I set up another Tumblr (remember my last project?) to track the progress of my marathon training at sesamruns.tumblr.com.

Last thursday I decided I wanted to go and see Epica, no matter the costs. Somewhat uncharacteristically, I followed through: saturday early morning found me on a train to Tokaj after only a few hours of sleep. Blame Matthew Vaughn and Kick-Ass for the latter.

Probably I was the only person going to the festival alone.

I spent the morning climbing the local hill (512 m) called Kopasz-hegy. I must have lost about 3 kilograms in liquid but the view compensated for the effort.

The first band I saw was Magashegyi Underground, previously unknown to me.

Barabás Lőrinc Eklektric followed, also not something I usually listen to, nevertheless enjoyable.

Péterfy Bori struck me a bit older than I thought, and I still just can’t stand leggings stopping just below the knee.

I moved to the Jim Beam tent well before Epica. (One must secure a first row position in time.) Ossian was playing.

Next came Depresszió. I like some of their songs but to be honest this time I couldn’t wait for them to leave and let Epica commence.

The devil never sleeps, so they say: it was obvious that something went wrong when roadies wearing a permanent frown scurried back and forth on the stage angrily. It was on the organisers, I could read the lips of the guards saying it’s our tech. Tension mounted, some got restless and started shouting, even throwing stuff on the stage. Only after about an hour could a relieved roar signal that microphones finally started working.

What happened next I can only describe as giving a lesson in artistry, attitude and musicianship.

I’m sure many so-called stars would have thrown a hissy fit. Instead, when Epica took the stage Simone apologised for the delay (of no fault of their own) and promised us many songs in compensation.

They practically figuratively destroyed the tent.

We got extra songs, Mark playing in the gap between the stage and the audience, water bottles thrown at us, a drum solo lit by the stroboscopes… every stunt possible considering the space and tech at hand.

I have no idea how Mark had any voice left afterwards and of course Simone is still absolutely stunningly gorgeous.

Cry for the Moon taken from the first row:

Albeit with a bit of lag sesam.hu tries to catch up with the latest trends in web development. This desire manifested itself as like buttons attached to every post for reader convenience. The buttons are powered by Ahmed Hussein’s Facebook Like Button WordPress plugin, which – although buggy – seems to do the job. Please feel free to like content.

Carnation did a visualization of the 2009 TÁRKI research titled Social and Cultural Conditions of Economic Growth. The picture it portrays is not pretty but very on the spot: I think we all experience it every day. Since the visualization is only available in Hungarian I translated the slides for everyone to understand. (Via HH.)

According to a scientific research (Tárki, Social and Cultural Conditions of Economic Growth, 2009) there are countries in which people generally think it is worthwhile to be law abiding. What characterizes the people of these countries (FIN, SWE, GER, NED, SUI, GBR, AUT)? They believe that everyone has a chance to succeed. They believe that everyone determines his/her own fate. They have a confidence in themselves and their future. They think hard work is important. They highly value knowledge. They trust each other and their institutions.

However, there are countries where laws are only important in theory, not in practice. What characterizes the people of these countries (HUN, MOL, BUL, UKR, RUS)? They don’t believe that you can achieve anything with hard work. They don’t value knowledge. They don’t really trust each other or their institutions. They believe that without good connections and good family background it is very hard to achieve success.  They have little confidence in themselves and their future. They don’t believe that everyone determines his/her own fate.

What do you think, which country does better?

What characterizes the Hungarians? Out of 100 Hungarians: 75 are against cheating taxes, 75 disapprove of lying in order to receive government funding, 75 frown upon retiring early, 75 believe that laws should be upheld without exceptions, 70 wish to achieve success and acknowledgment, 75 are convinced that in order to be successful one must work hard, 80 believe that it is worth to study, 85 regard creativity and resourcefulness of outmost importance.

Judging only by this, the Hungarians are law-abiding, resourceful, knowledge appreciating, hard working people.

There is however some ambiguity here.

Out of 100 Hungarians 75 believe that laws should be upheld, yet 75 claim it is inevitable to disregard the law in some cases. Out of 100 Hungarians 70 wish to achieve success and acknowledgment, but only 50 believe that everyone determines his/her own fate, and 50 think it is untrue that by working hard one will eventually achieve his/her goal, also 80 think that not everyone has the same chances in life, and 82 claim that in Hungary it is impossible to get rich honestly.

57% of us believes we need to help those in need, but 86% thinks it is all right if everyone only cares about his/her own advancement. 52% of us is against parasolvency, yet most of us think it is worth giving money to the doctors.

The majority of the Hungarians doesn’t trust: the political elite, the business sector, the media, the legal system… and we don’t trust each other either.

The case of the lost wallet: what would you do if you found a lost wallet in the street? Do you try to return it or simply pocket it? What do you think others would do? What is the most common answer to these questions? “I would return it but others would keep it.”

What do you teach your child? Pay taxes. Be considerate when traveling. Don’t lie. Help others. Keep the law. Study, work for yourself. Respect others. Don’t discriminate.

But what do you see if you look around? You can only achieve something if you disregard some rules. Only losers are honest. Our taxes get stolen anyway. The whole country is corrupt. It is impossible to get rich honestly. Nothing works like it should. You can’t do anything alone against the corrupted institutions.

Problems with self-image? Lying to ourselves? Simple distrust? What are we to do in this situation?

Changing the values of the society is too important to let the politicians handle it. Or to wait for others to do it for us. It is our collective responsibility to urge, initiate, start changes.

www.ertekter.hu

„Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; un-rewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

Calvin Coolidge – US President 1923-1929

Plans fall through, don’t they? I got ill on last Thursday and I’m still on antibiotics since then. This week every day there was some kind of meeting or event in the evenings so I couldn’t go running. Also as a result of leaving home at half past eight and getting back at close to midnight I couldn’t make myself wake up early for a morning run before getting to work either. 9-to-5 really doesn’t give much room for anything else it seems. (Yes, I know I’m lucky and everyone else works 15 hours a day.)

These days when going home I’m usually exhausted, mostly not physically just mentally. Zombified would be the word.

Anyway, I’m fighting back. Inspired by the marathon relay I decided it was time I did something about my development as a long distance runner.

Armed with a lent book in the following days I plan to finalize a training schedule and – when I have the money for it – sign up for both the 25th Nike Budapest Half-Marathon (5 September) and the 25th SPAR Marathon (26 September).

With that I’ve also decided to pursue a more or less straight edge lifestyle: I wouldn’t for the life of me go vegan but I can drink less alcoholic beverages and coffee for sure.

We’ll see how it goes.

Crossing of my list another thing I haven’t done before: participating in an official organised running event.

How I ended up as a member of a marathon relay is somewhat complicated: an ex-colleague of mine saw the Facebook ad of her ex-colleague who was looking to find a 6th teammate, and  promptly she set us up. (The team had lost a member because due to the heavy rains and flooding the race had to be delayed.)

It was an interesting experience to run in a race. The proximity of other runners can both be a source motivation and desperation. When I had my turn (2nd leg) I was quite happy to see how many others I was easily able to take over during the first 1,5 km or so. Later on though this exhilaration induced starting speed took its toll when I tried to keep it up during the long and extremely hot riverside section. I ended up finding another contestant with a similar pace and followed her for the most part.

The refreshment tables were a pleasant change from my usual runs when I have to scour for sources of water constantly. (And Hungary is a lot less equipped with public wellsprings than Japan.) I particularly enjoyed the spray shower, albeit it lasted for only a fraction of a second if ran through.

Our team consisted of amateur runners and was aptly named Váltáska, a word play on the similar words for baton exchange and shoulder bag. Despite the scorching heat our cumulative time was just 7 seconds above 4 hours and 5 minutes. My leg lasted 37′16″ according to the Nike+ chip, which proved to be perfectly precise: it announced the 7km mark just as I was handing the baton over.

I usually just post a picture of a number but this year I decided to use this – terrible quality – video.

There will be a meaningful post again, I promise. Until then check out this sick but awesome video from Trent and his wife. I’m quite excited about their new project, How to Destroy Angels. NIИ sound with female vocals has great potential.