luni, 21 mai 2012

High spirited Monday...


         For some time now I didn't have enough time for myself, but this weekend was awesome! I slept as much as I could sleep (not more than 9 am, of course...!), I cooked yummy food, I went to the museums (not all of them but still I visited 3 sites on the intinerary!), I've read alot, and of course, I helped M. to prepare for the exams...
         We started out as four girls...we visited the Art Museum, The Metropolitan Cathedral religious art exhibition (extraordinary old books and old painting from churches! and the best of it was the location, underneath the Metropolitan Cathedral!), and the old St. Theresia bastillon, where I and the last one of the girls (still standing after some marching...) was able to go up on the old city wall and take pictures, and bathe in the sun, and roll in the grass. Well....I didn't quite roll in the grass, I was dressed in light blue jeans and white shirt...I would have been a sight to remember! But still, we felt like on forbidden ground when we stepped out on the wall, all the people below staring, seeing half the city from up there...it was exquisite! I felt a little like Jon from A Game of Thrones and his Wall! (Yep...I'm still obsessed by it!)

            Not to mention that yesterday we finished up the weekend in a friendly atmosphere...we (I and M.) had reinforcements from Blondi, who came to help with M.'s essays, so we were all three working, untill I finished the essay I was making and started reading, and then we had some more friends to visit us....and it was a quiet evening in the end....all aligned on the sofa, watchin Iron Man 2 on the TV (I know....I know....not the best movie choice...plus that I have already seen it...but it's the croud that matters!)

        In another order of ideas....I am going tonight at 19.00 o'clock to watch a black-and-white silent movie (Un oras isi cauta criminalul (1931)), more info here:
                                   http://www.timisoaraazi.ro/index.php?art=5703

p.s. those are freshly-made photos from this mornig in my office, my beautiful Japanese rose!

Bisous!


vineri, 18 mai 2012

Cultural agenda for this weekend...

For everyone interested in the cultural events of  Timisoara for this weekend, here are the ones I will attend with some of my friends. I will only go to as many museums as I can on Saturday and on Sunday to the German black&white movie. There are such movies on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday also; maybe you will be curious about one of them...I have only seen Faust in this variant, and I loved it!

Al the information you need you can find on:

http://timisoaraazi.ro/index.php?art=5705

                                                              (imagesource: timisoaraazi.ro)

....aaaa, and the most important thing is that the attending is free! So, no one could say that culture in Timisoara comes always with a price!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Bisous!

miercuri, 16 mai 2012

Beyond human comprehension....

I recently stumbled upon this photo on a blog I've just discovered (http://dsdnt.blogspot.com) and I was more thank shocked!
It is said that this photo has been made in the region of Northern Albania, where some bored farmers or so caught the wolf in the photo, and as they had the old donkey locked-up because he was useless;  they have thought to have some fun by watching the two animals fight eachother. But, as we can see from the photos, the two became best buddies, and I am so happy!
People should learn to team up for a better living, and not jump at eachother's throat in order to survive by pushing down others....and killing the weakest....If these two frightened and ruined animals can pass over the law of the jungle, why can't the most developped being of them all do the same?? I guess it is true that all that separates us from other animals is our culture....without it we're just another link in the chain...
Have a wonderful Wednsday!
Bisous!

marți, 15 mai 2012

Man as a social being....

             Since the beginning of the human race (whenever that might have been, or how it started!) men have always tended to gather in groups of individuals with similar interests. Probably in the beginning just for hunting and protection through numers from bigger and stronger preditors, further on the timeline because of the need to communicate and trade, even further in order to conquer smaller groups and thus first of all master these groups and later to include them into their rows.
            One particular gathering of individuals I agree upon is the one with the intention of learning (remember stormbraining from school classes, and how it helped ?) This I like to call the scholars group.
                                   (The School of Athens by Raphael Sanzio, source: Wikipedia)

               When interests started to become more and more varried, the mostly encountered groups are formed due to the social level/status, i.e. due to birth and fortune, occupation and education.
               Reported to my everyday life, I might say I belong to a strange range of social groups: bussiness, motorcycle club, teacher, student, believer in God, book reader, music lover, and last of all Latin reader. I must admitt I never thought of looking up on the web for Latin -o- phil-es (hi hi I made this up!), but once I decided to learn it, I found tens of blogs, sites, books, that are a real help and support. So, it is really an online social group, with more than similar interests, since I realized we are all obsessed with the classical period. And as in all social groups, the ones around you influence much of what you do, what you read and write, and I must confess they nurture my ambition for learning Latin faster, since I want to be able to read everything they write, but most of all, I want to be able to deschifer on my own all the beautiful old Latin written books I downloaded as PDF from the web. I am immensly grateful to those who took their time in scanning these works of art! I even have a few books written in Latin at home! I proudly recently bought "De Viri Illustribus Urbis Romae" by Lhomond- a Romanian edition printed in 1929!
My conclusion to all this is that, if Latin won't make me richer, it's shure as Hell it will make me smarter!
(please take this last phrase with the same huge dose of humour as I intended it!)
Until next time....des bisous!

p.s. the picture above I use as the background image for Google! I love it that way, and it trully suggests what I think; that the Internet can be a school for us, as lons as we know how to use it!

luni, 14 mai 2012

new aquisition...

credits: Ed. Insitutului Biblic
        This new wonderfully written (I took a smal peek....)book has joined my big family today. Don't let yourself fooled by the biblical origin, it is much more than that!
       "The Lausiac History (Historia Lausiaca) is a seminal work archiving the Desert Fathers (early Christian monks who lived in the Egyptian desert) written in 419-420 by Palladius of Galatia, at the request of Lausus, chamberlain at the court of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II."

 An extract from it:

        "In the fourth and fifth centuries of our era Egypt had come to be regarded with great reverence throughout Christendom as a Holy Land of piety.
          Pilgrims came from all parts to visit the saints who lived there, and several wrote descriptions of what they saw and heard, which are among the most interesting documents of the early Church. Palestine was so near that it was usually included in their tour; the glamour of its sacred sites, which remains with us still when that of Egypt has faded into oblivion, was already potent. But Palestine was clearly second to Egypt in the affections of the pilgrims."

       (Both the description and the excerpt are from Wikipedia, the photo is the cover of my edition, taken from: http://www.editurapatriarhiei.ro/magazin.php?cPath=39). 

        I also bought my Boethius and Salvianus book from this site, remeber? I told you they had cheap books, this one costed 10.80 lei, and even the post tax is smaller by 2.50 as compared to other printing houses who charge 8 lei or more for sending books to you.
        I will let you know about the content of this new book in another post, after I'll finish A game of thrones....
Until next time...bisous!

vineri, 11 mai 2012

weekend post...

                                                   Eisidisi credits: anasblogana.blogspot.com
credits: anasblogana.blogspot.com
google images

credits: anasblogana.blogspot.com


Have a wonderful weekend, full of light and books, ang good music and good food!
Bisous!

joi, 10 mai 2012

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin book spoiler

           I'm half through "A Clash of Kings" by now; and all I can say is that I am still in love with the plot...I can't stop reading! And how could I, when it has all I love in a good story: kings and knights, honour and strength, family traditions and intelligent animals related to them, and "magick", lots of it....
It would be hard to be brief about 4 books which together make for almost 2000 pages, but as I only completed the first one, I will make a short description of it, mabe I will rouse someone's interest..someone like me, inlove with heroes and knights, swords with names and family banners and symbols...lots and lots of symbols....
           So, briefly, the first book introduces us in a magical old place, called Winterfell, the home of the Stark family. An old rooted family, with kings of old as ancestors, with much pride among the new generation, and much wisdom for the old. Up north from Winterfell lies The Wall, an ancient human-made construction which separates the civilised world from the Wildlings, fearsome savages which plunder and kill, and which are thus not able to cross on the other side of the Wall, being always hunted down by the men in the Nigh't Watch who guard it.
                                                                (source: Google images)

           What is very interesting in general, is the fact that summer and all other seasons hold for longer than what we would expect, for example the summer our story begins with has been for more than 10 years I guess, and so the nowborn have no ideea about the cold of winter.
           The whole story is structured upon several plans, i.e. the Night's Watch seen through Jon's eyes, the bastard son of Ned or Eddard Stark of Winterfell, another one of Eddard Stark, one for his wife, Catelyn- Rickon's, Brad's, Arya's, Sansa's and Robb's mother, each of them (except for the smallest one-Rickon), having their own chapters and stories, another one for Tyrion, the queen's dwarf brother, ant the last one for Daeneris, the last one of the Targaryens, an old family that once ruled the Seven Kingdoms, which is the realm where all our action happens.
           The story begins per-se with the king's visit to Winterfell, where he comes to ask his old friend and swordsman, Ned Stark, to take the position of Hand (like the next-in-power), since his old counselor had died of a strange and quick disease. Ned accepts because of his duty to his king, but with a heavy hart, and he is right to do so, as the King's Landing, where the Iron Throne of the kingdom lies, is a real nest of vipers, the first and most dangerous one being the queen herself.
          One key point of the whole story happens when, comming from the execution of a deserter from the Wall, the Stark children find 6 direwolf pups, one for each, including an albino one for the bastard Jon. Those wolfs will bind together the entire story, as I felt from the beginning.
          As a king always travels with his court, so does this one, Robert Baratheon by his name, and he brings to Winterfell, among others, his wife and children, but also the queen's brother, Jamie the Kingslayer. (his name comes from the fact that he killed the last Targaryen king, who among others ordered the murder of Ned's brother and father....so it's not such a bad thing after all...).
          As Bran wanders on the rooftops of Winterfell, he sees the queen and her brother comitting incest, but Jamie pushes him and he falls, not remembering for some while (in the second novel) what had happened.
            Ned still has to go with his king, and he takes Arya and Sansa to court with him. Sansa becomes bethroted to Joeffrey, the king's firstborn, who turns out to be not his son, but the Kingslayer's (see what I mean when I say it is difficult to render the whole story?), and Arya looses her wolf, Nymeria, who is chased away when she bites Joeffrey. Because they do not have the responsible wolf to punish, the queen demands the death of Sansa's Lady, who is killed by Ned, not letting any butcher kill the direwolf, who was part of their family.
            So, one wolf killed, one chased away, the girls remain without protection when things get complicated in the capital, only Arya being capable of sneaking away (due to her boyish nature and skills) from the castle when things get rough. Meanwhile, being afraid that Bran might wake up and tell what he saw, the Queen sends a man to kill him, but he is saved by his wolf, Summer.
           The albino direwolf, named Ghost has his own role in one of the Stark children's life, meaningly in Jon's, whom he rescues from one of the Others- dead men rising by some plague on the other side of the Wall; and Robb's wolf follows him into battle where he guards his master as well. The one belonging to the smallest kid, Rickon, gets the name Shaggydog (the boy is only 4...), and while troubles gather over Winterfell and the boy becomes wilder and angrier, the wolf becomes the same, even biting some of the people. (Personally, the smaller kid's story and Jon's have impressed me the most by now.)
                                      (Jon and Ghost by Kerembeyit, source Google Images)

           There are two more characters left; namely Tyrion and Daenerys. The first one is the queen's imp brother, grotesque and twisted, but apparently the only one in the most powerful Lannister family with some sense of right and wrong; and Daenerys is a 14 years old beauty who is being married away by her degenerate brother to a wild horselord, somewhere over the Narrow Sea, which guards them from the wrath of the Baratheon king.
           This is about all very very very shortly put, as the novel has about 700 pages, but I hope I managed to make it appealling, without giving everything up.
By the way, you can watch the movie, which is very close to the book, on vplay! Still, I would recommend reading the books first, as always!

joi, 3 mai 2012

craving for oranges....

And I am not reffering to the fruits...which I love, but not what I can find right now in supermarkets, sour and dry....
                                                      (source: http://mode.newslicious.net)
but for all kinds of orange coulourful things...
                                                            (source: http://mode.newslicious.net)
...and...
                                                                 (source: guerreisms.com)
...and of course...
                                                                     (Michetti Danielle)
                                                                        (Michetti Danielle)
....how would it be without shoes?...
                                                                      (source: Ashish)
....or glitter?...
                                                                ( unknown source)
...or beautiful flowers?
                                                       (Rosetti- Beatrix, from Wikipedia)
...and beautiful paintings?

                                                       (Unknown source, google images)
or a book...or even better...8?
                                                         (Unknown source, google images)
...and a great corner to read them in???
Have a wonderful wednsday afternoon!
Bisous!



miercuri, 2 mai 2012

envious...

It's actually for the first time I feel green with envy because of a model...for real! How much I would love to be in her place right there.....
                                                         (fotosource: Fasiongonerogue.com)

I looove meercats!! I was obsessed with that show on Animal Planet where the whole plot was so well put together, that it was like a movie of their lives!! I wonder...were they tamed...???
Bisous!