be a ground for hide - and - seek. Here's a picture released by Obama himself, with his daughter Sasha trying to sneak up on him :)
The other picture shows late president Kennedy and his son, hiding under the desk.
To read more, click here.
To find out about The White House, click here.

BUTLER. Gerald Butler.

I ignored him in 300, I loved him in P.S. I love You, I simply adored him in Dear Frankie but this movie seems FIERCE:

CELEBRATION

Madonna - Celebration (Video)
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A Puff of Smoke

BLOW SMOKE: If people blow smoke, they exaggerate or say things that are not true, usually to make themselves look better.

SMOKE LIKE A CHIMNEY: Someone who smokes very heavily smokes like a chimney.

END IN SMOKE: If something ends in smoke, it produces no concrete or positive result.

HOLY SMOKE!: This is a way of expressing surprise: "Holy smoke! Look at all of those geese!"

NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE: When people suspect something, there is normally a good reason for the suspicion, even if there is no concrete evidence.

The land of NO opportunities

Just minutes ago I was confirmed once again that romania is the land where the more incompetent you are, the more you suck up to the right worthless people in higher positions, the better for you. And what's funny is that most people comply with this, partly because they are too weak to say no, partly because they drool over a piece of that ugly cheese called "power", they desperately wish for their 15 seconds of fame (15 minutes will be way too much for such people). Plus, worthless people like being surrounded by other worthless people, but I guess that goes without saying...

M is for MIRACLE

We still have no clue how to appreciate an artist when he/she is performing. We have no idea what common sense and tolerance mean. We don't even have to get stupid... we are already there and I am ashamed we will never change. For the better.
UPDATE: This is us, seen by the international press.

Fun & Games

ITHACA

An exquisite poem about our journey, written by Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis.

As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don’t be afraid of them:
you’ ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

The complete version of the poem, here.

51

UPDATE: BANNER FROM THE 15TH OF AUGUST, POLAND SHOW, BLOODY FANTASTIC!

Fighting for Slavery

As you surely know, people are still fighting for democracy in Afghanistan. Is it working? Not really! American journalists found out a law which practically legalizes rape.
Months ago, there was this law that refused to acknowledge the right of a woman to refuse sex to her husband. Under mounting pressure, President Karzai ordered a review of the legislation. After some deliberation, the law was then sent back to Parliament with a clause stating that husbands had the right to withhold food if their wives refused to have sex with them. The law also allows rapists to marry their victims to absolve their crimes.
Article 132 of the law says, “As long as the husband is not traveling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night. Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband.”


This law grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers. It requires women to get permission from their husbands to work.
These kinds of barbaric laws were supposed to have been relegated to the past with the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, yet president Karzai has revived them and given them his official stamp of approval. Many women activists have accused Karzai of abandoning his previous moderate views on women's rights to help him secure votes in the presidential election, due this month.
Even if Amnesty International has released a serious statement claiming that the law is a violation of human rights, it seems little can be done in order to really acknowledge and respect women's rights in this country, for which even Romania is fighting.

Something to Remember

Something to Remember is a collection of Madonna's greatest ballads, including songs from soundtracks, tracks which had not previously appeared on any of her albums and three new recordings.
The song which gives its name to the album, "Something to Remember", was included on the 1990 studio album I'm Breathless and appears on the compilation as track 9. The Japanese version of the album contained the bonus track, "La Isla Bonita", the South America and Spanish versions had "Verás", a Spanish version of "You'll See".

Here's my favorite track on the album, Take a Bow, which of course, first appeared on the 1994 album, "Bedtime Stories". Remixed. Probably revised :)


Madonna - Take a Bow Remix
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Art for M's sake

The Power of Madonna

Helsinki, 6th of August

boc & EUROPASS

High school students are expected, with next year, to be able to get the Europass aka a European certificate attesting your skills in a foreign language. Of course, no one says anything about the level of linguistic competences you have to possess in order to get it... so, I definitely and naively wonder, would prime minister boc's English qualify for Europass?

P.S. I need a paper bag in order to puke...
P.P.S. The recipe of the day presents alligator tail with cream and whiskey... I have the cream and whiskey, anyone got the alligator? :)

SPIRALLING

"... I fashioned you from jewels and stone, I made you in the image of myself, I gave you everything you wanted so you would never know anything else ... "



Keane Spiralling
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Lyrics here.

Bachelor Wash

Bachelor Wash

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Butter Face

butter face

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Research made FUN

I have accidentally (and luckily) discovered this new hilarious TV series whose main themes are about science, technology and research... with, of course, rather mad scientists, bitchy but sexy bosses who will try anything to be successful! I LOVE IT!

Be your own Grandmother! :)

That means cooking delicious apple pies (for yourself and the others), taking care of your cat (if you have one), always smiling when someone visits you, being nice to children (whether they are your grandchildren or not), understanding all kinds of people because you have the experience and the patience for that. Also, look back with serenity, not anger, accept when someone wants to help you and quit being hysterical!

Post dedicated to Andrada

L.O.L.

A real eye - opener

Here's a part of the list Coelho made about absurd things that society thinks are "normal"... Do you agree?

1] Anything that makes us forget our true identity and our dreams and makes us only work to produce and reproduce.

2] Working from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon at something that does not give us the least pleasure, so that we can retire after 30 years.

3] Trying to be financially successful instead of seeking happiness.

4] Comparing objects like cars, houses and clothes, and defining life according to these comparisons instead of really trying to find out the true reason for being alive.

5] Thinking that parents are always right.

6] Criticizing everybody who tries to be different.

7] Believing absolutely everything that is printed.

8] Following fashion, even though it all looks ridiculous and uncomfortable.

9] Never laughing out loud in a restaurant, no matter how funny the story is.

10] Eating three times a day, even if you’re not hungry.

11] Always saying “I tried”, even though you haven’t tried at all.

12] Putting off doing the most interesting things in life until you no longer have the strength to do them.

13] Avoiding depression with massive daily doses of television programs.

CAN'T WAIT!!!!

WATCH STICKY AND SWEET TOUR BROADCAST ON THE 4TH OF JULY, HERE

HEDGEHOGS and other trifles...

What do you do when you hear that a 12 year old clever girl wants to commit suicide when she turns 13? You read on...

TO BE CONTINUED

FLOWERS AND GIRLS...

My first creation in PhotoScape :))

Sexing the Cherry

I had the chance of reading “Sexing the Cherry” seven years ago, when I had no idea how fascinated I would become over the British writer Jeanette Winterson.
The novel, recently published by Humanitas and acknowledged by the Sunday Telegraph as “entrancing and fabulous” tells the story of the Dog Woman and Jordan, the boy with the river name.
Their universe – London of the 17th century – becomes a universe in which the limit is established by imagination and the voyages become magical when they happen in our minds. Jordan, a dreamer, sets out looking for love and truth “I have set off and found that there is no end to even the simplest journey of the mind. I begin, and straight away a hundred alternative routes present themselves. I choose one, no sooner begin, than a hundred more appear” to discover himself , in the end, because “the future and the present and the past exist only in our minds.” Playing with time and catching a glimpse of the character in 1990 London, at the end of the book, are only hints of what Jordan uttered (and recurrent themes that Winterson often used – to see The Stone Gods)
The Dog Woman, a fabulous but also tender character reminds us of Rablais’ grotesque characters.
Besides the magic realism that features in the books written by Winterson in the ‘80s (The Passion is one of those), a constant theme in her writings is the one of the secret life, a life that happens beyond everybody else’s glances, whether they are real or imaginary.
“Are we all living like this? Two lives, the ideal outer life and the inner imaginative life where we keep our secrets?”
“Sexing the Cherry” is a novel that conveys the force to take us to a fairy land, a fairy land for adults, where returning home means finding yourself.



P.S. This essay was written for the contest organized by Humanitas and Vodafone.
UPDATE: I AM AMONG THE WINNERS OF THE CONTEST, YEEEY!

Monkey Business

What does a monkey know of the taste of ginger? (Hindu proverb)

I HEART THESE KIDS :)

I am very proud of my talented students, so here are a few pics from our latest production "Class Clown"...

100 novels everyone should read!

I stumbled upon this top 100 of important novels and found it quite relevant, although I would definitely change 10, 20 of them... KEEP ON READING! Me, I have read 54 so far :)

Careful what you wish for!

The excellent, rather creepy cartoon I watched the other day was CORALINE. It's the dark fairytale of a blue-haired girl who wishes her parents weren't so self-preoccupied with themselves and cared more for her and her needs. With this is mind, she openly agrees to spend some time with the identical parents (with buttons instead of eyes) that she found through a small door in the wall... until... but I will let you discover her adventures, the witty cat and the dancing mice, all spiced up with some quote from Hamlet.
If all ends well, that's for you to decide!