I'm completing my daily re-writing of goals

and at the same time - thinking about how lucky I am to have in my life all those people I have. Or had. Look closely - and every person can teach you a lesson, set an example, motivate you or share enthusiasm and optimism when you're down.

Those who can not quite serve as a good example at this point :) - can still help determine the way you don't want to live your life and things you never want to do, push you to develop patience, acceptance and grow wiser. 

Watch your family, friends and foes - and learn from each one of them, borrow their experiences, examine their mistakes, use their passions and goals. The everyday social environment can contribute so much to enhanced learning, that it would be impossible to fully develop as a human being in social isolation. 

Oh, girly girliness...

About a year ago I showed up at Central City Opera wearing a black and white grand piano case, low heel open sandals, my travel purse - and was feeling a bit shocked to see the crowd that night wearing evening gowns and cocktail dresses, high heels, jackets and cute "theater-style" purses.

A year passed, Figaro was getting married, and today it was me catching up on dressing up,  in my green cocktail dress, matching high heels and purse, and - 90% of the rest of the public - showing up smart-casual at best.
Back to normal.

If I were to commence another experiment right now,

I would go about seeing how much I can accomplish in the next six month performing on just my anger, hatred and despair energy.

I do hope I could do a lot, for it looks like the experiment is already on.

Sometimes the brain needs to be restarted.
Whole body needs to be mobilized before another year long leap of faith.
Auxiliary decisions need to be made.

All I can say is that's I am happy to be thousands of miles from home and slowly float as a grain of sand in a stream of yummy and concentrated life.
Interestingly enough this country has anything I could only wish for to fill my 2 weeks with, and no signs in English - which is a bonus bliss.

Facebook as a great tool for

 evaluating people. 

This thought crossed my mind from time to time when I was glancing through the friends' updates, but I never bothered to find time and right words to put it down on pixels paper.

Facebook makes you defenselessly public. All the pictures, personal info, statuses and places updates you put in - crack open your mind to whoever sees it - scanning through your profile reveals your priorities, fears, weaknesses by how you want yourself to be perceived. That's nothing new.

But. Another way you reveal even more about yourself is your reaction to the way others want you to perceive them. Your pattern of thinking shows much better in the way you comment on others' pictures posted and updates than if those were carefully picked by you. "LIKE" is a great shortcut to find out who is either in line with certain values, or supports somebody with those values or is playing neutral on expressing their opinion.

And so, it is with mixed feelings that I note to myself that a person I thought of as smart and interesting, can actually "like"  his friendless's girls' night out drunk pictures, updates on 0.7 pound weight loss by another friendess, an ongoing romantic correspondence between a friend and his fiancee, and a status updates by rhetoric questions obviously determined to emphasize the friendess's high moral and feminist values as well as self-perceived high IQ.

Online social networks are simply online social networks. But they can save a great deal of time in evaluating a person with just a few quick Litmus tests. That is, if you do pay attention to shallow and superficial friends' activity - your are either not such a profound person I thought you were, or - you care enough about your shallow and superficial friends to know you support them.

Priceless if you are unsure about how close to keep a certain person; although does not work on those who have a deep and sophisticated plan behind every comment and "like" :)  

End of April...

My first Baby-shower organized for a friend with another friend. Since the pregnant friend had airplane theme registry, I decided to try do the baby shower in airplane mode. The funniest part was putting the plane diaper cake together with the second friend: apart from diapers, wash clothes and a baby bottle, it took a load of scotch tape, double-sided scotch tape, staples, bamboo skewers, a needle and thread and a button, cardboard, ribbon and lots of cursing. Thanks to Sis the plane made it to the baby shower with only one skewer fallen out )) and then people started arriving to the clubhouse with food and help with the preparations, so everything was completed on time. 

The most surprising thing was to see that the contest of making and flying the paper airplanes was so much fun for those who participated and watched. Sometimes the simplest solutions work best! 

Our first hike with Artie. Went well, although I did not notice the baby hike carrier have pairs of rings and a pair of hooks for adjusting the baby seat until almost a mile down the road. But once the seat was adjusted, Art was able to look around, started to jump and smile more and stopped losing his hat )) a hiking backpack/carrier, baby sunblock, diapers and spare set of clothing, bottle of water and a pouch of purée - and  the freedom of the outdoors is all yours again! 

I can't picture a family like ours living  a hundred years ago, and am very happy to live at the time we are living now: no need to slow down your life, no need to make dramatic adjustments or unreasonable sacrifices. Depending on what angle you are looking at things, of course, there's so much more that needs improvement and so much more that simply makes me roll my eyes,  but there's more to the hope that the evolution of the quality of our lives will continue.

Thought of the week: need to immediately start getting rid of people that slow me down. 

Three thoughts of the week

About the crowd.
If you're strong, stand out and are... well, somewhat an achiever by nature, there is a chance most of the people that stick around are there because they want to see you being you. They want to observe you make every step of your life, they want to see your start up all your substantial projects, they want to know how you keep yourself strong, happy, motivated. They are seeking inspiration, peace of mind, thoughts on how to get ahead in life, or even - what to do with their lives, and they want to get ideas and learn by watching you.
And here you are - a life example of how to put the pieces of puzzle together and make things work. You excelled and they simply want to know how to excel too.
Don't flatter yourself - these are not all your friends.
As, chances are, one day day one of your biggest fans who comments the most and cheers the loudest will say: "You know, you're cool and what you do is very cool, but honestly - I would fit your place so much better!"

And about the achievers.
I am looking for examples of people whose productivity was actually boosted by the need to help their families.
Live examples, of the people I know.
And can't find any.
I do see many examples of people dragged behind by their abusive and authoritative parents, troublemaker siblings, bratty kids, and - for those from former Communist countries :) - relatives  did believe earlier in their lives that "money is evil" and "the state government will take care of us" and are now in deep financial need.
I do want to see evidence that it is possible to use your potential to the fullest to live not only your own life, but step in the lives of someone close to you. Or better yet, exceed your potential.
I want to know it's possible to have zero female role models in the family, but 2 female alcoholics instead - and still become a Wonder Woman.
I will gladly believe you can have a sick spouse and can still build a career, and have time for hobbies and sports - but seeing is believing...

What I notice though - and it might only be relevant to my circles, who knows :) - is that  people who are most successful and happy tend to focus on their own lives and their own priorities ONLY.
And no, it's not just that.
They seem to have a totally different kind of family and friends: their siblings and kids are self-sufficient, their grandparents are in great health, their fathers respect and support them no matter what, their mothers are just like their best friends, their friends are well educated, adventurous and real "friends indeed".
Alright, I understand the concept of creating your own circle of friends and business connections, but how do you create a problemless family?! :)
And so I look at the people around me and it seems that you can be quite... mediocre and still get far ahead in life if no one drags you down. (Good news!).
And you can be brilliant and determined to help the near and dear to you, but even if that motivates you to work extra hard - you will probably find yourself not being able to get the most out of your resources for neither them nor yourself. ( Bad news!).
So, how do you solve this puzzle?

About resources.
Inspired by seeing a woman of my age jogging peacefully along a busy road at 8.05am on Monday morning with her long hair pulled carelessly in a pony tail.
How do you get ALL the resources you know you need?
If you need certain resources for your life's exponential growth and development - how do you ensure a supply of those resources in a constant proportion with your life's growth? :)

It's unbelievable - but it's a fact :)

I completed all task I had written down for last week. Every single one is crossed out and there are no rollovers. Never thought I'd see the day :)
... and of course by the end of this weekend 1/2 of upcoming week in my agenda is already full of more notes and tasks. Cleaned the house top to bottom. The new vacuum cleaner works magic :) The feeling of having my life clean, organized and under control is priceless and is my main booster of peace of mind now.

My 2nd booster of peace of mind is knowing the health situation of everyone is my family is getting somewhat more stable. No concerning issues with  back, thyroid, heart, eyes, stomach, pancreas and other.

And then there is my endorphin booster that crawls around at a cosmic speed babbling "bah-bah-bye-dah-dah-dye" and smiling at me :)

The biggest project of the next 12 months is finally starting to look less like "Torture..." and more like "Adventure!".

Another habit that needs to be eliminated:

Thinking too much into things.

Was hesitating to check something out online. Wasn't even sure what I will see or read, but had a feeling that might throw me off balance for a short while. Eventually, I decided that whatever I see - I can always use as my own motivation, rather than getting emotional.

In reality, what I saw (and read) made my day; showed me I've been on the right track all along and must be doing much better than I expected. Now all these "what ifs" look ridiculous.  I am just happy this reminder to stay reasonable and focused went off in an insignificant situation. There may be bigger opportunities coming up...

Before Monday even comes, my to-do list for the week stretches Monday through Friday.

And every line of every date's space is filled; does not matter if I break down appointments and tasks by timeframes, or group them into blocks. Usually both :)

Today, closer to afternoon, a feeling of helplessness stoke me again. My agenda's been filled with stuff to do for weeks now, and for every item I cross off, two new are to be added to the list. And what's worse - none of the items that I do not consider routine did not yield any significant results or life improvements in the past few months! Keep reminding myself that many important things just take time to happen. But then I glance at the achievers that I used to look up to - and it seems that they all are shaping their lives exactly the way they want them to be and not breaking a sweat, while I'm pretty much  running around in circles. It's mid-March and none of my 20 goals for the year is close to completion. Even the reading goal is at 7% - what a joke...

And then having thought all this over, I suddenly got another strong feeling arising: "Enough!".
I could live this life for months, and nothing would change, but...
Enough!

In the next several hours I cleaned up the whole house and did the laundry, ordered the course free trial, put old stuff for sale on Craigslist, sent the Baby Shower invites and started planning the menu and decor, after some totally fruitless research on Glion's website - emailed the university and requested transcripts, cancelled the old credit cards with the clothes stores, cooked dinner and went through the pile of mail pinned to the kitchen bulletin board, and worked out some other unfinished business.
Felt stronger.
With some order around and within, it's time to think over a strategy to better leverage all the time, knowledge and energy I have. The way things used to work do not seem to fit my life goals anymore  :)

Finally. It's spring.

 It's about time this long uncomfortable winter was over.

What's good about being 6 months postpartum - is starting to feel human again. Change of the seasons might have something to do with that too, but I prefer to blame the hormones for the veil of dumbness over my brain for the past half a year, as well as for the behaviour and thinking pattern that were not quite... typical of me :)

I like the motherhood experience. I like the actual idea of motherhood: it shows you your strengths and weaknesses without sugar coating, makes you set your priorities straight, poses a lot of new questions and challenges, but may also help work out some of the old ones. Not to mention a booster in time management and patience ( yes, the latter is especially fun when being hormonal :) ).
Motherhood does not allow you to give in in certain moments of your life - there are pros and cons to that.

Now that I feel like I'm being more objective, reasonable and adequate  :)  I would say that the experience of being pregnant, having a baby and bringing him up for the first 6 months did make me stronger, smarter and wiser. I know it won't really get easier   unless I actually get a full time family in town  but I do already see it work as an upgrade for myself in many ways.

Geopolitics statistics :) countries visited by 2013

visited 14 states (6.22%)
Create your own visited map of The World or jurisdische vertaling duits?

For the past few weeks

I've been waking up in the morning and Couldn't understand: who I am, where I am, what day of the week it is, where it is that I am supposed to go now, and what I am supposed to do...

The Big Read by BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top200.shtml

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Over 7 mln views on Youtube...

 

Somebody just had to come up with this!

 

The funniest part though is how quickly the popular song was picked up and played around with close to November 6 :

Of course Republicans could not have leaft this unanswered!

And next weekend we're going to a Gangnam Style dance Flash Mob in Washington Park =)