Category Archives: Human Interest

Mirror’s Edge

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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

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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

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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.

Wet

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I’d be surprised if I won’t catch a cold after today; basically all my clothing below the waistline (not covered by the raincoat) is soaking wet. Jeans are not particularly fast to dry out either.

Still, this is nothing compared to my all time greatest rain-soak, which happened on the day I tried and finally succeeded in finding my stolen bike in Kobe. That time even my backpack was permeated.

I guess the second best would be the time when I was getting home from class, still in Japan, and it was raining so heavily that the downhill roads turned into little streams of steadily flowing water. At one point I realized that the white stuff on my bare-feet sandals was my own skin, drenched and peeling.

(image via In Focus, STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Cleanup

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It’s like a garage sale for city dwellers. On a set date you can throw out all your unwanted junk in the street to be collected. Of course, before that, hordes of people who make a living out of this scan through the heaps, collect anything that’s remotely usable and argue over the more precious loot. More often that not you’d find a corpulent gypsy male sitting in an armchair battered beyond recognition (most likely extracted from the junk) next to every deposit doing guard duty.

AC Wars

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I have yet to see an office where one of the hot topics of the Summer is not the air conditioning. People sooner come to a consensus in a political debate than agreeing on an AC temperature.

In our case people seem to like to avoid using the cooling system altogether, a policy beyond my ability to comprehend. Our office has windows on only one wall and the security rules require the door to be closed. As a result even though all the windows are kept open – which, in turn, disables the AC – there is no draught, so by mid-afternoon the air becomes stale and void of oxygen. How people can work like that baffles me, to be honest.

I’ve had similar experiences elsewhere in Hungary: people seem to be really averse to air conditioning. Mostly people complain of being cold and have it switched off. If used at all, many try to enforce a 5°C rule for the difference of the outer and inner temperature, claiming anything more is unhealthy. I fail to see the point in having 30°C inside when outside it’s 35°C, though.

The benefits are often ignored, such as having a pollen-free environment, since decent enough systems take care of air filtration as well.

I had a much easier time in Japan where, for example, in the classrooms I was the only person who dared to change the AC settings. The Japanese non-confrontation policy prevented my classmates from complaining much.

Change

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I do not think people are able to change, especially after a certain age. It is possible to learn, so I was told, but I am not convinced of that yet either. Against my better judgement, for example, I am reluctant to forget and move on. I do not really want to, anyway. Much like a child who does not know better, from time to time I experience little outbursts of lift-me-up hope and that I would be loath to give up.

Changing winds

Personal Cloud

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Two days in a row as soon as I set foot outside it started raining. Yesterday I got soaked all suited up and today on my way to work on the bicycle. Now that I arrived it has stopped raining completely. It feels like I have one of those angry personal rain-clouds you can see in animations that follow the protagonist around. Mine is both figurative and – apparently – real.

rain over street lights