My Mondays and Tuesdays are getting more and more exhausting as the semester carries on, and this is not the best sign at all. I wrote a test in information technology on Monday, which was supposed to be a piece of cake. Well, I don’t say it wasn’t easy, it was, but the questions were seriously mental… Like: ‘Is the User Guide a hardware or a software?’ I really don’t think that this knowledge is essential on the field of IT.
I browsed through {the official Corrs website} and found out, that No Frontiers is originally a song of Jimmy McCarty, an Irish national folk musician. Still, the Corrs version is better in my opinion. ;) On the site there are various other info. Sadly the interact section - where you can ask questions which the members of The Corrs answer - is made up of videos. Needless to say that these are not viewable on my ISDN connection at all.
Again I have many things in my mind to tell but I don’t have the intuition to form it into cohesive, nicely written sentences. Sometimes this happens.
“Heaven knows no frontiers, and I see heaven in your eyes.”
I had always liked The Corrs. Their music was pleasant to listen, elaborate and rich. But now I became fond of them. All this happened due to two concert videos…
In the dormitory of mine there are three of us. One of my roomies has a computer like some of the students there. To be able to play on LAN they set up a network and - in addition to this - they shared their hard drives with movies, pictures and mp3s on them. This is how I found one day two Corrs videos.
I brought them home on a mobile rack and saw them yesterday and today. One is The Corrs live at Royal Albert Hall which I saw first. It was awesome to see The Corrs live, dressed in black velvet in that temple of music. Their song, Love to Love You echoed in my mind for along time before I fell asleep that night.
If that filled me with awe, the second video I saw, The Corrs at Landsdown Road (Dublin), imagine what did to me. This concert was so energetic at the peaks and so gripping at the calms that I have never experienced before. When they played traditional tunes or tracks like So Young, that made everyone smile, cheer and want to dance. No sorrow could fight them.
And then, Sharon and Caroline stood on two bar stools in front of two microphones and they started to sing No Frontiers. Their clear voices filled the air like a pair of tolling bells in the crack of dawn. That song truly hits. Its lyric is so simply written though its meaning is deep. I always found amazing the way some people could use words. I always have a hard time finding the correct ones for expressing myself clearly. This is why I adore No Frontiers. Today I will sleep with a smile on my face and a delight in my heart for I have had an experience that will accompany me to the last day of my life.
I was a little out of concentration yesterday. I wrote the new journal entry, inserted it to the journal page but forgot to FTP it up. This is why you weren’t able to see yesterday’s post yesterday.
I just had an ultraboring IT class. It is named basics of information technology but really we are doing Excel and VisualBasic. However many people in the group aren’t familiar with the basic usage of Excel or even computers, so this really limits the effectiveness of the course. I had a hard time fighting not to fall asleep. :)
I am looking forward to Thursday when I can finally go home. I have lots of classes in the beginning of the week. Believe me it is very tiring, so much passive listening on lectures. And sadly most of the time classes are very passive. I think doing anything actively wouldn’t be much easier or even not that tiring but still it could make the whole thing more interesting. The education in Hungary has serious problems I think. Schools have few teachers only and they are forced to have tons of students, because the state pays schools and the number of students determines the payment. This can only be solved by investing an enormous amount of money into education which cannot be done soon I fear. For we are in the gate of the EU and Hungary has to improve many things not only education.
Previously I had the disciple not to do some things I thought are worthless and dumb. This included watching endless and meaningless TV series and reading human-interest magazines. Now I pretty much failed in keeping those two. For I do watch TV series, even dumb ones occasionally, because there are times when my mind is tired that I find comforting just to lean back in an armchair in front of the television and just watch not think. And in evenings when my family is gathered in the living room where the TV stands we sometimes watch these with half an eye while talking.
As for magazines I read them only when I find one at home in which there is an article about a person I am interested in or I like. I still try to avoid being seen when doing so. :) These are papers made just to pull tons of money out of our pockets every month in my opinion and I don’t like to be caught.
But last time I read an article I found something that I have to admit is very true and very important. A Hungarian actress was talking about her experiences in a shooting that took place in New York: ‘In the US people keep telling you how good you are and how good you are doing. And after that they tell you how can you improve, what should you do even better. In Hungary it is pretty much the opposite. And I liked how they do it in the US much more.’
This is truly true. Here we are always told how bad we are and how much we should improve compared to others. Even in the university. Before I failed my analysis exam I have heard two students talking. They said that they overheard a conversation between two teachers and they said that they plan 80 students to fail this year, and whatever comes that number must be filled. So should we have been the best students ever, all of us being a natural born genius in maths still 80 of us would have failed. So encouraging, isn’t it?
Anyway I am sure a more positive attitude towards others should be introduced here. The thought of being good makes us better without any other effort. And the thought can be implanted with words, with the compliments of others. And honestly saying to someone: ‘Hey, you are great, you do very well, and if you do this thing a little more, you will be awesome’ shouldn’t be that difficult. And it costs nothing.
It has been snowing since Saturday almost continuously. Needless to say that this harsh weather in February is not common here at all. Snowfall resulted in the familiar consequences: problems in transportation. Trains are delayed, buses and trams come and go randomly and even walking on the street is hard due to the thick layer of unshovelled snow covering it.
Not looking at the bad side of all this, the sight of the untouched sea of snow was quite pleasant from the window of the train I travelled on yesterday. I guess it is even better for the crops because covered with the soft and warm white blanket they do not freeze.
Earlier this week I saw 8 Miles in my dormitory. I have to admit that Eminem and his music weren’t my favourites ever. This is why I was greatly surprised by the film. The plot of 8 Miles is not very original if you look at it, almost fairy tale-ish but the way it is presented is still very good. The part of Detroit where the blacks live has its own rules. Escaping from there is hard, only but a few can achieve it, though everyone seek it. You have not too many choices, out of which music is one.
It must have been hard to grow up among black people being the only white. Not because of any racism but the pure fact that if you differ from the mainstream either positive or negative, you are always disliked. This is the human nature. But all is not this dark: when Rabbit defeated everyone in rap-battle he was looked upon even by those who previously spat at him. And a moment like that though cannot erase the past scars but can fill the soul with satisfaction and strengthen for the next challenge.
I guess I am getting too philosophical, but I cannot help. :) The lion’s share of today I spent with webediting, so I really needed some change from divs and hrefs.
The result of today’s work can be checked out at {www.aiesec.hu} but as it is yet in Hungarian, if you don’t speak the language you can only admire the design. Or frown at it, the choice is open. :)
My Monday and Tuesday happened to be a little… hm… long and tiring. I don’t have to get up early thats right but I have classes ‘till 6PM. Believe me it is quite a lot. Plus I have many things to do - start-of-the-year-administration kind things - so this is why I didn’t update.
New semester means also new subjects out of which Microeconomy was the most interesting. Well we had one lecture and a seminar only but the way we are taught is to my likeness.
Coming back to my dormatory (Previously I used the word accomodation as I thought for some reason that it means a place where university students have rooms. I don’t know why though. After seeing Boys&Girls; I think dormatory is a better word. However if you are a master in school vocabulary you are free to mail me!) I had the chance to watch 8Miles the day before yesterday and a Hungarian film which doesn’t have an English title. I might post something about these but not now. I am tired what more: hungry! So I need to go and eat something before my next class starts. Cya then.
New month and this means 40 hours of Internet access in the broad daylight. We had the time of our lives with my brother today being able to play our little team in AO together again. As Jagienka (my high adventurer) is able to supply these youngsters with as much money as possible it is relatively easy to level them. Besides, they are quite uber to their levels as well, so they are pure fun to play.
After AOing I couldn’t help but to see Boys and Girls again. The eyes on my desktop demanded it, what more commanded me to do so. So I gave in. :)
I am always troubled when my opinion is asked about movies because I pretty much like all of them. Take Boys and Girls for example. It is obviously not a piece to be awarded by the Oscar but still it can be good in my opinion. It portrays the life of two young people who are going to university and it is quite authentic. Still I wonder what an I-am-a-professional-critic would say about it. After all I do not care as I always have a great time watching it and I always have feelings about it when seen.
If we look at acting I can only say the following: for me a good actor is one who can make me believe that what I see is not him but the character he plays. It is just this simple. Therefore I am very satisfied by the so called ‘acting’ part in this film.
Some can say a movie should be about something serious: it should have something to say. In this case I do think Boys and Girls have things to say. It does not need to be all the time something that is deep and cunning. Simplicity has its beauties. And no, I am never tired of happy endings or the fact that I know what will happen. It is just good to see that what I expected became true and I can feel relieved and joyful for finally everything turned to be right. There are always things that trouble us, that upset the short-lived balance we sometimes manage to find but if we can look back that previously we succeeded in solving these problems, it might help us to see the brighter side of the world this time again.
I do like films that are ‘lighter’ in a way. When I don’t need to think that much just lean back and enjoy. Laugh at the situations for I have felt some of them myself and let the happiness that is in the movie lighten my heart as well.
Not long ago in a magazine I read an article about a film the title of which I cannot remember. It was a mainly entertaining movie as well lacking any ‘worthy’ content as some may say. The critic who wrote the article said that it is somewhat like Britney Spears. Many young people simply hate her because her songs have dumb lyrics about nothing at all, she is childish and… really… come on, no one listens to that crap. But even these people cannot deny that at least once they felt the desire to hum one of Britney’s songs because they have a catchy tune and when we are happy and we need to express it somehow we can even ‘sink to her level’. It is just the human nature.
I think therefore that Boys and Girls is very good. The whole story is cute, Ryan is cool and Jennifer is astoundingly beautiful. (Don’t even try to argue that last point :)
I have a brand new desktop background again. It is Claire Forlani (Meet Joe Black, Boys and Girls) in a white summer dress with all her cuteness. Watching her in films I noticed that she can either give a very sharp look or when she smiles her eyes somehow glitter in joy. Those eyes can kill me.
A person who read {Rules are Rules} told me some interesting things about it. He said he didn’t like it as it is very pessimistic. In his words: ‘It is exactly the {FunCom} way of doing things. They know it is bad but they accept they and won’t do anything about it ever.’ I can see some truth in these words for it is undoubtly better when you can see the world always positively. However - at least for some people - it is not that easy. If you expect always the worst to come you can be only surprised if something better follows. Waiting for the best to come can result in disappointment many times.
For example if I believed that I would have passed my three analysis exams I would bitterly disappoint myself every single time. In the other hand I will never pass any exam if I don’t believe in it. I know it very well. Sadly knowing is one thing and believing is another.
Tonight I went out (heard that Salvaes? :). I do enjoyed talking to old friends (gosh, I sound like seventy years old…). What I enjoyed less is the way home which is a regular pain for me. At night there are no buses, so all I can do is walk. I am ok with walking but I don’t very much like walking alone (in the dark) to home at night. As our family has no car that is not an option either. By the way this results one thing I like about Budapest, there are buses ALL the time.
On second thought there is another choice: somehow change the fact that I need to go home alone (no, forget Maculay Culkin). However at the current status of the world or at the current setting of the stars or really dunno, this in not an option either again. To my great sorrow.
I am not too happy that the second semester starts very soon. I pretty much got used to my cosy home room and home life during the few days I - finally - could spend here. It is considerably easier to wake up whenever I want, do the stuff I really want to do during the day, sit up late playing AO and sleep in peace. It’s not that I live under very bad conditions in Budapest it is just less comfortable to share a five by five room with two others. Plus I have a strange devotion to silence. I mean I like reading and especially sleeping in silence which - mildly speaking - is not exactly the situation there. Anyway it IS better than sleeping in a trench during the second world war with the Germans/Russians/Americans (select the most appropriate for your alignment) constantly firing all over the night, but hey, if one does not whine and desire something better how would the world progress?