And you all know what I’m talking about…
The army has given out warnings and are doing so right now, but the monks are protesting anyway. For their safety, let’s pray, meditate, vibrate or whatever your spiritual tradition is. Radiate love and care.
If you’re not as “out there” as I am, maybe this is a good alternative; a petition calling to the members of the UN Security Council to step in!
Make sure you sign that. If you have any extra time, check out the US Campaign for Burma.
Notice that on the right-side of the frontpage you can see a list of tags. Next to this tag it says “more”, which will lead you to “Hot Topics” on WordPress. Use these as categories! If one of your categories is “Showbizz” for instance, see if there is a synonym that ranks higher, such as “Entertainment”. Use this instead. It will get you more page hits through category-tags. Especially with the addition/separation of categories and tags. Use the tags to be specific, use the categories to attract a broader group.
Specific: more likely to be a smaller group of visitors, but you can expect these visitors to be interested in the content.
Broad: more likely to be a bigger group of visitors, but expect a lot of them to not pay attention to the content so much.
Use both ways, especially if it’s this easy.
I might have a ‘problem’. I’m going to spill the beans to some people here, but in Holland I was smoking too much probably and I’m not talking about cigarettes. However, I have a rather responsible personality, so I decided going to Bulgaria would be a good opportunity to stop. So I left that behind. Days got more hours, time was better spent, energy was restored.
Besides this, there was something else. Besides having a responsible personality, I also have a rather lazy (I say: effective) personality. I do what must absolutely be done and then I go back to doing nothing. I don’t know why, but for some reason I’ve always been getting good results for this (hence me dubbing it “effective”). Anyway, I didn’t have my placement secured just before the summer, so in the summer, and especially the two weeks before leaving, I had to do a lot. It was a moment-to-moment rush and when I came to Bulgaria I was still in that rush, minus the cannabis to calm me (and my mind) down. So I started doing a lot, arranging everything very fast and within no time I was settled.
Here comes the problem though… When I sit at home, I can’t relax. I have to do something. I realize now that this sounds similar to nicotine withdrawal (I think, anyway), which would also be it, because I didn’t smoke cigarettes, but I smoked enough to get myself a nicotine addiction. In Holland I got rather used to not doing what I had to do, so there was always something I should be doing instead of relaxing. I have the same feeling here, but there are only a handful of things I have to do:
– Go to the bank where I opened an account, to get my card and settle some mistakes I made;
– Call my landlord to get internet at my place (I’m in a restaurant again now);
– Call an institute for languages to learn Bulgarian;
– Buy a coat, scarf and candles.
But the last thing is not so pressing, I suppose.
Maybe it’s stress, yet I don’t feel stressed now, I feel very calm. It’s only when I sit around the house that I get the feeling I have to do something. Ahh well, I’ll just fix the things on the list and see how I feel then. My prediction: the same.
A sidenote: why is it that I can’t go anywhere without getting a card… They’re coming from all directions and closing in fast captain! Just now, while typing this post, someone struck up a conversation and added another card to my collection. This contact might actually be useful though. I hate it when people give you cards directly after you’ve introducd yourselves to each other. I will not call or email you if I don’t know you. I guess that’s a lesson for me. Don’t let it get to my head when I get my own card, haha.
What a weekend… I met up with Mitko, the Macedonian graffiti writer I interviewed at the Balkan Youth Festival. He stayed at my place for a couple of days, starting last Friday. I hadn’t really rested well, so when we went to a drum ‘n bass party at night, I was already pretty tired. About the drum ‘n bass scene here… Man, do they like loud fking drum ‘n bass. I love it too, but when I came in, they were playing loud already… There was no build-up or -down whatsoever. Bad DJ’s. Besides that, everybody was on drugs and they overused the stroboscope which is VERY annoying in an overcrowded room. Very dissapointing, I hope to see better drum ‘n bass parties here, since I heard Sofia has a good dnb scene, but I spoke to some people there and they told me that this is basically the average dnb party in Sofia. Utrecht 1 – 0 Sofia.
The next day we got up waaay too early (somehow we had managed to find our beds at 7am). We got up at about 11, so we were both pretty tired. I met some cool people though, friends of Mitko (he’s lived in Sofia for three years). Basically, we chilled out the whole weekend.. On Sunday I had a couple of hours alone, so I cleaned my whole apartment… you know… vacuum cleaning the carpets, moving around tables so I could place another carpet (it’s getting really cold here), cleaning bathroom sinks, toilet, putting one of those soap dispensing things in my toilet (how ‘burgerlijk’), making my bed, doing the laundry, wiping down my tables, doing the dishes, putting things in closets and drawers instead of having them laying around everywhere…
Then in the evening I got a CD of a local psytrance duo called Asoma. They’re really great producers and since they’re Mitko’s friends and he’s coming back in Oct/Nov, so I suppose I’ll be hanging out with them.
I’m just balancing on a very bad cold though, so today I’ll set out to buy at least a scarf and candles, and if I see anything good: a coat. Because I did not take one here.
Just talked to the director of Radio Bulgaria for the first time. Looks like they’ll be using more of my capabilities and skills soon. They want me to analyze and make suggestions about their internal and external communication, the latter nationally as well as internationally. Besides that I’m going to be analyzing and making suggestions for their website and create a presentation showcasing Radio Bulgaria to the outside world. This is good, because now I can set this project up for myself and won’t have to depend on others for tasks. If I can spend 20-27 hours per week on this, it should be finished in about 4 weeks. I calculated 8 hours in for lessons in Bulgarian language and contributing to the radio as a journalist. The other 5 (that would make up the 40 hour workweek) are for assignments related to school.
Looks like I’ll be gaining some great experience during my placement here.
Yesterday I decided to meet up with an English guy I know from Facebook. We met up and he brought a Belgian guy. To make a long story short, one beer became many.. and we ended up taking some shots with the barman and -woman after closing time (I remember Breeze (50% Amaretto, 50% Whiskey) and absynthe)… Then we did one more beer (I think) in another bar around the corner…
Tonight will be a quiet night though. I should sleep every now and then. Here’s a picture of last night (apparently I took only one).
I’ll be redoing some of the layout of the website tonight. Don’t be surprised if it looks funny. It’s temporary.
If someone could please fix me a new header, that would be great.
Anyone else have the feeling that society’s crumbling?
Dollar hits new low against euro (BBC)
The US dollar hit a new record low against the euro as investors sold the currency after the Federal Reserve’s hefty interest rate cut.
Soaring prices add to Afghan misery (BBC)
As the residents of Kabul prepare to break their fast at the end of the day, the street markets in the centre of the city are as busy as ever. But this year, during the holy month of Ramadan, there is a real struggle to make ends meet.
The price of basic food and fuel has soared in recent months, putting enormous strain on consumers.
Burmese monks in pagoda protest (BBC)
On Wednesday, hundreds of monks marched through Sittwe, Mandalay and Rangoon. They want a government apology for the violent break-up of a recent rally, triggered by protests over price rises. There have been persistent protests across Burma since shock fuel price rises last month, which have led to a sharp rise in the price of consumer goods.
Gazans stock up after Israel decides on sanctions (AFP)
Gazans stocked up on food and fuel on Thursday as Israel faced a barrage of criticism over its decision to brand Hamas-run Gaza a “hostile entity” and possibly cut its basic supplies.
Finally a journalist that’s asking some legit questions. Crossposted from Online Journal.
See also:
Was it staged? – Inside Higher Ed
Taking sides in a tazing – The Lede (NY Times Blog)
The media and John Kerry’s disgusting display
By Bev Conover
Online Journal Editor & Publisher
Sep 20, 2007, 00:59
Imagine you attend a town hall talk by a US senator. A question and answer session follows. You line up behind the other questioners. Before your turn comes, the session is suddenly declared over and the microphone is turned off.
That is what happened to University of Florida journalism student Andrew Meyer, 21, Monday — Constitution Day, yet — when he sought to put his questions to guest speaker Senator John Kerry.
Meyer verbally protested, which anyone would do. Kerry had the microphone turned back on. Meyer, holding up a copy of Greg Palast’s book, Armed Madhouse, recommended the book to Kerry. Kerry said he had read it. Then when Meyer asked Kerry why he had not contested the stolen 2004 election, his microphone was turned off again to shouts of only one question per person. That was Meyer’s first question. Meyer shouted back that Kerry had had two hours, so he surely was entitled to two minutes. Kerry agreed to answer his questions. With the microphone still turned off, Meyer asked Kerry why he had not sought George W. Bush’s impeachment. That’s when the campus police stormed him.
With Meyer protesting the cops’ actions — which now apparently constitutes “resisting arrest,” worse since he was still holding the book over his head, “resisting arrest with violence” — Meyer was wrestled to the floor and held down by six cops as he was Tased, then hauled off to the Alachua County jail where he spent the night.
What did John Kerry do while all this was happening within his plain sight? He stood there barely audibly saying, “That’s all right, let me answer his question” and later, in a statement, denied he knew what was going on: “I believe I could have handled the situation without interruption, but I do not know what warnings or other exchanges transpired between the young man and the police prior to his barging to the front of the line and their intervention.”
Whether Meyer barged “to the front of the line” is questionable. The first report of the incident did not have him “barging to the front of the line.” And, even if he did, since the question and answer session was cut off before Meyer and any others got to ask their questions, so what if he demanded for himself, and possibly others, his constitutional right to be heard?
We’re talking about the First Amendment right to free speech, not assaulting and Tasing a person because someone doesn’t like what he is saying. Back in the days when reporters weren’t all whores for their corporate masters and the powers that be, they were aggressive in questioning the politicians they were covering.
I’m quite sure a lot of people will think I’m crazy after reading this, but I’m very sure that even more of you already think I’m crazy, so I’m going to go ahead and say it. I’m not going to go into the details of what the definition of a mindhack is (just click the word and learn), but I’ll tell you a trick of mine I use.
Understand that you’re lucky if you’re reading this. You have access to internet, which is an indicator of at least a basic level of wealth. You have no reason to feel sad, because people who do with less sometimes feel happier than you. This is part of my philosophy and I understand that happiness exists within and has no direct relation with any external reality.
Whenever I feel a bit down, I often wonder why this is. Why am I feeling bad? Is there a good reason? No. Whatever the reason is you’re feeling bad, you should not let that thing make you feel bad. Whether it was someone who was rude to you, nasty traffic or some bad luck… Don’t let it be worse than it is, by holding on to it and feeling bad.
So basically, I decided there is never a good reason to feel down. It never helps. So what I do is the following… The first step is that I basically think of BUNNIES! White bunnies! And it’s good to think of this word in a playful way while you visualize it… bunniiiieesssss! Then you can take these bunnieesssss and make them do something… Like dance to an AC/DC song. Make it ridiculous! The more ridiculous, the better!
Call me crazy, but it works. I usually laugh about how crazy it is to walk the streets and be thinking about white bunnies dancing to AC/DC. I fantasize about “what if other people knew I was thinking this, it’s so ridiculous”. Thinking about it now makes me laugh out loud. I have no idea where this thing came from, must have been under the influence of alcohol or something.
However, it still works. Maybe some of you have seen the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” or saw Discovery Channel documentaries on the Kalahari Bushmen. Some of them live in harsh conditions now and the picture presented in the movie is a bit idealistic, but there are some that live the lifestyle presented in the film. I read a book called “Bushman Shaman: Awakening the Spirit through Ecstatic Dance” by Bradford Keeney. He goes into the details of their spirituality, which is arguably the oldest form of spirituality on our planet, and he says that one big part of their spirituality is that they ridicule everything. Nothing is holy to them, which is good. Their spirituality is ever-changing, like the energies of life itself.
The concept of ridiculing everything attracted me and led me to develop this technique. It works for me, don’t know about others. If it doesn’t work, find something ridiculous that works for you.
