Gratuitous Picture Of Yourself Wednesday
GPOYW
Reply
Category Archives: Human Interest
退学
A japán egyetemeken holnap, elsején kezdődik az őszi félév. Nekem viszont el kellett küldeni a nyilatkozatom, hogy végleg megszakítom a tanulmányaimat a Kobe Egyetemen. Eddig lehetet passziválni, várni. Most már hivatalosan is fölöslegesen jártam oda négy évig, 8 kredit híján nem lett japán diplomám. Fiaskó.
Gokart
A céges teambuildingen gokartozni vittek minket. Mondjuk kicsit fura, mert szerintem ez inkább a versenyszellemet, mint az összetartást erősíti, de ettől függetlenül hatalmas élmény volt.
Autósporthoz nekem eddig csak annyi közöm volt, hogy gyerekkorom óta nézem a Formula 1-et. Mit mondjak, élőben nagyságrendekkel jobb a dolog, pedig ezek csak játékszerek voltak. Plusz nem is vezettem túl jól.
Sajnos arra például csak viszonylag későn jöttem rá, hogy az “ideális ív” taktikám nem az igazi, mert jobb időeredményt lehet elérni nagyobbra vett kanyarokkal, amikhez kisebbet kell lassítani. A kanyarba állított első kerekekkel ugyanis iszonyú lomhán gyorsul a gokart. Igazából fék nélkül végig lehet menni a pályán, ha valaki ügyesebb.
Azért néhány határát sikerült megtalálni a járműnek. Bár felborulni szerintem lehetetlen vele, a visszafordítóban többször sikerült megpördülni, illetve sikoltó gumikkal kanyarba bezuhanni. Kívülről kevésbé látszott, de a kis motor ellenére egészen meglepő izommunka kell az íven tartáshoz, illetve sok kanyarban iszonyúan rángatott a kocsi.
Enyém volt a legkeményebb baleset is, amikor az egyik padlógázas ívben hátulról megtoltak, és én kormányozhatatlanul szálltam bele a gumifalba. Azóta találtam magamon ülésháttámla és övfeszítő okozta zúzódásokat. Meg került egy szép elágazó repedés a telefon képernyőjére, amit elfelejtettem kivenni a zsebemből.
Zsófi hozott fényképezőgépet, és mivel jobb fotós vagyok, mint pilóta, így az illusztráción is ő vezeti a kettes rajtszámú autót.
Mindezek ellenére, vagy pont ezekért, visszamennék még pár (száz) körre.
Zöld Pardon
“A közösségi helyeket meg kell tartani, mert minden társadalom úgy kezdi a hanyatlást, hogy a kultúrát szétbasszák.” - Kiss Tibor, Quimby
2010 Augusztusában voltam először a Zöld Pardonban. Most meg tüntetni érte, mert jó szabadtéri koncerthelynek tartom, és nyáron szeretek ide járni ebédelni. Tele volt a Műegyetem rakpart.
Set sail
Last week the company we do contract work for took us to a team building to Lake Balaton. The main event was sailing in randomly divided small groups.
We were really unfortunate with the weather: on the day of sailing there was barely a breeze blowing and the sky was mostly covered by clouds. (Ironically, we traveled back to the capital the day after in bright sunshine and fierce winds.)
Some of my teammates were really anxious to actively participate and couldn’t wait to tug at ropes and such, which wasn’t really necessary due to the conditions. I on the other hand rather took the captain’s advice, leaned back, listened to the waves crashing against the hull and just generally enjoyed the ride.
Then and there I was present.
Nine
Due to my inability to match month names and numbers I forgot to mention that the site’s 9th birthday was on 4 August. Still flying.
Кошка, которая гуляла сама по себе
I was looking for a full text of The Cat That Walked by Himself story by Rudyard Kipling published in the Just So Stories when I stumbled upon a Wikipedia article on this Russian animated film called The Cat Who Walked by Herself. If it’s anything like the screenshots suggest, I want to see it.
All because this has been my Facebook about description for a while now:
“I am not a friend, and I am not a servant. I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.”
Mirror’s Edge
I suppose the moral would be: nothing is as critical and potentially life-changing as it might seem for the first time. Need to let oneself go.
I think I was first really disappointed when I didn’t get into the program of my first choice at university. I applied for International Relations and ended up having to major in Economics. This took a considerable amount of time to live down, even though in retrospect it was probably for the better.
Then there was the fiasco in Kobe of not getting enough credits to graduate. It wasn’t much fun coming back to Hungary afterwards.
Regardless, I’m still alive.
So Close
There have been several highly unpleasant experiences pouncing on me these past weeks, most of which were totally out of my control to avoid. Also – all hail Monday – they still seem steadily coming.
To make matters different this time is the fact that I know precisely what could instantly evaporate all my worries. However, if I achieve or not this said nirvana is also out of my hands (and – for now – reach).
Regardless: I will never let it go.
We are what we repeatedly do
I wholeheartedly agree with Doransky’s latest post, and with Aristotle:
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
One example that instantly comes to my mind is high school and maths. Planning to take an entrance exam we were put in a special group taught by one of the most notoriously strict teachers in the school. With one exception none of us were really special though, not what you’d call a natural born talent.
Classes were spent working from start to finish, no idling was allowed, and we were usually given a tremendous amount of homework. Often we devoted breaks between classes to discussing the solutions or what might come up next. And somehow by our senior year we became quite good. I can’t speak for the others but never since then have I felt so confident in my maths knowledge.
It was slow and almost imperceptible, too. I only noticed the effect when my then-girlfriend was doing her homework with me looking over her shoulder: she was at a loss how to solve something really simple whereas I was nonplussed how she couldn’t. After all, I knew, I wasn’t supposed to be better than her.
Similarly every article or guide about writing starts the same: it’s not all about talent, and even talent cannot achieve much without defiant diligence. If you want to be good (or get better at it) write every day, no exception.
This is one of the reasons I can come up with when asked why I still bother writing here: even if it was only me (or no-one) reading, it’s still practice. And in the process, slowly, silently, I may improve.