Learn a new language or two

Why not? Actually, I have quite a collection of language books and tapes. I rarely have time to study, but I love solving puzzles and languages are one of the most interesting puzzles I know of. My latest addition, yet to be unwrapped is a learn Croation book and cd set. Why not Albanian? Well, I haven't come across a book yet. Most likely I will have to order one. Though, I read somewhere, that most Albanians have picked up Italian from watching television, and that the next language behind that is English. Hmmm, not only do I know someone who is fluent in Italian, but, yep you guessed it, I just happen to have a book or two on basic Italian.

Here's a phrase, in Croatian,that at least one of my friends will find very helpful (if he ever visits Croatia, that is).

Gdje je mjesni?
(gdye ye mye-snee?)
Translation: Where is the local internet cafe?

If you are thinking, gee that sounds a lot like a slavic language (I know I did), well, you would be correct. Croatian is a break off of the slavic tongue with a few external influences--latin from the reign of Charlemagne and the catholic church, and turkish from the days of Turkish rule. They adopted the roman alphabet under Charlemagnes rule, rather than the cyrilic. And, of course, that slavic influence caught my attention right away. My third language, of which I remember little other than pronounciation and how to read the alphabet, was russian.

Anyway, if you're interested, here are a couple of selections to get you started. Actually, there aren't many out there to choose from.

Teach Yourself Croatian, available with or without cds. From the teach yourself series, of course. And the Croatian Phrasebook, though a little behind the times at least as far as digital photography is concerned, from lonelyplanet.com. I'll add the links later tonight, right now I have to speed off to another day of work.

Howler???

I suppose the title of this post has two possible directions to take. In this case the meaning isn't really good, but it's not completely bad either. Does that make any sense?

Movies seen last weekend--only one.

Blood and Chocolate:: The story takes place in a modern day Bucharest and tells the tale of nineteen year old Vivian Gandillon, who has spent her life on the run from the truth...that she is a werewolf. When her affections for a visiting American artist threaten to expose her family's secret society, she must choose between her love for an outsider and betraying the secret vows of her family.

Or, at least that is how the movie is described. Vivian, however, doesn't come across as if she is running from the truth that she is a werewolf or anything else. In fact the secret that she is hiding from turns out to be something else, though it is related to her wolfish nature. She actually doesn't come across as troubled in any way, though once she meets up with her American artist we do get the sense that she is hiding something, at least from him.

My opinion--well there is very little blood and even less chocolate in this film. There is one special effect, and while nice, it is not fantastic. The movie is not frightening or intense--I didn't have to duck behind anything, even partially, not once. The romance is there just barely and really feels like nothing more than a light infatuation or good friends in the making, well, except for the few kisses they have. In fact I can only recall one scene with a tiny bit of smooching. I also have to wonder how the rest of us humans wouldn't notice there was something different about the werewolves, especially the young males, what with the way they moved so, well almost cat-like and definitely predatorially.

My recommendation, if you must see this movie, is to see it as a matinee. Or better yet, wait for it to come out on dvd. Maybe save it for your weekly movie night group to watch and discuss? It's not entirely bad. It's better than a made for tv movie, barely.

For my Photographer friends

You know who you are.

Here's a book you may or may not have looked at.



I haven't perused the entire text, but there are some wonderful photographs in here, and the opening excerpt is compelling.



"To me, "What are you trying to say with this photograph?" is the most fundamental of all questions regarding creative photography.

Nature and outdoor photographers want to share the beauty of a landscape, the drama of light, and the action of wildlife. Travel photographers want to share the faces of a culture, a slice of daily life, and a sense of place. Photojournalists want to share the moment or emotional situation before them. We're really all after the same thing: to create images that express what we see, feel, and experience in the world around us. Whether we are aiming for artistic interpretation or realism, the common goal is to make our photographs as creative and expressive as possible.

Why do so many images fail to convey what the photographer really saw or experienced? They are side-of-the-road or edge-of-the-crowd snapshots, static records of what was seen. Those photographs don't move us--they don't invite us in to explore the visual scene or to experience the moment. Usually, the photographer approached the scene as a removed observer. No matter what you are photogrpahing, if you are not feeling connected with what you are seeing, viewers won't connect with the final picture. When you aren't clear about what you want to say with the photograph, the resulting visual message may say nothing. At best, it may only communicate the facts in a less-than-exciting way."


Does any of the above sound familiar? Have you spent a lot of money on wonderful equipment, learned a great deal of technique (we never stop learning that), and still find yourself producing photos possibly worthy of postcards, but rarely more and often less? Are you wondering what it will take to achieve that National Geographic or Newsweek photo quality that you dream of? What is it that is lacking from your photos? Could it be that what is lacking is you? Not physically, but emotionally, visionally? Like every artist, to be your best you have to find a way to put yourself into your work, your photos. With luck, that will come naturally. It's what you're doing to block yourself that isn't natural. The shy awkwardness of being unwilling to crawl on the ground or place yourself inside the crowd rather than on the edges, and so many other little pitfalls that you place in your own way.

I know it describes me. And I know some of my very best photos have developed when I just forgot about the other people around me and let myself get muddy or flow into the scene I was photographing.

Like I said, I haven't read this book. The excerpt, though, on Amazon.com is well worth a short inspirational read, if you just need a tiny boost.

Ok, here's a question for all you Romantics out there

Valentine's day is only a couple weeks away. How do you plan to spend yours?

If you're planning on going out on the town and you live in an over crowded romance zone, like LA, and you haven't thought about making reservations yet, you might want to consider at least checking in to when your favourite hot spot will begin taking them.

If you don't have any idea at all what you will do, take a look at these helpful suggestions and links.

How to pick the right gift for Valentine's Day

Suggestions from Yahoo

Vermont Teddy Bear Company

Gourmet Gift Baskets

These are only suggestions to get your mind and heart working, I haven't actually checked any of these out myself, though the teddy bears are cute and cuddly--ok, I have a weakness for the furry little guys. :-)

What will I be doing on Valentine's Day? Well, there won't be any dates for this year, at least not that I know of. I'll be recovering from dental surgery, so somehow I don't think I'll mind just curling up on the couch with a warm cup of cocoa and a romantic movie spinning away in the dvd player.

Worthy of Thought

From a friend's, David M.Gordon's, blog comes this article.

In an odd way, it does relate to my previous post, and it gives you something to think about. A new appreciation for life. Your own and others.

Ghosts from the past

Literally.

What is a ghost? Does anybody really know? Are they actually trapped or side tracked spirits? Are they remnants of memories of the deceased? Are they place memory, if such a thing exists? Are they apparitions or illusions created by memories and/or wishes of the loved ones left behind? There are so many questions one could ask related to this topic, and all for me were once just simply curiousity. They still are, but now the curiosity wants an answer, even though I know there really isn't one to be given. Until recently hauntings and apparitions were from the long past, King Henry the VIII past, or perhaps more recent, but not from my past.

A few days ago I found out that the high school I attended so long ago is haunted. The apparitions, the ghosts, are my classmates from a little over 30 years ago. Friends and events I had thought long forgotten suddenly flooded into my head and brought tears to my eyes. I find myself missing my best friend who didn't live to see his sixteenth birthday, though he made certain he made it to mine. I miss Danny. And I miss the 27 others who died with him suddenly and unexpectedly on that 24th day in May 1976. And I am somehow saddened to hear that the auditorium, stage and music rooms are haunted by their presence. Something about that knowledge pains me more than attending all those funerals and burials did back then.

I wanted to do something to remember all those friends from so long ago. I wanted to list them by name and to reprint some of the photos, their school photos from that year, and the articles. The photos may still be buried in my parents garage, if they weren't destroyed by renters or flood. I don't have access to check at the moment. The articles are mostly buried in pre-internet newspaper archives and are not easily accessible. But I did find one Newsweek article. They covered a few of the funerals, they mentioned Danny--he's the organ donor-- and they called us a luckless city. Maybe they were right. So many bright futures snuffed out so quickly. But maybe they were wrong, because so many more of the young lives of this town were thrown into the lime light and pushed to their limits as they fought for the right to have the bright futures they might otherwise never have realized had a challenge not been placed in their path.

We fought for the right to have a chior again. When we had that we fought, and rehearsed morning, evening and weekends, not to mention during class,to become an award winning chior and be allowed to compete again. And during my senior year 1977-78 we won that right from our parents, the school and the school board, so long as we didn't take a bus. We won every competition we attended that year and paved the way for the next years chior to do the same. And during those two years, my junior and senior year, following what was then the worst school bus accident in US history, I sang at more memorial services than I ever want to remember. The melody for Locus Iste still floats through my mind during sad times, though I remember only a few of the words. Locus Iste a Deo Factus est, Inestimabile sacramentum, Irreprehensibilis est...(This place was made by God,A sacred thing beyond price,and without blemish...).

If you've recently seen the movie We Are Marshall, you will get a small flavour for what our town, our school, our chior went through after that accident. You can never fully understand, fully feel the effects, if you haven't experienced a tragedy of that impact yourself, but you can empathize. The pain, fear, reactions, fight that that town and university went through is the same as what Yuba City and Yuba City High School went through. It is a movie worth seeing.

Mont Blanc

One hikers journey around Mont Blanc Circuit (found on-line), for those who might be interested. It's complete with photos and suggested reading materials.

Travel?

Hmmm, well, I thought the gang was considering going to Albania and Croatia this year, but a few days ago I heard that plans had changed.

The latest thought, a possible two week trek around Mont Blanc, passing through France, Switzerland and Italy. This is not the easiest of treks, though there are definitely more difficult trips. It would be a good starter for early training for the Everest Base Camp trip.

So, regardless of what our final decision turns out to be, and whether I will be able to join everyone, it is definitely time for me to start some serious training.

Pantry cleaning day

Yep, it's that twice annual time of year when I dive into the pantry and pull out all the outdated food that we forgot to eat because we are rarely home to cook. Next step, remove the latest brown widow spider colony. Thankfully, they are very shy, easy to kill, and very unlikely to bite. I hear they also make good pets, or so an article I read on-line this morning said. Of course, I wear gloves.

Anyone want to help?

Albania and Croatia

Photos that is. Excellent ones at that from before and after the war.

Some of the images of Albania are from 1994--it will be interesting to see how things have changed over the last 12 years or so. Some of the photos of Croatia, at least Dubrovnik's city walls, are from a few months ago.

This site also has photos from many other places of interest, such as Cyprus. The site's owner is definitely a well travelled man.

Lady of Shalott

I don't really know why, but this has always been one of my favourite poems. In some way, I think I have always identified with the Lady of Shalott.

Once I even wrote a short story based on the poem. The one question that every member of the group asked me was "what is the curse?". These were excellent and some even well known authors, most had studied literature, and they did not know what the feared curse was. I realized I didn't know either. I had not even a hint. A vague awareness floated out there in the ether just beyond my grasp and no matter how I strained to reach I could not clasp my hand, and thusly my mind around the substance of the answer. I forgot about the quest and continued on.

That is until a few days ago. While walking, I listened, as I often do, to Loreena McKennit's The Visit album. Something was different today. I was two minutes ahead of my usual time when Lady of Shalott began to play, the word swimming from my ears into the emptiness of my cold dulled brain, when, instead of concentrating on my pace, I actually began to listen. Suddenly I knew the answer. I knew the curse the feared.

It wasn't that it wasn't in plain sight for all toi see. Tennyson had done an excellent job of shoiwing by ommission. It's simply that most of us would never consider this particular element of life to be a curse. Most consider it a blessing. Most strive to achieve it throughout their lives. The Lady of Shalott spent her entire life sitting in a small tower room watching life, or rather a hollow reflection of life, pass by in her mirror. This was her reality. An echo of the world, lacking substance, form, fullness and feeling. Of the trueness, the pains and sorrows and joys of life, she had no concept.

Then one day Lancelot cast his image upon her mirror and her heart. The curse had come upon her, cast by one innocent and unaware. What she feared most, love, had entered her life. Deprived for so long, her heart was not strong enough to bear the unfamiliar emotion. She died fulfilled, having known both the joy and sorrow of love, at least a small touch, but never meeting the object of her affection.

It is a sad story, though perhaps not all that unusual. All of us have at one time or another been afraid toi love or have known those who for whatever reason have completely shut themselves off from affection. I can't help but wonder what causes anyone to fear something so basic and essential to life and happiness, to balance.

I find myself reminded of a line from a Billy Crystal movie-- Billy Crystal's character and an older grizzled cowboy are sitting still on horseback on a hill looking down at a young woman hanging laundry, the sun glowing through her thin cotton dress exposing the figure god gave her. Billy asks tjhe older man, who's eyes are obviously filled with admiration for tghe lady, why he doesn't introduce himself. The answer--It doesn't get any better than this.

More on Albania

Ok, so there is the possibility that I may not be able to go on this trip. It would be a pity to miss it, especially when I can tell from the photos at the Albanian Tourism site that this will soon be a popular destination.

Still, whether I go or not, there's no reason I can't contribute to the research.

Getting around by railway is very popular in Europe. I haven't been finding much on the Albanian transit system that looked good. Ok, everything I've seen, read and heard up to now has been pretty dismal. Still, tonight I have managed to locate the official rail site of the HSH. I haven't looked at it yet, but I hope public transit begins to take on a brighter light. Parts of the site are still under construction, which may be why I did find it during previous searches.

Another trip to parts unknown....

Well, maybe.

Actually, it is a trip proposed by a friend. An adventure I would dearly love to partake in. Unfortunately, both work and my talent for messing up life may be blockading me this time.

I screwed up worse than I probably ever have, leaving my friend and his friends a mess to deal with. At the moment, my best guess is that no one is talking to me. Not unexpected, nor do I expect to hear from them any time soon. Oddly enough, even though I take full credit for the disaster, I can't get the one person I told at home about what happened to believe anything I say. He's very fond of saying, "don't worry about it, it will all blow over". Of course, that always works for him. For me it never does, or rarely does. This is not an ah well, that's life situation. This is a you screwed up, whether you meant to or not, situation. Now live with it. And so, I do and will.

And that, sadly, along with the fact that my manager will not allow me to take more than possibly a week of vacation in the May-June time frame--I'll be lucky if I can manage to get three weeks out of her in September-October--, means that I will most likely not be joining my friend in Albania or Croatia. It looked like it would be a lot of fun, a time of discovering what no one else I know has ever seen. Now, I think that my presence would just turn the trip into a disaster. And I don't want to spoil any one else's fun, especially his. That would just make my screw up even worse.

However, since I like to share what pleasures I can, here is a taste of what the trip would have been like.

The trek in Albania and a link to Dubrovnik ( a wondrous city in Croatia).

Albanian Trails and On Foot in Croatia.

Dubrovnik's web site

I know my friend would like company along the way. Anyone else want to join him?

Browsing

through the local dating sites, that is.

Yes, I belong to two--Yahoo and Match.com. It's been a long time since I stopped by either. Ok, it's been a very long time. So, I thought I should go through and sort through and clean up any hits that might have occurred in my absense. Not too many on Match, well, actually none. Apparently, I remembered to turn off my profile before I went on hiatus. Sometimes I am efficient.

Yahoo had a few new hits, and several repeats from gentlemen whose profiles I had already politely dismissed. I have a feeling that a couple of these men just do a search and send out a generic e-mail to every woman on the list. What makes me think that, well, when they say they like my looks or my photo and I haven't supplied one on my profile I get a little suspicious. Of course, I could be wrong. Now granted, I'm not actively looking at the moment, so I don't really expect to see anyone who catches my eye, but I do give most of their profiles at least a cursory read through.

Today I did see something that caught my eye. Not the gentleman, not even his profile, but something he did that I haven't seen before. At the end of his fairly lengthy description, he asked three questions. If anyone approached him with answers to these, he just might be interested, even intrigued. Does this mean I'm interested in him. Sadly, not in the least. I did like his approach though.

Question 1:: What is your favourite outdoor activity?--simple enough. Most of us can answer this without hesitation. And, I now know that this gentleman likes to do something outdoors.

The next two questions, though they seem simple enough, can, if answered truthfully, reveal a lot about a person. Well, at least I think they can.

Question 2: How much personal space do you need in a relationship?

Question 3: Name five things you can't live without.

See, I told you, they are simple enough. Can you answer them without a bit of thought? I wouldn't be able to. And I know my roommate would be thinking for days. And there is a corollary to question 2 that should be considered. I added this. How much personal space are you willing to give your partner? The amount of space that you need and the amount of space you are willing to allow to another person are not necessarily equal.

So, think about it for a while. Answer the questions. Then sit back and try to look at your answers with an unbiased mind. What do your answers tell you about you as a person, in other words what would a potential date think?