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.”
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.
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 all connected. Find out how at wwf.panda.org/50
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)
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.
If everything is still not OK, try checking your settings of perception of objective reality.
Funny how I found a post from five years ago with almost exactly the same theme as the one before the last. Quod erat demonstrandum.
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.
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.
