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How I Met...

2011-09-05T19:35:00.003-04:00

About two years ago, my friend Andy said: "You're totally like Ted (from How I Met Your Mother)... Actually, you're Ted so much that..." and he drew a diagram that looked something like this:

"...that one day you'll be even more Ted-like than Ted himself."

It might be true that I have a lot in common with Ted Mosby and I even agree that I might have got above the 100% level already... The 18th episode (see below) of the first series of How I Met Your Mother is about long-distance relationships - and about how Ted fails in one. This, in my opinion, is what I do in a more Ted-like way than Ted himself - because while he failed, I have been successful.

(You might want to see this episode - it's really funny and it's about 20 minutes long.)

How I Met Your Mother - S1 E18, "Nothing Good Happens After 2 A.M."

This is the third year I've been in a long-distance relationship. The same one. A few days ago, my roommate asked me:
"Do you like being in a relationship?" and I said: "Yeah, sure, I love it!"
He looked at me questioningly.
"OK, it sucks when I'm here - I miss her a lot - but otherwise, it's great..."
Read "otherwise" as "during the summer holidays and on Christmas."

Actually, quite many people keep asking me the same question: "What is it like to be in a long-distance relationship? How do you cope?" Well...
We got to know each other at a boarding school in the Czech Republic. Being in a relationship in such a small campus with so few people in it, so far away from home is a lot of fun. And you get used to each other very easily - they say that one year of a teenage relationship at a boarding school is like three years at a normal high school... But when we started dating each other, she had already started an admission process for a two-year IB program at UWC schools, none of which is in the Czech Republic. And naturally, she got in.

The dilemma of a "lifetime chance (whatever it is) not taken" versus "risking a long-distance relationship" came up for the first time, and it wasn't for the last one. There are many points of view on this problem, but the main ones are:
1.) Would you regret this relationship if it could not last a long-distance? But then again, would be such a weak relationship worth sustaining, if it did not survive "just" some physical distance for a limited period of time?
2.) Would you regret the chance not taken because of your relationship? What is more important to you?
3.) And what is one year of separation compared to a lifetime of a relationship, which we believe ours will become? Would you think, at some point in the future, that it was a shame not to use this chance just for this one year, while we'll might have spent maybe another fifty years together?
4.) Aren't we wasting the best years of our young life in separation? Or is it just a short-sighted point of view?

I usually think about all these questions and most usually I decide for taking a lifetime chance, traveling around the world and getting precious worldly knowledge that so many people lack - instead of just having an uncomplicated life back home in the living room, "together."

First separation came when I left for the US for a month to attend an academic program. It was hard at the beginning, because we had already thought it was the last time we saw each other for the next seven months, but I managed to get everything done earlier and so I could re-book my flight to see her once again before she left for her new high school in Singapore. We knew it would work and also, we believed we could be looking forward to seeing each other during Christmas, four months later. Still, it was going to be pretty hard.

It was a great change for me not to have her around, but I was still with all my friends, which helped a lot. For her, though, it was a completely new experience, and so she had to get used to a new cultural, social, and also academic environment. She did a great job and also I tried to help her as much as I could; our Skype calls rarely lasted less than an hour a day for the first two months. And before we really got used to it, Christmas was approaching, and so we couldn't wait to see each other again. The situation repeated after Christmas break and so the summer came, during which, again, there was hardly a day we did not spend together.

In the next school year, our situation changed only in that I left for a university in the US, while she went back for another year of high school in Singapore. The roles changed and now it was I who needed more support - which I got, mostly through Skype (apart from, of course, starting new friendships, which, however, took a while to establish). For Christmas, I went to Singapore and it was one of the best Christmas in my life. But it always feels too short when we have to say goodbye to one another at the airport. The fourth four months of separation came and I already thought it might have been the last, since she had been admitted to an American university, not far away from mine (hardly anything seems too far when literally twelve hours of timezones separate you from your girlfriend).

But then she got an opportunity to take a gap year. She wanted to spend another year in India, teaching little kids English. Basically, the same dilemma came up again, enriched by new arguments:
5.) Now that we've spent so much time on a long-distance, one more year should be fine. But what if this is going to be too much now? Where's the limit?

We've become professionals by now. We call each other almost every day on Skype, we write e-mails or facebook messages when we need to say something important without waiting for another call, we sometimes even send letters and packages to each other for birthdays - that reminds me --- during this almost three-years-long relationship, we've never spent a birthday together. Nether mine nor hers. We have actually spent less time together then apart when it sums up. It is still worth it.

Every holidays we spend together, we spend together literally all the time, because we don't want to waste time being apart while we don't have to. So much harder it is to say goodbye again. And so much better it feels to say hi at the beginning of another holidays. It always feels like a new start, we're almost like dating each other anew, with almost everything it takes. It feels weird even to kiss the other one at first.
The same way, separations are almost like break-ups. We're still going to see each other in four months, but what that means at that given moment? Sometimes, I feel like I'm going crazy. It might not seem so fatal, but for the majority of population changes like this are milestones in their lives - everything changes once you lose someone or, on the other hand, find someone else. It is almost like that.

I talked to two other people who had experienced the same thing. One had a happy ending, the other did not.
On a train to my home town we met an English man who barely spoke Czech, going to visit his wife in that town. He said he knew what it's like - but back in the nineties, when he had been experiencing the real long-distance separation, there was no Skype and regular international calls were too expensive. And so he had been writing letters to his future wife. Once, when he had been writing one, late at night in his house in the outskirts of London, a police car had stopped by to ask him why his lights had been still on so late at night. He had said he had been writing a letter to his girlfriend in the Czech Republic. The cops had left hesitantly. And now he's married to her, having small kids.
I also talked to my uncle who had left for Canada after he had finished his university in the Czech Republic during the nineties. He said he had called his girlfriend quite often, but it had been usually hard to catch each other by the phone - with no cell phone, him having to use a local telephone box. He said he had always gone to the pub to get a small plastic bag full of change to be able to put coins one after another into the phone box when he had been calling. For that matter, they had even invented something like a precursor of Skype: they sent each other letters with audio tapes attached, on which they had always recorded some music and voice messages for each other. "Quite romantic," I thought.
"I don't know, maybe if it were today and we had Skype and everything, just like you, maybe it might have lasted, we loved each other a lot," said he, having married another woman since, and having a six-years-old kid with her...

A long distance relationship is not just about missing each other (After all, we have Skype, right?). There are also other factors involved - at least one of the two is usually experiencing a completely new environment in all respects, which makes everything harder. But on the other hand, I think it would be a shame to make a relationship an obstacle for aims in your life, while keeping it alive. I always think of what my girlfriend once said to me:
"You know, hadn't I been sure enough about our relationship, I would have stayed home."

PS: Corrected by my girlfriend. Via Skype.

Resident Alien

2010-11-16T00:03:00.004-05:00

This is what I wrote more than a week ago... Or at least should have.

You might have seen one of the latest episodes (season 6, episode 7) of How I Met Your Mother - the NYC Halloween downtown village parade is mentioned there. And that's exactly what I attended two days ago (the actual parade at the Halloween night, not the morning following it).

It was awesome. Before that, I had thought Halloween is something celebrated by children mostly - and during the day, I saw couple of children trick-or-treating on the street; they went even into shops and restaurants to collect their candies there. What I was about to see, though, was truly unexpected...

We took subway downtown - some of us dressed up as something more specific, some of us just being some kind of "dark entities" (I actually DO have vampire-like teeth, right?). As we were approaching the place of assembly of the parade, we were meeting more and more strangely dressed and, what's more, behaving people (actually, were they?). When we got to the Broome street in the NY village (the oldest part of the NYC where the streets are actually named, not just numbered), we saw - met - ran into thousands of weirdos, beings and creatures, literally. Tens of thousands. Tons of thousands.
As we were waiting for the parade to start, we were freezing and clutching in the most peculiar crowd I had ever had the honor to clutch in. You'd better look at the photo gallery, because otherwise you really won't believe... The costumes (still not sure about that) that amused me the most were the triplet of guys who were the characters from the Kick-Ass movie, one of the most stupid movies I've ever seen... And these guys looked truly authentic...

I just cannot tell what kind of feeling it is to walk in the dark along the sixth avenue for more than twenty blocks in a huge group of variously dressed and behaving people with music playing aloud and all those people standing along the way and watching you pass around... It was crazy, colorful and sometimes, even evil...

After we reached the end of the area reserved for the parade, we went back to the dorms and sat down together to talk, eat cookies and drink some cider... That was one of the most local experiences I had had so far...

Well, yesterday I did something that my father would praise me for - for some reason he really likes the idea of being one of those homeless guys sitting in front of one of the skyscrapers on the fifth ave on those hot-air-emitting airholes from the subway - and that's what I came close to with my appearance. I was wearing a black hoodie, a black cap, black pair of gloves without fingertips, white sneakers and brown Indian-like pants when I went to grab a lunch to a nearby supermarket. When I was paying, an African-American guy who was putting my goods into the shopping bag smiled at me for a while and then he said: "Nice pants, bro' - that's the kind you can jump really wide with, right?!" He also told me that people wore it in the country he came from (don't ask me why I didn't ask him where he was from...). I was also surprised that he talked to me this way, no one I didn't know had ever spoke to me like that. And then I went downtown, for two reasons - firstly, I wanted to buy a coat, because it was getting colder lately and I also wanted to go have a walk in the Central Park, because, I admitted, it was a crime of me still not to had done so by the end of October.

So I took subway downtown to Columbus Circle and wearing my cool underground outfit I went straight to a Hugo Boss shop. You would not believe how polite the shop attendants were and how suspiciously they scrutinized my appearance upon my entering at the same time. I went directly to the coats section and started to look through the latest Hugo Boss collection. The shop attendant approached me and asked me if he "could help me" - "Yes, I'm looking for A COAT," I said. He handed me one of the most fancy looking ones and I guess this was the very most expensive single piece of clothes I had ever worn - the price tag said something like "$789" and you can imagine how it fitted my current "setting"... It was fun. In no more than two minutes I left the shop under the pressure of the moment.

Then I went to couple more shops, but they were treating me the same way everywhere - just briefly answering my questions and trying to do so fast so that I didn't have any other reason to stay anymore - although I actually wanted to buy a coat! When I was done with this "window-shopping" (this is really funny term and it DOES actually exist, indeed), I left the shopping center, bought a cup of tea at a street stand and went straight to the Central Park (it actually is not that far), sat down on the grass and started fully enjoying the fall in NYC... You should see the photos, my description would be pointless - or just remember what NY looks like in fall as you know it from every second Hollywood movie and you got it. :-P

The very next day I dressed up as usual (a "nice" sweater, jeans, "nice" shoes, no cap and no gloves) and went to buy a coat, finally - not to the Hugo Boss shop, though. When I was buying it in the store, the shop attendant was really friendly and helpful and everything; I even learned that he was from Germany, that winter in the NYC is very cold, indeed, and that he liked soccer, too... However, when I, having bought the coat, went back to the dorms and stopped in the supermarket, no one ever talked to me calmly and no one said "how're you doin', bro?" this time. I just didn't have the appropriate "bro" look, I guess...

It is amazing how fast people assess you just based on the type of clothes you wear - and this is not anything so revealing, of course. But sometimes, it's real fun to stop being a Columbia student and be awesome instead...

Academically speaking

2010-10-26T22:24:00.005-04:00

All Columbia College students have to fulfill the swimming requirement. The reason for this is, they say, that since we are on an island here, they should be able to swim to the other side in case of emergency. The question is, why students of the two other undergrad schools, School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and Barnard College (BC, women's college), don't have to know how to swim. SEAS students say that they would be able to build another means of transportation to save themselves. BC students say that they would have CC students save them.

In this post, let me tell you briefly about the classes I take here.

First two classes I would like to write about today are my core classes - that is, they are a part of the Core Curriculum (so much we are proud of), which is the basic set of classes taken by every each student of the Columbia College. Apart from the PE requirement (including having to be able to swim six lengths of our swimming pool, as noted above) and a few other classes to be successfully completed by the end of the senior year, an integral part of each freshman's curriculum is the Literature and Humanities (aka Masterpieces of European Literature and Philosophy). Here, we are always supposed to read a short book or a play by an ancient Greek author so that we can discuss it in the class afterwards. Once in two moths, we also write an essay about one of them. So far, we have read Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Epic of Gilgamesh, Hymn to Demeter, couple of Histories by Herodotus, Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Libation Bearers and Eumenides, Sophocles' Oedipus the King and Euripides' Medea. It might seem quite a lot to read during two months, but it is not that much, really. Moreover, it is something that I like to do, because all freshmen have to - it is simply a part of the school spirit. That means, when you walk into the Butler Library with an Iliad in your hand, everyone sighs and thinks: "Oh yeah, when I was a freshman..."

After one of the classes, out teacher took fifteen of us (out of 20 to 25 people that attend my section of the class) to have a lunch with him. Not only that he took us to a very nicely looking cafeteria mainly for the teachers (but students have an access, too, we found out), but we also had a very interesting conversation (or at least those of us sitting closest to him). One of the topics we talked about was a review of his recently published historical book in New York Times, which was rather negative. His reaction was that the person - journalist - probably didn't even read that book, because the most issues she pointed out had been discussed in the book itself. He also told us about a different review, written by an actual historian, which was largely positive. It is interesting, how view of people's work can be altered in the eyes of to the public by a newspaper; even more interesting is, though, finding out how cool my Lit-Hum teacher is - for both having written a book like that and having a lunch with us, his undergraduate students.

There is another core class I take this semester, which is called Frontiers of Science. Every Monday, we attend a scientific lecture on a given topic and then discuss it in our seminar the following Wednesday, focusing on the "scientific habits of mind" - that is, the techniques that actually make this a science, not just a bunch of interesting facts, like using proxies, proofs, hypotheses and so on. In the first three lectures, which were dedicated to the "Brain and Behavior", we learned the very basics of neuroscience - which I, future "Neuroscience & Behavior" major, enjoyed a lot. But the other three lectures on the "Astronomy" were interesting, too. In those, we were told mainly about how scientists use light, the exclusive piece of information about the outer space that astronomers can get with their feet set on the Earth's surface.

And indeed, by the end of each triplet of lessons, we knew enough information to be able to pose questions that actually form the frontiers of the modern science, such as: "How the memories are stored and organized?", "Are we actually the ones who decide about our actions?", or "What the hell is the dark matter and the dark force?" - while actually knowing WHY these questions should be asked.

One (and so far the only one) class that I take as a part of my major is the Science of Psychology. Even though it is "just" a lecture, it is usually very funny and engaging. The one that I remember the most, is - oddly enough - the one about Pavlovian conditioning:

When we came to the class, we saw our teacher blowing up balloons and sticking them on a table in front of the blackboard with no explanation. During the class then, in the middle of talking about the subject, she took a red paper in her hands so that everyone could see it and passed in front of the blackboard from left to right, still holding the red paper over her head. Everyone was watching her, wondering what she meant to convey by this until she, while going back from right to left, all of the sudden, pierced one of the balloons - we all jumped up in our seats with the bang it made - and then she put the red paper down again, as if nothing had happened.

A few minutes later, again, she took the red paper in her hands and passed the blackboard - we were wondering what was going to happen this time when suddenly, she blew another balloon again. We jumped up again, but much less than the first time, because we had expected something like that to happen. When she did it for the third time, almost no one jumped - all we did was laughing at the image of our teacher holding the red paper over her head and piercing another balloon, watching our reactions with funny expression in her face. That's why I will never forget what Pavlovian conditioning means - and also jump up little less whenever someone, who is holding a red paper, blows a balloon.

I also take some chemistry lessons, which are pretty cool themselves alone with all those in-class experiments and so on... I have found out, however, that by far the coolest thing about them is that they take place in the lecture room where also Peter Parker - the Spiderman - took his lessons (Havemeyer 309). This makes me feel a little more supernatural every time I walk into that class.

And, by the way, I am taking a chemistry lab next semester, where I'll, hopefully, manage to find a spider and make it bite me...

The last class I didn't write about yet is my Math aka Calculus III class. The piece of information to be shared in this case is the description of our teacher. He is just funny. Try to imagine a 30 years old ("old", not young) person (teacher at Barnard College), quite slender one, moving in a bear-like way, with wide circular glasses, whose black hair is almost 1 meter long and made into a braid, whose longest pants never touch his shoes and whose biggest hobby is topology (and he's really good at it!). I admire him.

I just don't know how to make this piece of text continuous now, because I'm going to tell you about something COMPLETELY different, but let's say I just did it. (I actually did. Lame.) About a week ago, on my way to the dining hall, I took an elevator (as I do at least twelve times a day) - I got in (it) in my, 9th floor. It stopped at 6th floor and a girl pushing a huge, strangely shaped case on wheels in front of her got in. Obviously, it was a case with a musical instrument in it, but not quite a usual one, so I wondered what --- a harp! A harp?! Never in my life before have I seen anyone actually moving a harp somewhere. When I noted that it must be hard to take anywhere with you, she just said: "It's just once a week, so it's OKay." Can you imagine yourself pushing a harp in front of you across the university campus once a week? I just found it interesting.

That's it. Story's over.

But here's something really interesting, look: last week, I went to see a concert of a Czech music band HERE, in the NY - MIG 21. That is cool, right?! Unfortunately, having taken loads of photos and videos, I then master-reset my cell phone because of some technicalities (no, I don't do that every day), so I lost them all. (And yes, it did piss me off.)

But I saw MIG 21 live! (And had a half-liter of Czech beer after more than almost two months!!!)

In da mood

2010-10-11T23:40:00.008-04:00

It has been longer time since I posted for the last time than I had wanted it to be - and this was caused mainly by the fact that I kept being engaged by all the school assignments. I would like to dedicate this post to my dearest Mademoiselle, because actually, today somewhere else on the Earth's surface she turned NINETEEN!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY LOVE!!! (OK, that will do, right?)

Now I am going to tell you something about what happened during that time, from both academic and not-so-much-academic area.

The first two non-academic things are interconnected: two of my friends (actually - one of my friends, who brought another guy who became my friend instantly, if he liked it or not) came to visit me here at Columbia and stayed here for two nights, while we celebrated Czech holiday, St. Venceslas (September 28) - it was a lot of fun.

Actually, the most funny part was how my (not only) female friends here liked them. The fact that I was glad for their presence was nothing compared to the way most of my floor mates were gladdened... :) I admit, these two Czech guys are kind of handsome and funny, too - but when you take into account their "soooo cuuute accent", it must be just irresistible (personally, I can't tell, but it seems to have been empirically proved). When one of my floor mates, referring to my friends, asked me if all the Czechs are "so hot" (up to now I wonder if this question really encompassed me or not), I just answered: "Well, my friends are - of course," keeping on mind my responsibility to keep this impression alive for more of my Czech friends to come visit me here... ;)

The celebration of the national holiday meant mainly displaying the Czech national flag in my window to be seen far away (remember, I live on the 9th floor facing inside the campus!) - and believe it or not, it served its purpose! In three upcoming days, I was asked by (at least) three people independently of each other about my flag, which was up there for only one day!

Talking about promoting the Czech Republic, I cannot forget about the success of our national high-school coed debate team! Last week, they actually won the World Championship in Online Debating! So, thank you very much, guys - and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Another significant story is about getting my American phone number. Two weeks ago, having filled countless forms, requests and questionnaires I realized that without a phone number, you are not a legitimate person here. (I already set up my bank account, but that just WASN'T enough...) I asked my friends which provider they would suggest me to go to and since most of them have plans at AT&T with free calling within this network, they advised me to get this one. Therefore, I went to the nearest AT&T store to ask about the possibilities for an international student like me - and I got the answer: I can get either a monthly plan or buy a pay-as-you-go credit to spend freely, but naturally, it costs a bit more. I was also told that in order to do that, I need my personal ID with me - and since I don't have an American driving license and don't carry my passport with me everywhere, I had to come back again. Never mind, at least I can take my time to think about all the possibilities with the information gained...

The next day, I took my passport and went there again, looking forward to my new phone number; and because, logically, I chose to buy a monthly plan for it's price, I was looking forward to a new phone, which you get with a new plan for free, too. As soon as I came in, I filled the required form and - the shop assistant told me that among other things, I had to submit a $500 deposit, in cash only. WHAT?! You are telling me this now?! I don't have $500 in my pocket just like that - and neither do I want to go and withdraw it from an ATM... OKay, never mind, there's another possibility - I can just "use" an SSN (Social Security Number - something that all the Americans have and most internationals don't) of someone else I know, who actually has it, instead. It will just take another journey to the campus and back again.

As soon as I came back to my room, I met my roomie who agreed to provide me with his SSN - I took it and went to the AT&T store again... I came there, told the assistant the number and he was like: "OK, now I need that person's ID..." What the f***?! I mean, IS THAT SO HARD TO SUMMARIZE ALL THE STEPS IN ADVANCE?! OK, whatever, I called my roomie and had him scan his driving license and send it to my e-mail immediately, no big deal (Thanks!). As the assistant put everything into the computer, I was exhausted, but the end was near. I thought.

"Sorry, sir, but this person doesn't have any checking history, you would need to submit the deposit with this SSN anyway." EM...(A person with that SSN actually needs a checking history associated with him??) --- I would just repeat myself.---

I still didn't give up.

I came back to my room, thanked my roomie and was still thinking about another way to do it. I didn't want to submit the deposit and I also didn't want to use someone's SSN, as it turned out that this person would be more or less responsible for my checking, which neither of us would like... By that time, I truly started to feel number and number (still not American, though)...

So I just decided to get the bloody pay-as-you-go using my own phone. I picked a day and looked on the internet to find out that this AT&T store is open every day till 9 PM - so at 8 I took a subway for the fourth and the last time to finally get my American number, yay!

Not really. It was closed. (&#%@*€$ !!!)

Next day I got it. That is all.

PS: Actually, by remembering this story to its full extent I don't feel like sharing all the amazing academic stuff I wanted (and promised) to tell you now - next time I will, I swear... ;) I'm going to watch HIMYM now.

Learning American

2010-09-20T23:47:00.007-04:00

So many things happened during the last week - so let me tell you at least a little about most of them...

There was a fire alarm in my dorm!!! Seriously, it wasn't any scheduled fire drill or something, we actually had to stop doing whatever we were doing, run down the fire escape and get out of the building as fast as possible... When I went out all excited, I realized there were no flames blazing out of the windows or anything - it was just one of the sophomores who probably didn't attend the cooking club long enough to learn that even a cook stove can get really hot. But even then they didn't want to let us in, while on the other side of the building at least three fire trucks assembled in less than two minutes. It was fun - at least, I took a few photos...

The really important part were new events on my path of "americanisation". First of all, I was told about all the kinds od milk they have here - there is "whole" milk (with less fat removed from it, obviously), 2% milk, 1% milk (with respective volume of fat) and so called "skim" milk. I realized these names during one of my first breakfasts already - after this tutorial at least I knew (I really hate how "knew" is pronounced here, just like "new") which one I "would not rather drink" (skim milk).
I also asked about the real purpose of "knock-knock, who's there" jokes --- I was told that, yes, after a certain age, vast majority of them ARE just stupid (except for the KGB one: "Knock-knock, who's there?" "KGB." "KGB who?" "Who the hell is asking questions here?!" ...). OKay.
Another really important event was an American-football game I attended. It was Columbia vs. Fordham - some until-then-to-me-unknown-local-university... In fact, they were so unknown that they dared to defeat us --- outrageous! But the important part was that I got a shirt for being among the first 500 Columbia students to come (I doubt there were actually 500 of them at all)... But no, the really important part was that I learned a few of the rules of American-football and realized that sometimes it is quite interesting to watch. Anyway, I haven't learned that much so that I would call it just "football". It is still American, right?

It wouldn't be me if I didn't mention the concert of Linkin Park I attended at Times Square. After four hours of standing in a line and another hour inside I got what I had been waiting for for more than two years. It was just amazing - the best part were the new songs that I had heard just recently and that were played for the first time ever at that concert, because at that very same day a new LP album (A Thousand Suns) just came out (even though not all of them were as good as all the previous ones). After the show, Mike and Chester went down from the stage to the fans so I shook hands with both of them... And on the way from the concert, I got a pizza free so I wasn't even hungry after all. :)

The last paragraph of this report I would like to dedicate to my only real BRO who became famous this week! Yes, he was on TV, performing his skillful art of Kendama. Not only that - they also DID mention his name, something that hardly anyone who gets a few seconds on TV ever achieves. I really enjoyed his appearance, which lasted for a good few minutes - if you want to see it yourselves, follow this link (at about two fifths), where you can play it over and over again. :)

Welcome to the New World

2010-09-12T14:50:00.012-04:00

The last moments with my family were not the most cheerful ones. I was going to see them in nine months for the next time (well, I still pretty much am) so it was quite awkward just to say bye, turn around and walk away; the first-of-its-kind experience; uncertainty, I felt almost like naked when I passed the gate. However, I was about to gain some unimaginable experience sooner than I thought...

I was waiting for my flight nervously, standing in a line, watching all those people around me - some of them were coming back home, some of them heading forward, just like me. When I approached the attendant to let me in the plane, she took my flight ticket from my hand, where I clutched it along with my passport, and when she looked at my name, she turned around and replaced it with another one and then said: "Mr. Freedom, because this flight is full in the economy class and because you have some SkyMiles already, we moved you to the business class, if you don't mind." "Wow," was my immediate answer, "I mean, thank you!"
And then the ride begun...

An iced glass of champagne was waiting for me there - I said 'cheers' and clinked it with my neighbor's one in my rising excitement, although he probably didn't expect it; I realized I was the youngest person in the whole front section of the plane. When I sat down to that throne of my newly acquired kingdom, I found myself sitting in an excessively comfortable armchair with all those cool gadgets to be tried out before I had to leave them there again, most probably forever.
"What are you going to eat for your lunch, Mr. Freedom?" air hostess caught me almost by surprise to find out that a menu still lay down there on the ground in front of me - somewhere on those 2 meters of space between my legs and someone else's back (it took three windows!).
...I had a dozen of hazel nuts followed by a delicious salad, - "no, thanks, I don't usually eat soup" - medium beef steak avec les pommes de terre, finished by a real vanilla ice-cream with chocolate sauce and ground nuts, all of it accompanied by monsieur Burgess Merlot from California, 2005...
You can imagine I got fed up with this eventually so then I rather read my Iliad, which I had received by mail from my college two weeks before. When I finished the twelfth book, I decided to watch the Prince of Persia movie on my personal screen, a movie that I missed in cinemas; towards the end of my flight I also gave my armchair a whirl a little bit and was trying what it could do until I fell asleep.
For the first time, I was sorry (derived from 'sorrow'?) to leave my dear air-plane seat to get off to humid heat of 90°.
Fahrenheit, of course.

By subway, it took more than hour to get from the JFK airport to the 116th Street, Columbia University; I couldn't miss it. I needed to settle down immediately; I even had to buy myself all the bedding that day to be able to take a rest after nine hours in the plane (however enjoyable ones). I also got my CUID (Columbia University ID card used to access buildings in the campus, get a meal or a discount in any of countless shops, delis and museums in the city), keys to my suite, room and mail box and bunch of brochures for the upcoming orientation week. In the evening, we also had some ice-breakers, which actually woke me up a little bit (I was little hyper-active as I summoned last bits of my energy allotted for that day) but then I just fell half asleep, half dead.
I arrived on Tuesday, which was one day after the beginning of the orientation (don't ask me why), so I missed the Convocation and couple of other activities, but it was not impossible to catch up eventually (and also my room mate helped me a lot with everything - it doesn't happen very often to me, that someone is actually more responsible than me and knows when and where they should be while I don't). It was a very busy week and I don't even remember how many sessions I've been to, but they varied from security to health to sex safety to chemistry to French (no, they did not have anything in common); it was fun though - I got to know the campus and some of the students quite well.

Then the first week of classes came. Besides the Core-Curricular classes (this semester I take Literature and Humanities and Frontiers of Science - both of which are rather discussion classes, quite engaging) I also take the pre-med required classes (general chemistry and math, attempting to keep up with honors maths course - and for the first time, it does take an effort) and French (which is really funny - the teacher, young French miss, is so enthusiastic, always making us repeat what she says with her high pitched voice; "Oui ou non?" is what she says all the time although the answer is usually obvious...).

Nevertheless, living in the campus of Columbia University does not encompass just academic life. During my first now-almost-two weeks I've met many interesting people, couple of which I remember even names, not just a face. Some of them have been to the Czech Republic already, some of them even had their relatives coming from there. One day, for example, during lunch I met an old woman (about 80 years old) whose parents went from the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Bohemia) to the USA for their honeymoon in 1914 - and because then the WWI broke out, they couldn't come back, so they just stayed in the States for the rest of their lives.

The other day, when I was coming back from a movie-typical college party (room for two stuffed with more than twenty people dance-talking while loud music was playing, drinking beer mostly), I saw a group of students encircling a copper sculpture, which was standing on a pedestal outside. Before I could even think of what they were doing there, they all just pushed and turned the sculpture by ninety degrees. And then they just walked on... Cool, I thought. The sculpture is called "Wisdom tooth", by the way...

And many more things happen here. I'll try to keep you posted about those that are interesting for me... Hopefully ---

The purpose

2010-08-31T21:54:00.001-04:00

Three days back, I took a bus to my hometown. When I was getting on it, a young mother asked me to help her get a pram with her baby on board. When I looked at her face, I realized it was a girl in my age – one that used to go to school by the same bus with me every day more than five years ago. I just couldn’t believe that this baby, about one year old, was her own...

Yesterday, I went home again. I passed a pub next to my house and could see inside through an open door. I saw a barmaid there, carrying three pints of beer at that moment. Again, it was a girl from my childhood, maybe even younger than me, who used to attend the same basic school in my hometown twelve years ago.

When I looked around me, everything looked somehow different; only the houses were there as I had always remembered them. Only recently, the oldest tree was cut down, and although those trees that used to be our soccer goal when we played in the yard remained, they were old and withered. That grassless terrain, which had kept being trampled by a goalkeeper (my brother at that time), was overgrown by grass eventually, because there was no one to keep the goal anymore... The time that has passed left some remarkable traces, but still, it was just the house I grew up in surrounded by the yard from my childhood, all of that in my old hometown. I cannot imagine myself staying in that little world of infancy forever. I realized it was only me who kept coming back though – most “children” just stayed there and never left not to have to come back again. I couldn’t do that. For them, home is the place to stay at. For me, it is the place to return to.

Of course, there is a place where you have your family, your friends, your past; place where you come back in your memories throughout your entire life. However, hardly is it the place where you can do something really important besides planting a tree, building a house and starting a family... In my (humble) opinion, at least there certainly is something new to see, someone else to meet and something more to achieve on the Earth’s surface, in a lifetime. Whatever it may be.

And yes, the most people I know have always been searching for something --- something more, something that would explain or show or even indicate the reasons or purposes of their otherwise ordinary lives. I will bet that even those everyday work-goers, soccer-and-hockey-watchers, clothes-launderers-and-ironers and beer-drinkers sometimes wonder why everyone just has to go to school, then have a job and a family and then simply die. Some people call that “the ultimate question”, the question “why?”.

The answer very well may be fourty-two (even though then you would need to check the question again), of course. I also heard another answer: “We are here just to enjoy it,” but I have to oppose to this one.

Enjoying something or feeling good about something is just a state of mind. It is driven either by gratification when someone’s needs, desires or instincts, like taste or libido, are fulfilled or by satisfaction when one has done something that took an effort to reach the result. Nevertheless, in both these cases, the “joy” is a by-product of the action taken, just like anger, satiety or pain. It is just an elusive experience that can motivate someone to do something, but cannot be taken for the substantive reason to act. For example the good feeling of satiety is not the reason why we eat. Even though it feels good to have eaten a rare steak with fries and ketchup, the main reason why we eat is not to enjoy the food, but to feed ourselves not to be hungry, for we would eat literally anything if we were about to starve to death.

Of course there are many things we do only to enjoy them – but are these really that important? Are they doing anything more than just giving us that moment of happiness, which is followed by pacification, very often making us feel even worse than before the “joy-time”?

What is the right purpose of every each of our lives?

This article was left unfinished due to author’s departure to his future university...

Imagining the fourth dimension

2010-02-20T09:40:00.025-05:00

We know that now we live in the three dimensional (3D) space. We are also able to describe all the "lower" dimensions that the 3D space is built of. For a long time I have tried to envision another dimension, additional one to the three ones we know now - what I have found out so far follows.

Probably the easiest way to find something that should follow a certain pattern is to look at the preceding occurrences and first describe that pattern. In this case, it means to depict the first, second and third dimension as they are added to each other and then try to add another one in the same manner.
The basic element of all dimensions is a point - sometimes talked of as the "zero dimension". There is only one possible position within this this dimension - the point itself.
When you take infinitely many points and put them in a straight row, you get a line - the first dimension (1D). A position of a point on this line is given along only one axis, which is the line itself.
Then you take infinitely many lines and put them besides each other in the same manner as you did with the points - you get a plane, the two dimensional (2D) space. That is when you can describe a position of any point within this dimension by a combination of values from two axes (which are ideally perpendicular to each other but do not have to be).
Now you take infinitely many these planes and again, you stack them on each other to fill the entire three-dimensional (3D) space. Here, the position of a point is given by three axes (one more to the two 2D ones), while all of them do not lie in the same plane. (Ideally, they are perpendicular to each other.)
Finally, you just take infinitely many of these unconfined 3D spaces, put them besides each other and you get a four-dimensional (4D) hyperspace. Position of a point here is found by a combination of values read from four axes (perpendicular to each other at best), all of which do not belong to the same space. Unfortunately, this is quite hard to imagine. In fact, it is probably impossible for us, 3D beings - however, I try hard to make it. :)

The impossibility of imagination in this case is well illustrated (okay, this is an oxymoron but you know what I mean) on the example of division of spaces. Take the 1D space (line) and put a point in it. This results in this line being divided by that point to two separate ones. Let's go one level up: take a plane (2D) and divide it to two separate ones (half-planes) by a line (1D). Then take a space (3D) and again, you can divide it to two separate ones by a plane (2D). This creates a pattern by which you can split a space in a dimension in question to two by another space, which is one level "below" - that is, 1D line is divided by a point (0D), 2D plane is divided to two by a 1D line, and 3D space you can divide by a 2D plane. This logically means that a 4D hyperspace is divisible to two by a 3D space. But how? How can you take the entire space we live in and put it in the middle of infinitely many similar ones (which altogether create the hyperspace) and so divide them to two hyperspaces?

Since it is hard to imagine the entire hyperspace, let's try to imagine just one hyperspacial object. To be able to do that, we need to have an object defined through the first three dimensions and then try to "model" it one level higher.
If you take a sphere (3D) by the definition, it is the set of points in the space which are of a certain distance (r) to the center or nearer. Going to 2D, by the same definition we get a circle. Using this definition in 1D, we get what we call a segment (well, what else would it be?) with the "center" in the middle of it. But what would a "hypersphere" look like? What additional points to those of the sphere would belong to this 4D shape?
Let's move to a different example for a while - a cube may be good for this purpose: 3D cube has 8 (2^3) vertices, each of which is connected to 3 others by the edges. A 2D form of a cube, a square, has 4 (2^2) vertices with each of them connected to 2 others by sides - therefore a 1D "cube" (or "square", if you want) has to have 2 (2^1) vertices, both connected to 1 another - which again effectively results in a segment. From this pattern we can see that with each new dimension the number of its vertices doubles and every each point is connected to its clone while all the connections are the of the same length (a), like this:

This image also suggests what a 4D "hypercube" would look like. Now it's much easier to imagine the hyperspace, isn't it? Well, let's try to calculate diagonals of these objects (shapes):

This makes it more interesting - a diagonal in the hypercube is twice a length of its edge. Unfortunately, this makes imagining the hypercube much more difficult and again, the 2D projection of a 3D model of this 4D shape (above) is not sufficient.
So take another "Platonic solid", a tetrahedron (3D). It has only one more vertex than its 2D form, triangle and both of them have all the vertices connected to the number of other ones corresponding to their dimension by edges (sides) of the same length. That is, 2D triangle has three vertices, all of which are connected to two other points and tetrahedron has four vertices, all of them connected to three other points. Therefore, 1D "triangle" consists of two points, each connected to one another creating a segment and 4D "hypertetrahedron" should be built of five points, each of which would be connected to four others. But where outside of the tetrahedron to put the fifth point and keep the same distance of all vertices from each other at the same? Naturally, you would need the fourth dimension, which is, again, hard to envision in our 3D circumstances. Obviously, it is hard to treat 4D in terms of distances and sets of points...

We are able to imagine the "lower" dimensions, because they create the space we live in, the 3D. But it is impossible for us to imagine some "higher" dimensions. The way we perceive the world visually is still 2D, though. All we can see is just a flat picture (projection) of the world around us. When you look at a cube, you see it only from one side, as if you made a photo of it. The cube is not this flat - you can touch it and turn it around, but you cannot see the entire cube at the same time. In the 3D world, we see 2D.
(You could argue that 3D films are different than the classical ones. Fine. Our "3D perception" of the world is created by adding up two 2D images from each of our eyes. However, the 3D illusion created by our brain is a different chapter. Now, let's just pretend we see everything from only "one point of view" - using only one eye, if you want.)
And how about trying to imagine you live just in a plane and you are a 2D drawing on a paper (some call it a "flatlander"). If there is some other shape next to you on this plane (say, a square), you see only a line because you cannot go above the paper and look at the entire shape. You can also go around it, but still, at one precise moment, you won't be able to see the entire shape. If you want to see it at once, you have to use the third dimension and "come out of the paper" - that is, leave the 2D space.
It would work the same way if you were in the first dimension only (on a line). If there was a segment on this line, you would perceive it only as a point. You would have to use the second dimension to look at it and see the entire segment at once. The third dimension would suffice as well - you can see a line when you draw it, can't you?
So what is it that helps you see shapes (objects) which are a part of the same-dimensional space as you are? You use another dimension to view them entirely, don't you? In the 1D, you use 2D or 3D to see a segment (a part of 1D); in 2D you go 3D to see a shape (a part of 2D) entirely. So what is it that we use to look at the entire cube?
In fact, you can look at the entire cube, turn it in your hands until you have seen all of it, can't you? However, it takes some time...
In the same vein, in 2D, you can go around the drawn shape and perceive it entirely within 2D only. But it takes some time. In 1D you can let the sequence pass through your point of view until you have seen it to its full length within 1D as well - but again, it would take some time...
So what was it that helped us view objects being a part of the same dimension at once? We needed to use "another dimension", right?
Therefore I say that the "time" is the fourth dimension - and the "hyperspace" is rather the "spacetime". We still live in the 3D space and we cannot see the fourth axis (the timeline) that would create the fourth dimension, because we live NOW, and "now" is only one point on the infinitely long axis of time.
Suddenly, it makes sense - when you imagine the entire 3D space now as a point on the timeline, you can say that this one "3D point" divides the "4D line" to two - and every other point on the timeline is the state of the 3D space in that moment, then. But don't forget, this is only the way to envision hyperspace on 1D model, it is not what the hyperspace really looks like - just like when you draw a 2D "cube" on a paper, which really isn't a 3D cube at all.
Also, when you look at the hypercube above, in fact it si made of two cubes connected by the fourth dimensional lines - the timelines. In fact, that means that hypercube is a 3D cube existing only for a certain amount of time, corresponding to the length of its side...
As for the hypersphere, as mentioned above, it has to be an object which contains all of the points with the given or smaller distance from one point, its center - the same with the new axis, the timeline. If you imagine the set of points with the same or smaller distance from one point on the timeline, you get a period of time. that means that effectively, a 4D hypersphere is a 3D sphere existing only for its "diameter of time".
And how about the tetrahedron? Well, since you only add one more vertex with every each dimension, the 4D hypertetrahedron would probably be the 3D tetrahedron existing only on 1 point of the timeline - which is infinitely small "period" of time, so it really does not exist (and if, it is only "existing" :) ).
Well, now I believe that the time is the fourth dimension - it would be stupid not to anyway, since so many clever people said it. :) (This concept is in fact called the "Minkowski space", I have later found out.) The only problem with this theory is that time is measured in different units than the three other dimensions preceding it, so you don't know how long the hypercube and hypersphere would remain - that is, in what proportion the time and distance are? (But I guess that with some help of theory of relativity we would find out.) And how is the timeline perpendicular to the 3 Cartesian axes? And after all, is it really important to know?
...I'm looking forward to searching for the fifth dimension. :)

PS: This is just the way I think about it, nothing more. If you would like to see how the hyperspace up to the 10th dimension can be described, look at YouTube (or ask your physics teacher ;) ).

This is the time

2010-01-31T09:27:00.012-05:00

It's been a long time since I 'blogged' for the last time. I mean the last Czech-written post called "PRO & ITORP", the last time I was writing about noone but myself ;). Many things have happened since then and I feel I'd like to tell you about it.

Back then, I wrote something about floorball. I also mentioned my brother's team, Power StRangers who lost the finals at their school tournament. I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to invite them to our inter-school tournament (Open Gate Principal's Cup) to take part in. Actually, it was.
Last year, we lost literally everything so we had been working hard to get prepared for this one - for the most of us, it was the last chance to grab the Cup for the first time in this tournament's four-years history. And we played quite well, before the quarterfinals we lost once and won twice. In the first knockout match, though, we encountered my brother's team, who had lost twice and drew once before then. Unfortunately, regarding their previous results, we underestimated them badly. The match ended up with a draw, but since it was a knockout match, we continued with the sudden death and then the penalty shots. Believe it or not, we lost. The worst thing was that the ultimate winner of the tournament was one of the two teams whom we had defeated that day... Never mind.
My this year's floorball team in the OG Floorball League is not worth much - therefore a sole mention of my current taking part in OGFF would be enough, I guess.

My Mademoiselle is still the best girl in the world and she does deserve more than just a short note between two articles about something completely different - but before I write something more about her, you'll just have to settle for these few sentences. We were together during the Christmas holidays and had a great time, but now she has gone far away to Singapore again - anyway, we have great phone calls every day (which, after all, would not happen, if she was here), so why not...? (Sorry, I just had to. :*)
Simply, she is worth waiting for, the first of my fulfilled dreams... And the rest on this topic is for her ears only.

But what I'd like to say in this post is that there's another dream of mine that has come true. Eight months ago, I wrote about my first SAT test and also about my admission to the Summer Program for High School Students at Columbia University. It has turned up that these two things were quite interconnected, after all.
The SATs (Scholar Aptitude Test/Scholar Assessment Test/Test for American universities' admission officers to be able to estimate students' academic skills) went fine, in the end. But it wasn't so easy. I had been preparing for them for about a year.
I had read three fat SAT exercise books cover to cover and excerpts from a few others. I wrote dozens of essays and had them corrected by my English teacher - mostly with the result of 3 or 4 points out of 6. I wrote ten practice tests, each of them lasting for about 4 hours.
Towards the end of my preparations, I made myself a set of 4000 cards with most of the "SAT words" on them and their Czech translations and English synonyms on the other side. The creation of them itself took me a week. And then I was learning them - after two months, I became a "words-learning professional". During the weekends, I could sit down for ten hours a day (with a lunch break) learning these words. During that time I found out that chocolate with nuts and jelly helps me a lot with learning. I also found out that it is much easier to use a wet sponge than my tongue to moisten my fingers to flip the cards more effectively... Sincerely, I can say that during those two months, I remembered each of those words for 5 minutes at least. I cannot say I remember many of them now, but I did when I took the SAT.
My first result from May 2009 was 2010 points (critical reading: 610, maths: 750, writing: 650 (essay: 4+4)) out of 2400. It wasn't bad, but I wanted to reach the 2100 boundary, which is unofficially deemed the lowest score for the Ivy League applicants. I retook the SAT in November; they say the second result is usually better than the first one - and it was. I got 2140 (CR: 640, M: 800, W: 700 (E: 5+5)), which I was thrilled about. In the meantime, I took the SAT Subject Tests, Math II twice (710 and 790 out of 800), Biology (780) and Chemistry (690). I also took the TOEFL test from which I got 113 out of 120. All these results were quite good and I was glad that they suitably reflected the amount of my preparations. But that was not everything what my university application contained...

During the holidays, I went to the New York city to attend the Summer Study Camp. One of my texts which I wrote after coming back from the US describes my experience at Columbia University quite well:

(...)
The program itself took place right at the Columbia University campus in Manhattan, the heart of one of the greatest cities in the world, New York City. I truly enjoyed my stay there, living just a few minutes by subway from the very center of the city. I think I experienced the real “American life” as much as possible, celebrating Independence Day, for example. The campus itself was gorgeous too. In a relatively small area, there were buildings with classes, four huge libraries, a dining hall, dormitories, and administrative buildings as well. Honestly, I can imagine myself studying at a campus like that.

As a subject to study, I chose the “College Preparatory Course”, because I really wanted to focus on the preparation for my university studies. Only later I found out that it was actually the most demanding course to take (with respect to amount of homework), if not the most difficult one. It required hours and hours of reading and writing assigned assessments. I hardly went to bed before midnight, but I definitely do not regret that. I worked hard and did my best during the lessons as well, because I hoped the teachers would appreciate that in the recommendation for universities that I am about to receive from them this September.

The course consisted of four types of lessons: “Expository Writing”, “Reading and Critical Thinking”, “Study Skills and Research Techniques”, and “Foundations of Math”. Some of our teachers were Columbia University professors; others came from different universities. All of them acted highly professionally and were able to maintain my attention for full two hours, which hardly happens even during forty-five minute lessons. I considered all the material very interesting and also challenging – the work was designed to suit all the students at different levels of knowledge in a given subject, so it was always worth some effort. All the lessons were focused on class discussion, mainly philosophically oriented – whether it was a reading or a writing lesson. The math lessons were based on logical problem-solving, making students think deeply rather than apply learned patterns. And finally, during the lessons of study skills, we learned how to obtain and work with secondary resources, visiting the Columbia University library and searching for the books ourselves. I can barely think of something that I did not like about those three weeks.

I have to say it was exactly what I wanted to do during this course, even though it was not like anything that you normally do during summer holidays by any means. It was an invaluable experience for me and I hope it will also help the universities (the Columbia University at the first place) to learn something more about me than they can do from the Common Application. I believe this experience brought me closer to my successful admission at one of my chosen universities in the United States.

After this I went to see also other American universities - and wrote a diary about that, which you can read on my blog...
After receiving the evaluations from the Columbia University, I realized I did quite well during the course. Also, because the Columbia University was the only Ivy League university I wanted to apply to which offered the early decision application, I decided to try my luck this way. I really liked the Columbia University and after I saw someone there liked me as well, I thought it would make sense to send my first app right there...
On Tuesday, December 8th, I received an e-mail which said that on Thursday, December 10th, the admission results were going to be published. You can trust me, I had never been as nervous as during those two days. I didn't think I cared so much, but I just couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if I would be admitted or not. When I went online on Thursday at 11 pm, the results were there. I clicked to open the acknowledgment and there it was: Dear Marek, Congratulations! ...and the most beautiful letter I've ever read followed.
And that was it. Well, OKay - I did cry, but I didn't feel smarter or anything. There were no fireworks out of the window either, I was just sitting there staring at the screen of my computer not realizing that this was probably the most important moment of my life. But I hope it will have changed after those four years at Columbia College. :)

So now, I am just happy. For the first time in my life, I cannot objectively have any objections about my life - two of my greatest dreams are coming true, right now, right in front of me. But trust me, neither of them was for free, even though I feel lucky now.

PS: If there is anyone who would like to ask me for advice or any other kind of help regarding the admission process to American universities, please feel free to do so. I will be glad to help you.

That's strange, isn't it?!

2009-09-05T01:15:00.005-04:00

It is saturday. I woke up at 7 o'clock, because I had my alarm clock set to 8 am. I am at my boarding school dorm, because the school year has already started...
I got up and the first thing I saw was a tiny little plastic clip I had been looking for... But it was three weeks ago, back at my home. I haven't the slightest idea how it got into that corner of my dorm room...

I went to brush my teeth, turned on the computer and the first thing I saw on the internet was an article about David Černý (do you remember Entropa?), the Czech artist, who has just released his new art piece pointing out the Czech humbleness, or rather cowardice... That article was at the front page of the New York Times online today...

During the holidays, I had a few tennis trainings. On the way there, every morning before 8 o'clock, I stood at a bus stop waiting for a trolleybus. One day, I just watched the happening around a small newsagent/tobacconist, just like any other at most bus stops in the country... I realized that even though it was relatively early, old (50 above) men were coming there to have their morning "shot"... From 7:45 to 7:52, five men (!) came there to have a shot glass of rum, vodka, slivovitz, or whatever... Man?! That's like almost a man every minute having a drink. I know that this is Moravia, but anyway...

Going back from my trainings, I took a bus too... At one stop, a strange woman got in - she was smiling like a little child, her eyes roving around the bus - "She is probably retarded," I thought with no sense of irony or anything (everyone would think the same, seriously). But then I thought - why I actually thought she was mentally disabled??? Because she was smiling?! Why normal adults don't smile the same way?! Is it "not appropriate"?! Or not serious enough? So being pissed and angry is cool and "adult-looking" and completely normal, right?! Well, ...
(My beloved Mademoiselle calls this syndrome the "adulthood". Get rid of it.)

Now, the weekend has started and I am getting down to work. I don't want to write about any of these issues more than I have, because I want you to think about them yourselves and apart from it, I don't have enough time to do it - I'm going to spend this beautiful day learning biology from a big fat book (seriously). Actually, THIS is NOT strange...
BECAUSE I want to.
I want to represent myself in the world.
I want to end up better than waking up every day to have a drink.
I want to have a reason to smile around when I grow up and never actually become "an adult".

Re(tro)spectively (8/4)

2009-08-09T19:58:00.004-04:00

All that day I spent just packing myself and preparing for the flight. Then I checked out, took the subway to Queens and then an “Air-train” to the JFK airport. Only then I realized how huge it was… With its nine terminals it must have been bigger than my entire hometown (cca 3500 citizens). The air-train went all around the airport about 20 meters above the ground so I had a good view of the whole area and it indeed looked like a small city within the bigger one…

After a check-in and a thorough security check (Having to take my shoes off was quite surprising – I had thought it was going to be more rigorous entering the US rather than leaving them.) We took off at 5:10 PM and flew no more than 8 hours to reach Prague at 7 AM, local time.

Before the flight, I had thought about the possibility of sitting next to someone interesting (that means – some beautiful girl). I was seated next to the aisle so I had was one shot only... The possibility that it was going to be a girl, miss, or at least a woman was roughly 50%. And the probability that it was going to be an “interesting” girl was about 1:4 (I’m not that demanding, really). So this gave me a probability of 10% that I was going to be seated next to someone pleasant. Well, as soon as I reached my seat I realized that I my it was next to an old Russian's one, not caring about me at all (fortunately), talking and playing cards with her friends all the time. The only moment she spoke to me was when she wanted to know how to turn the light above her head on…

I wanted to sleep during that flight, but there were too many disturbing elements for me to fall asleep. Firstly, after the dinner, it was the Star Trek film that was played, which I had never seen before. The quote “Long live and prosper” didn’t let me stop watching it until the end of the film… After that a child’s cry came up – it lasted more than an hour and it was accompanied by the Russian’s light turned on. When everything ceased, it took about a half an hour for another child to start crying. Another two hours. I took out my notebook and watched Linkin Park’s Live Aid concert from Tokyo. Then I’ve had about an hour to fall asleep before the breakfast was served, accompanied by the ultimate cry of both the children in front of me this time, because we begun to descend and their ears hurt probably.

After the landing I realized that none of my SIM cards was actually working – I didn’t have a “roaming” allowed on my American one and the Czech one refused to dial numbers as well, for some reason. So I was reliant on the phone box. Fortunately, there was one that supported credit card payments, so I could make a phone call to be picked up (according to the amount of money it took later, I must have called through a different continent or what)… That’s how my adventure ends, because upon that moment I’ve felt too safe to include it to my narrative...

PS: Thanks to Mája and her mom for their unflagging support during those times (and for picking me up at the airport ;) ). Thanks to Mája’s dad for supporting all of us. :)

GM & MoMA (8/3)

2009-08-03T22:24:00.010-04:00

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At first, I had a beautiful morning walk through the Central Park to pick up my bag on the other side of Manhattan. And as I was quite close to the Guggenheim Museum, I went there directly... There was a temporary exposition of Frank Lloyd Wright's work - and it was amazing... Not only all the buildings that he had built during his entire career, but also another half of his projects that has never been realized were all just perfect... It consists of houses, huts, libraries, churches (also one synagogue), skyscrapers, urban plans of cities, and much more... I really liked his plan for a mile-high tower "Illinois", which was a part of his futuristic "Sky Town" with all those new means of transportation and other imagined technologies. Also urban plans for the new part of the Baghdad city were monumental, including for example a new university, a mosque, and an Al-Rashid's memorial, everything made in detail. What I enjoyed the most were masterly crafted models that accompanied many of his works, making his projects much more imaginable within the environment they were to be situated in... Now I really understand why my father - an architect - admires him so much. He was really good in what he did.

From there I went directly (well - with one stop in a SubWay on Fifth) to the Museum of Modern Art. And I'd been there until I was kicked out by a security at 5:30 PM. That itself shows how good it was. It's hard to explain what was there - because there was everything. From applied arts to the most famous paintings.
When I saw the design section, I was stunned - my childhood memories brought me back to times when I, five years old, had visited my dad at a school of design where he had taught. I clearly remembered all those futuristic-looking models exposed in the hallway, those plans and sketches behind them, and that specific smell of plastic all around there...

...You never ever say "artificial material" here, son. It is always "plastic", remember that...

...And it was almost just like that today. So, so interesting... It started with an ongoing creation of a room with recorded visitors' heights - all around a white-painted room there were signs with line, date, and name each. It was a Slovak artist's project - but when I approached the person who was actually recording the heights, he said he was just an assistant... It was probably too naive to expect that the artist would do his piece of art himself...
Then I went to the video art room (sometimes even provided with sound), the conceptual art section (typically interactive), architecture and design (another set of modeled projects), and the paintings gallery. There were more than twenty Picassos and a bunch of Bracques, Goghs, Rotkos, Pollocks, Matisses, Mirós, ...you choose. (And after a long search, I have finally found a Czech author too - František Kupka, he had two of his paintings there.)
I was at the end of the fifth floor and about to proceed to the last one, the sixth, when closing was announced. A that very moment, the direction of all escalators was turned downwards. So I missed the only section containing temporary exhibitions... It's quite a shame - because it's quite sure I won't have any other chance to see pieces that were in this section this month exclusively, and even more if you consider that I couldn't get there at 5:25 already while MoMA closes at 6 PM. Whatever... I'll be wiser next time.

And that's how my last full day in the US ended, I'm leaving tomorrow. I enjoyed it fully - just like any other day of my vacation so far. :)

Wall St. & 5th Ave. (8/2)

2009-08-02T18:39:00.012-04:00

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I went to the Wall street right away, today. It was somehow smaller than I had expected - but truthfully, what do you imagine when someone says "stock market"? After I passed by what was marked on the map as "New York Stock Exchange" and "Federal Hall National Memorial", I met a group of tourists with a guide that just stopped to say something... She was talking about many interesting things - for example, that the Federal Hall was historically the first governing building, where George Washington became President. Did you know that every forth transaction in the world is processed if the New York Stock Exchange building? ...that miss said it. :) I love guides - especially when they're free and you can choose what to listen to...

Then I walked by the "American Stock Exchange" (which looked rather abandoned) to the Ground Zero. I went around it and it looked the same from all angles - an empty space where something is missing, you feel...the space where all surrounding buildings gained back their pride again...space full of steel and machines that work mostly underground so nothing much has changed on the surface since long time ago... It is barely believable that something three times higher than anything else on the entire Manhattan stood right there. Only after coming there and seeing yourself you can understand how proud Americans felt after 9/11. I would be pissed too, I would...
I have seen some pictures from the project that is planned to be partly finished by 9/11/2011 - the rest will follow then. Firstly, a memorial will be built in the Twin Towers' "footprints" followed by a set of skyscrapers around, dominated by the highest one, the Freedom Tower (whose core is about 30 meters tall already). It is a VERY symbolic building (beginning with the place, through its name, ending with its hieght - 1,776 feet (541 m)...) - so symbolic that I am afraid of its longevity...
Anyway, I'm glad that the Freedom Tower is going to be higher than any Trump Tower... ;)

As I went uptown, It started raining and it rained during my entire walk through the fifth avenue - so I didn't enjoy it very much. It was interesting to see how easily all the American flags loose their grace with few drops of water - no, I'm not biased, all the flags do, but I'd bet you there is more American flags all over the world than any others. They are everywhere around here (and it's been more than a month since the last Independence Day), even on a subway, for example. I can't imagine a Czech flag on the Prague metro, can you?
I couldn't pass the main Abercrombie&Fitch store without going inside... It was bigger than the one in Boston (4 levels) and moreover, there were living models dressed up in Abercrombie clothes.

"Have you been to the Abercrombie on the Fifth?"
"Em...no, why?"
"Well - you must go there... You smell a perfume just when you get closer to it, and when you go inside, there's a loud disco music playing, good basses. You go through it and every once in a while you meet a person who accosts you, dancing to the beat, chewing a gum, asking you: 'Hey buddy... What'cha gonna get, man?' ...It just cool..."

Then I went to the main Apple store. I asked about the new iPhone 3G S... At first, you can't get one without a social security number... Secondly, even though it really costs the advertised amazing price of $299, you can get one only with the AT&T contract, taking additional $299 from your account at the time of purchase and at least $69 monthly for the next two years as well... And the last (but not the least) note is - if bought here, it doesn't work out of the US (officially, at least). No, definitely, it's not worth it buying your new iPhone here. Officially.

Then I just went back to the hostel, because I still didn't like the rain... I bought a fresh foot-long baguette in the SubWay (entire foot of food!)... Why I haven't seen any SubWay fast food in the Czech Republic (there's eleven of them, though)?! ...Oh, dammit - I have, now I remember! We have one in Zlín too... But I've never thought about going to one before... It's much better than McDonald's or KFC... Hey! And there's a special offer going on now - after buying a half-foot baguette with a coke and showing your ISIC you get another half-foot for free! Awesome! I'm going there as soon as I get home...

Columbia University (8/1)

2009-08-01T21:00:00.014-04:00

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I didn't wake up today (I'm trying to skip the introductory passage about what I do before I do something more interesting...).

Strangely enough, the Columbia University has its sessions for prospective students (and guided tours) every second Saturday, while all other universities offer them daily... And of course, today was the first Saturday. Fortunately, I've spent there more time than anywhere else in the States, so I didn't mind it that much (though still, I wanted to take some more pictures and also say goodbye to this place before I go back home). I sat down in front of the library and connected to a wi-fi. At 11, the library (Butler Stacks) opened and I went in to take some photos (Carefully enough because maybe - it was forbidden...Anyway - I didn't ask.) It is a huge library... I have found there "a few bookshelves" dedicated to the Czech literature. I liked the "Good Soldier Schweik" the most. :D There were always Czech versions followed by English ones, if available. So for example, the English version of "Rossum's Universal Robots" was at a first glance recognizable only by missing diacritic in the author's name... There are usually about four main libraries in each Ivy League university's campus with more than five million volumes - and if you can't find something, not only that they have special systems of searching books all around the world, but also they share all their volumes mutually within the Ivy League. Well - the only university not participating in this is Harvard... :)
Thanks to my CU ID I could go anywhere in the library and take photos freely (still trying to remain unspotted, though) - and the same with CU's fitness center (which is entirely underground - I really liked their running oval divided to three tracks tagged "walk", "jog" and "run") .
When I was done in the library, I thought about trying my luck in the John Jay Hall... And yes, I was lucky - so I had a free lunch, which was quite good. (They should have considered better giving me that ID - it's good through 06/09/2014... :D)
Going through the campus, I enjoyed taking photos of anything, trying both my lenses... For example, there was a girl that was reading a book (in the distance of 20 meters) - and I REALLY wanted to know what book it was... Thanks to my telescopic objective, now I know it was "Chasing Harry Winston" by Lauren Weisberger... ;)
After my private campus tour I went to my favorite Pizza place four streets to the South along the Broadway. They have slices so big that you never eat more than one... And they're so good... (However, it is not advisable to try to eat them with "plastic silverware" offered there, trust me... ;) )

Then I took subways no. 1 and 7 - I went to Queens to visit the Flushing Meadows... As I was arriving there, I saw a really big stadium on my left and two smaller stadiums on the right. Well, the first one turned out to be NY Mets' baseball stadium... I thought about going to see today's match until I found out that the cheapest ticket available was for $65...
So I went to the area where the US Open takes place by the end of every summer. I really wanted to see the center court, but it was inaccessible due to a reconstruction going on in there. So I just wandered around, thinking about how to get inside... As I said before, there were actually two of these - the main one and also the second center court. When I appeared between them, having already passed an (probably accidentaly) open gateway, I saw one of a few entrances to the smaller arena that was actually open... I went through. Some building material was scattered around there, some tools and stuff... I ran about five floors up the stairs and voilà - a wide view opened in front of me, the US Open's second center court. No wonder there wasn't anybody else... I took a few pictures and went back because obviously, I was not supposed to be there... For a while, I thought about going down the aisle and maybe to the court itself, but I really didn't want to end up stuck in there in case of someone remembering to close that entrance as it was supposed to be...
Then I went around the main stadium once again and realized that there was a way to get there too - one of the garage doors in the back-yard was open and a truck stood close, some supplies had been probably just delivered. Still, nobody was around - it was right opposite the entrance I went through to the smaller center court... But suddenly, two other trucks passed and as they were approaching a near gateway, it opened itself... And at the same time, as I went towards the garage door to the main center court, it closed too... Em, wait a second... Oh yes, there it was - a 360-degrees camera just hung over there, clearly monitoring the whole area - the gateway, the garage door and 'my entrance' as well... I really didn't want to try my luck with a troop of security guys again... (And be unlucky again...;) )
As I was leaving the area through the closing gateway (open for that trucks), the door stopped closing - there was a safety sensor...whoops... ;)

Then I just went back to the hostel, having a nice view of the Manhattan from the subway. On the Times Square station I entered an empty car - so I could take some photos of an "MTA transport vehicle" not disturbing anyone, undisturbed. It was a funny day, really. :)

New York (7/31)

2009-07-31T19:57:00.014-04:00

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Today, I woke up quite late, had a breakfast and checked out...then I took a subway to the 30th st. station in Philadelphia, where I boarded the BoltBus to New York...

I went to the nearest Burger King to have a lunch. There was a lot of people, so the customers were given numbers with their orders to wait until their meals were done. I got number 50... I stood there waiting and noticed that a man standing next to me had 47. They were calling the customers to take their food in somehow random order but generally, the numbers were constantly increasing... They went like "...45...43...48...46...44...49...50..." I took my meal and sat down. That man was standing there, still waiting. After 15 minutes, it went like "...67...69...66...68...," the man still standing there. After another 5 minutes there was no doubt he was left out, but he was still standing there, his face growing red more and more... Then a security man, who observed this man standing there that long, approached him and asked about his number... He said he had 47. "How long it's been?" "Like 20 minutes already," replied the man waving his hand, obviously pissed off enough but still just standing there. The security man went to the nearest waitress and told her to give that man his meal because he's been obviously omitted. Eventually he got his meal, which was a tiny little bag - one little hamburger in it at most, no fries, no drink - and he walked away. That was so sad...I'd never like to be a man unwilling to ask for his own food...

Now I'm sitting on the NY International Hostel's computer because my own laptop is unable to connect to the offered free wi-fi network... That's why I don't upload any pictures today and also why this post happens to be so short... Sorry, I hope to be more lucky tomorrow...

--- What the F***?!? I've just connected on my laptop... After 2 hours of desperate attempts and 45 minutes of paid access it just says "Connected" as if it was natural... It cost me $6 to buy something that my whimsical computer could have given me for free?! I will enjoy the rest of this pre-paid connection as much as possible. Then I'll go to my own computer to upload that 10 photos or so... :) (Yes, I admit ,that was the advantage of not being connected - I had a good excuse for not having any photos today... :) )

--- From my own computer now - in the middle of my rage I realized that I could have passed that computer to someone else who really needed it instead of selfishly sitting there while I could use my own comp... So I just turned around and accost the nearest person hanging around: "Do you want to go online? I have just connected on my own laptop so I don't need that anymore... There's 12 minutes left." "Well...I don't have any money here with me..." he said diffidently. "I don't want any money for that..." "Are you sure?" "Oh, yeah - sure ---" I stood up and took my computer. "Enjoy." "Oh...thank you very much...!"
That was the best way to enjoy this pre-paid connection...

University of Pennsylvania (7/30)

2009-07-30T19:20:00.031-04:00

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The night was not that bad. Actually, I slept really well (even without my earplugs) and the only thing that disturbed me was someone's alarm clock at 8. And my alarm clock an hour later. Eventually, I got up at 10:30, had a breakfast and went to the UPenn. When I was looking for the undergraduate admissions office, I went through a passageway - a sign above it said: "Moravian Court"... There was a Moravian Cafe in that court - unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to visit it...

At 1 PM I attended the info session and at 2 PM I had another guided tour. They really don't say anything so different from others each time. Strangely enough, Penn's stadium has nine running tracks - all other Ivy League universities have 8 (all I have seen), the same with the number of lines in their pools, for example. What amused me though was a notoriously known sign "No Skateboards, No In-Line Skates, No Roller Skates, ..." (interesting that they already distinguish between "In-Line" and "Roller" Skates), 20 metres behind which was a group of skaters sliding a low wall in front of the admissions office... :)

Then I went to a place that a receptionist recommended to me yesterday. I looked like a heptagram on a map and a little caption next to it said "Eastern State Penitentiary". When I came there, firstly I saw something like a tall castle wall with a big gate. And that was everything I saw, because it closed at 5 PM - I came at 5:10... That sucks, yes - but at least, I learned that this huge complex had been historically the first prison of its kind and that more than 300 "penitentiaries" have been built all over the world following this one. Paradoxically, there was a central heating system and a functional duct yet before the White House had its own ones.
Because I didn't want to walk back where I came from (because it was more than 10 oblong blocks to the nearest subway station), I took the first bus that came and waited where it took me. Fortunately, it went downtown, close to the subway stations - so I could both take some pictures of the center of Philadelphia and take a trolley and a subway to get to the Independence Hall. I couldn't have missed it having read the original (unrevised) version of the Declaration of Independence by T. Jefferson during the "College Preparatory Course" at Columbia. And of course, the Liberty Bell (having seen that HIMYM episode ;) ). Well...if America associates its freedom with a bell that cracked on a day of Washington's birthday celebration and remains silenced forever ever since then (as the caption said), something is wrong. :) But they're proud of it anyway, so... "whatever". (I took a photo of a posing girl in front of it - I always enjoy taking photos of strangers when they make a pose for someone else - and only now I realized that she was wearing a Harvard t-shirt...that shows how many students are actually touring around the universities.)

Then I went back to my hostel and again. On my way I have seen a sign that read "The Moravian". Obviously, WE are welcomed here... Hm - you know. I mean - they know... ;)
I came here and at 8:30 PM a "drink party" started. You can come to a bar and make yourself a drink, for free (vodka, gin, whiskey vs. coke, tonic, fanta, sprite). What's the best thing about that - they don't ask you about your age. :) So, I think I'll celebrate something today. We'll see what - maybe, it's someone's birthday today... Let's look at FB --- oh...three friends of mine! Happy birthday to all of you! Three drinks should be enough... Cheers! ;)

Princeton University (7/29)

2009-07-29T21:17:00.011-04:00

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You don't even know how glad I am now, sitting in a youth hostel in Philadelphia, in which the price per night is a third of what I paid in the last one - it's more than three times better though... However, it's been a looooong day...

It started at
6:00 when I turned off my alarm clock. Then fell asleep again and at
6:30 I woke up. At
6:40 I got up. Went to bathroom, packed and at
7:15 I had a breakfast. At
7:33 I took a bus. Changed and at
8:10 I took another bus. At
8:45 I took a train and went to Trenton. At
11:52 I took a train to Princeton Junction. There I took a local train to Princeton University. At
12:40 I finally arrived to the Princeton University. At
13:00 the guided tour started (I have chosen a guide majoring at Maths and Philosophy - he spoke fast and unclearly sometimes... I kind of sympathize with that... :) ) and at
14:15 the info session begun. So, at
15:30 I was done. I had my lunch finally (after more than 8 hours of starving!) and was thinking about what to do next. I had no idea where to stay overnight. I asked at the undergraduate admissions office and got some obscure answers explaining to me that it was really expensive around there and that the best thing to do would be to go find some hostels along the no. 1 road. Well, I didn't have my car with me at that time, so I was completely lost...
Walking around the campus with my both huge bag and a backpack I was wondering if I really wanted to take a taxi and go to one of these hostels, none of which costs less than $100 per night... Then I got a great idea - it wasn't so late (16:30) so maybe I could have taken a train and in three hours arrive to Philadelphia and with a little piece of luck be faster than the sunset (because after my brother and dad told me about what they had seen there, I wouldn't set my foot there after 9 o'clock). Another problem was that I didn't make a reservation - but...whatever... I just tried my luck, so to speak. ;) ...When I was waiting for the train to Trenton (17:30), a powerful thunderstorm hit. For the first time I have seen a train working its way through strips of falling water creating a visible pressure wave in front of it and around it as well... I was thinking about how interesting it was going to be to browse streets of a city I've never been to before in this weather... After arriving to Philadelphia I took a subway and had to kind of guess at what station I had to get out, because none of the stations on the blue line corresponded to the name in the directions I had found online before (while I was sure I was right taking the blue line)...but everything went well and I have done it (I have found the right street right away, I just went where I felt it good and suddenly appeared in front of the hostel I was looking for...).
...and the hostel itself is beautiful! Free internet access, everything is clean, there's a friendly atmosphere, nice common room with so comfortable sofas, a beautiful kitchen fully equipped with IKEA items, people speak fluent English here and even the dinner was free! What else could have I wished... Moreover, I have applied both my HI (Hostels International) membership card and my ISIC card to get an ultimate discount... :) I share a big room with approximately 20 other people, so the night is going to be funny (fortunately, I have been given a pair of earplugs...for free.).

Is anyone in your room snoring? Ask for free earplugs for you or free nasal strips for them.

I really like it here. I've had the receptionist take a photo of me - he's a good photographer, isn't he? :)... And you wouldn't guess what I see in the TV in front of me right now... (I don't know where the remote control is, I swear...)

In the train to Princeton University I have been given a strange $1 banknote after I paid for my ride. At a first glance, there was something written on it and I thought if I wanted to accept it. But when I looked closer, the letters were actually printed on it by a stamp - on the edges ("www.WheresGeorge.com") and around the "O" in "ONE" as well ("track this bill" and again "www.wheresgeorge.com"). That's so exciting - have you read Foglar's "Fast Arrows"? :D (Okay, "Rychlé Šípy".) There's a story about tracking a banknote - but they didn't dare printing anything on it - they sent a little sheet with it so everyone could write their name and circumstances as they got it. This works the same though quite more modern way - I went to that page, entered the serial number of that bill and saw that it actually came from Tyrone, PA where it was recorded 336 days ago! (So I took it kind of back to Pennsylvania...but I'll keep it for a while, I think...:) ). It's strange that no one has bothered going online just to sign it up for such a long time... People out there, you are booooring!!!

Never mind... I think I'm going to sleep now. Bye! :)

Yale University (7/28)

2009-07-28T23:04:00.008-04:00

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I'm sorry for today's post being so brief, but I've just spent more than hour looking up an easiest way to get to Princeton and then another two hours searching for a relatively cheap hostel, which I didn't even find, eventually... So I've picked a more expensive for the case I won't have better luck browsing the streets there...

But today, it was a day in the Yale University. I woke up at 7, took a bus and went downtown. All universities' information sessions start at 10 am. Yale's starts at 9 am. Don't ask me why. Another surprise was the speaker's (who was a member of the admission committee) noticeable British accent... Then everything went as usual - info-session was followed by a guided tour. Did you know that the last Indiana Jones has been shot in the Yale's campus? Anyway - there was a beautiful library, a statue with yearly numbers of women in Yale since it has been established (there have been more women than men for a few past decades) and also a "lucky statue" I made sure I didn't touch... :)
After a lunch I decided to go see Yale's sport facilities - which were quite far from the campus. I realized how far it was when walking all the way on feet... Ok, it was 4 km, but anyway - in today's heat it was almost unbearable... But it was worth it, they have a beautiful baseball field and a huge tennis center court. However, I didn't get to the biggest "facility" - the Yale Bowl. That was really huge, just walking around it. That is the place where all the legendary football matches take place, it must be awesome...
When I was walking in that hot weather, suddenly, I've heard something familiar from a car passing by:

...Pulling me close, the shadow is warm inside
This is where I feel at home, this is my place to hide
This is dedicated to the kids
Dedicated to wherever music lives...

Quite pleasant at that time (especially this one, a rather underground piece), walking was easier then... :)
Then, three hours later, I have been waiting on a bus stop, exhausted, cooling my forehead with a cup of coke, desperately waiting for a 20-minutes belated bus... And again, from an approaching car I've heard:

...Find another place to feed your greed
While I find a place to rest
I want to be in another place
I hate when you say you don't understand
(You'll see it's not meant to be)
I want to be in the energy, not with the enemy
A place for my head...

That just makes me happy, that's all... :) In the bus, there was a specific system of requesting the stops. It was a mere wire all along the windows in the bus that was to be pulled if someone wanted to get off... It was quite funny and of course, I must have tried that too... ;) When I came here, I had to have a bath, because I was really worn out. Now, I'm looking forward to sleeping so much... Bye...
(I'm sorry, I haven't taken a photo of that billboard. yet.. Tomorrow, maybe...)

New Haven (7/27)

2009-07-27T21:51:00.006-04:00

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Yesterday evening was much safer... I have done my laundry and even though that washing machine looked much older than me, my clothes survived unharmed, I think. When I was leaving the eating hall after finishing the blog post, I saw a girl little older than me standing in the reception - she had a wine-colored sweatshirt with "Harvard" on it... Could a Harvard student check into a $35-per-night hostel at 10 PM, wearing a sweatshirt like this? No, definitely not. Well... I just must have asked her... "Excuse me, miss - are you a student of --- Harvard??" "Em...yes, I've just graduated." "Wow," I was just stunned. "The undergraduate or graduate degree?" "Undergrad." "Well...How was it?" was the only question I could ask at that moment. "Everyone asks how it was," she smiled. "It was good, yeah," she smiled even more. What did I expect... I don't know - it was absurd, somehow. I just wished her good night and went away then - I don't know what I would ask her, anyway. About the admission essay? About her SAT scores? What else about?...One can find everything on the internet (or I have asked everything I needed that guide two days before) - recommended scores, sample essays, everything. And the rest is way too personal, usually. It was of a value itself for me, though - running into her like this... (dot-dot-dot)

Today, I took a Greyhound bus to New Haven. At first, a Mexican man sat next to me. In Providence, he went out of the bus. I left my bag on my seat and did the same - until the new passengers got in. When I came back, a beautiful young Mexican woman sat on his place. I sat on my place and waited if the man comes back. When he came in, he looked at me and before I could explain to him it wasn't my fault, he said: "I don't blame you for this - she is much prettier than me." Than I tried to say something meaningful, but it was pointless... This woman went away at the next stop and I had to go sit on a seat further from the window, because the A/C (Air Condition ;) ) made it really freezing everywhere close to windows. In New London, a middle-aged black woman took the place next to me. She was really friendly all the time, we talked a few words. She also gave me a candy when she had one. And when I was getting off, she came closer to me and said something like: "Do you think you have five or ten bugs? You know, I'll have something to eat when I arrive...Please." I looked at her. She didn't look that bad. I gave her ten dollars. She must have been desperate...

I came here, to the hostel where I'm staying now, and found a nice room with two king-size beds and own bathroom with a bathtub. And I'm alone here. It was the cheapest hostel I have found, I swear...! Not that bad.
Now, I just came back from my evening walk around here - I needed to find the nearest bus-stop and grab some food as well... I went to the SubWay and had a foot-long baguette with everything I liked in it for $6, I could have eaten just a half of it... Then I asked the waitress (What is the person that works in a fast-food called? They always refer to a manager when they complain, but that's not it, is it?) about the nearest bus-stop. When I came there, there was a "Bus stop" sign. And nothing else. No direction, no timetable, nothing. I guess you know that hopelessness of reaching your goal when you realize that your effort was wasted...
This amused me on the street: There was a billboard with a huge Latino-American face, which read:

Ruben Rodriguez, ATTORNEY/ABOGADO
- Accidents
- Criminal and DWI *(Driving While Intoxicated)
- Divorce
- Slip and Fall
- Real Estate
- IRS *(Internal Revenue Service) Negotiations
(Free initial consultation)

That got me there...just lol, I think it needs no further comment. I regret I didn't have my camera with me (well, I didn't really - it's not advisable to take it out in this area, I guess) but I'll shoot it tomorrow.
Anyway, it got dark by then so I went back and every time I saw a figure I could meet potentially, I automatically went across the street. When it was a couple of figures, I ran. I was safe (this time), but I won't do that again.

Now, I'm going to enjoy my king-size bed. You would fit three people there! Well... okay, I wouldn't put three people there. Two would be good... But just me this time... Good night.

Day off (7/26)

2009-07-26T11:46:00.009-04:00

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Last night repeated again: the Scots came back late, more than just "slightly" drunk this time. Laughing. Farting noises. Even snoring and sleep talking. Simply everything that you want your roommate to do... I didn't even check out what time it was...

Anyway - today I was getting ready to leave Boston. (I'm leaving tomorrow.) At first, after a very long breakfast, I went to the South Station to get my Greyhound ticket. I had a lunch at McDonald's right away... This time, I wasn't even watching anyone particularly, it just happened:
A horizontally challenged North American woman went (rode) down the escalator when her luggage suddenly begun rolling down spontaneously. She obviously couldn't do anything about that but stand there and watch her bag moving away from her, further and further. When it was almost at the bottom of the stairs, the escalator was turned off by a security guard, which was followed by a high pitched noise of a horn. That surprised the woman so much shat she just stood there for a while looking around, confused. What was even more unexpected for her, was the fact, that her luggage went on rolling down even though the escalator itself stopped moving - she shouted something like "Hey!" (like "What are you doing?"). When the luggage reached the bottom, she begun moving down. I expected her to walk down the stairs, but she rather moved as if she was climbing a ladder, instead, sideways somehow... It was a strange scene.

In the evening, I took a subway to the other side of the Charles River to have a view of the Boston's downtown... It was beautiful. Skyscrapers reflecting the rays of the sunset, boats floating around, anglers fishing... Alone, though. But it was a nice way to say goodbye to this city. Not forever, hopefully.

...I think I have to tell you something... Don't tell anyone... Before I went to bed yesterday, I took on my sleeping shirt and in my shorts went to brush my teeth in the bathroom just across the corridor. There was a young man, getting ready to take a shower. He looked at me strangely and then started to unpack all his stuff: shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, another soap, hair gel... Man, this is not normal, I thought... Then he went to the shower and suddenly came back with a "Wash&Go" shower gel in his hand: "Is this yours?"..."Em...nope?" I answered, a little bit confused... I finished brushing my teeth and wanted to leave when he said: "What's your name?" I turned back: "Mark?" He shook my hand and continued: "Are you here with your girlfriend?" "No," I released my hand from his, staring at him... "Are you straight?"
"W-w-what?" "Like - you have a girlfriend back home?" "Oh, yeah. Sure. SURE." "Okay..." "Good...night..." "Bye!"
WHAT-THE-FUCK?! DO I REALLY FUCKIN' LOOK LIKE THAT?! Is there ANY reason why I shouldn't be STRAIGHT?! Let's get this STRAIGHT, once and for all: I - AM - STRAIGHT! It means, I've got it STRAIGHT with GIRLS ONLY... Shit, I'm scared now, traveling ALONE. From now on, I'm traveling with my girlfriend only or with a girl at least, or with a boy pretending to be engaged...not alone --- but what am I going to do for the rest of this month...?!? I'd better buy a Maxim and carry it with me ostentatiously all the time, because I don't want to end up with another "curious" guy again... Wish me good luck...

Going to brush my teeth...

Harvard (7/25)

2009-07-25T20:53:00.013-04:00

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Well...this is not easy. Today, I've spent the entire day walking through the campus of my dreams... What else I can say?

In the morning, I woke up extremely early - at 7! Before 9 I got out of the hostel, went to the bus stop, took the bus and there I was - the "Harvard Square" station. I had half an hour for my credit so I just went somewhere around until I came to John Harvard's statue. His tiptoe was noticeably polished - it was the only part of the statue that was shiny gold... A passerby suddenly walked up to it and touched it. Than smiled at me, noticing that I was watching him, and said: "For good luck...just touch it." So I did. But not too long - just enough... :)
Then I went to the library and asked the security guy to show me how to get to the undergraduate admissions office... I was delighted to find out that it was in the "Radcliffe Yard" (have you read/seen the "Love Story"? - Actually, that was the last film genuinely shot in the Harvard campus (except for The Great Debaters)...I must see The Great Debaters. :) ).

'What the hell makes you so smart?' I asked.
'I wouldn't go for coffee with you,' she answered.
'Listen - I wouldn't ask you.'
'That,' she replied, 'is what makes you stupid.'
(Love Story, Erich Segal)

There they sent me to the auditorium to wait for the beginning of the info session. At 9:40 it was full of people already waiting for the session that starts at 10! They all were watching some videos, most of them sitting there, the rest accumulating by the entrance door. There were few free seats on the other side of the room though, approachable by passing in front of the screen watched by all that people. Well - whatever. I just passed. Other people joined me shortly, obviously still feeling somehow uncomfortable...
At 10:05 we moved to the theater upstairs and had the info session. They said only a few things I haven't heard before. For example - there are mandatory classes of a foreign language other than English. Another Harvard's specialty is guaranteed pairing of residents on their dormitories so they fit their roommates as perfectly as possible. I also liked the David Rockefeller's International Experience Grants Program yearly donating $1 milion for Harvard students to study abroad. (However, it doesn't apply for the international students who are abroad when at Harvard, actually - they've got another pool for that...)
Afterwards, the guided tour followed. My guide was a student of Psychology, taking the Pre-med program - exactly what I would like to study. So I asked her a few "professional" questions. :) She had been talking for more than 90 minutes and then went to spend the rest of the day studying, as she said. Again, we've been told many interesting facts and a few rumors as well...

We call this "Statue of the three lies." It reads "John Harvard/Founder/1638". At first, actually, this is not John Harvard. This statue was made after the fire in which he perished, so it was rather kind of "guessed"... Secondly, he was not a founder, actually. The College had been there since 1636. Then, in 1638, he came and donated all his money and books and what-not - therefore, the College was named after him. The third lie is obvious then - the Harvard as an institution wasn't founded in 1638 but in 1636...

After that I had a lunch "Au Bon Pain". This time I was watching a man selling newspaper on the street (there's always someone to be watched on the street). He was doing it really actively, shouting loudly, greeting complaisantly and walking back and forth. Once in a while some people really stopped, gave him a voluntary amount of money, took the newspaper (but some didn't even take it) and walked on. During that half an hour, it was at least four people who appreciated his energetic approach this way - each of them giving him at least a dollar. This is even better than a part time job in the Czech Republic, I thought... Before I finished my food and bought the newspaper from him, he packed and went away (I'm really unlucky contacting subjects of my observations...)...and that guy who came after him was unpacking his guitar too long for me to wait...

After that I went back to the campus to survey it more deeply. I really loved all those red-bricked buildings with huge spaces around them full of green trees and grass (that reminds me of my home town, actually...maybe, the Tomas Bata's University is not so different, really... :D). It was strange, though. Or rather - odd. Every once in a while, it was somehow difficult for me to breathe and I was daydreaming more than I usually do as well... No, definitely, I don't mean that "I just felt it, this was where I'll spend my university studies" or that "there was something strange attracting me to that place" or anything like that. I think it was rather caused by me gradually realizing it was really that place I'd heard so much about, it was that legendary Harvard. Harvard. It even sounds rare, you don't like reading it twice in a row. Or at least - I don't. That's why I felt this way...

I went from the Law School down the road to the sports facilities area. There I've seen an American football field for the first time in my life. Well, I mean - the real one. (Prague's ones don't count.) It was beautiful despite I don't like the American football very much. And all that view was accompanied by a beautiful singing voice. Live. American national anthem. (I think it was a rehearsal for today's match.)
...Tell me, what experience could be more "American" than listening to American national anthem looking at American football field in the campus of the Harvard University...

Then I took a bus, a subway and another subway to get to Harvard's Medical School, which is the only school out of the main campus. In fact, it is quite far... It's a few buildings in the city of Boston distinguished from others by a relatively large lawn that they surround (and obviously, it is not a park). After taking all photos I needed a security officer approached me and said: "You can't take photos here, this is a Harvard University property." That's typical. Fortunately, I could take only 3 more photos on my memory card, so I just smiled and left that "property" with no complaints.

On the way back I had my favorite dinner, during which I was watching a baseball game Red Sox vs. Baltimore Orioles. (So American, today...) When I came to my room here, it was occupied by my roommates. Three Scots and a visitor - girl from NYC. I've never heard a Scottish person live, so to speak. Sometimes, it doesn't even sound like English, really... No offence (sorry, I'm not using the suggested American version - "offense"...I'm not SO American today), but it's really weird accent and actually, they are the only native speakers I feel comfortable talking to because I don't feel as if I were spoiling the English so much... ;)
When we became friends enough, they begun to apologize for their last night's late return to our room when they were entertaining themselves by waking me up making farting noises at 3:45 AM, slightly drunk... I said it was okay (what else I could say - still, there was three of them...and that girl) and went downstairs to go online...

(The last piece of information - when I begun writing, a receptionist came here and asked if we wanted to have a cup of tea or coffee before she "gets rid of it"... I was thirsty so I went to those two metal tanks not able to tell them apart... So I filled up my cup with liquid from the first one. Black and bitter. I tried the other one. Black and bitter. Still, no difference. I don't know if that black tea was so strong or if that coffee was so weak or if it was so mixed up together... I just randomly chose one, put three doses of sugar in it and have been drinking it so far... Unfortunately, she has already "got rid of" the milk - I would have had an English tea/white coffee...)

Good night.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (7/24)

2009-07-24T20:02:00.008-04:00

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I was having a breakfast. Quite early, because I wanted to leave by 9 AM. Eating and checking my Facebook, I was partly listening to an old lady who turned out to be from Ukraine. She was talking that russian-style English about the world crisis and who caused it and so on. I wasn't listening to her really, until it came to communism. Her "stream of consciousness" went like this, in short:

- World crisis
- People having hard times
- Artists help people get better (she accost a man near to her - an artist, probably - asking him to help people in his country by his art production)
- The most important for people's welfare is freedom
- Democracy (She came up with a few quotes from the Declaration of Independence and accost another man, on her left, asking him to imagine what it would be like if people treated his sister as a "lower human being")
- The communism, the worst harm for democracy

She wasn't aggressive at all - when someone wanted to pass by her, she moved and apologized. She was quite energetic, though. She started talking about her country as at first, after the WWI, the Russian communists came and said: "Your country shall not exist." And then, the Hitler came and said: "The people of your country shall not exist."... Then she talked about communism after the WWII and she spoke to a young man on the other side of the table: "You...where are you from?" "China," he replied. "You must help your country get rid of communism. Are you a communist?" "What?" he probably misheard her... "Are you a communist? You know, communism..." "What is 'communism'?" he asked her frankly...
I wondered if I really wanted to interfere in this conversation at this point, but I was on my way out already. Leaving the hall, I heard: "Communism - it's a terrorism. Legalized terrorism. Just like those from 9/11... Or in Spain after that. And do you know why they do that? To make us fear! To make us, people living in democracy, fight against each other... And this is war...!"...

After this experience, I've spent the morning at the MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was raining all the time - so I took a bus to get there yet before 10 AM. Therefore, I was on time for the first information session and for the guided tour as well, which was one hour later. It was really interesting and quite persuasive... Even though I've been already decided to study medicine and achieve an MD degree (which is not offered at MIT), I really thought about applying to MIT because the "Brain and Cognitive Studies" doesn't sound that far from psychiatry... ;) And MIT offers pre-med program on the undergraduate level anyway... (Just to get there. :)) During the guided tour we've been told many stories about MIT students making fun of their teachers or even other universities. I really liked their nickname for Harvard - I mean "that liberal arts school down the road"... :D Another interesting thing was another "Dancing-house" by Gehry in the MIT campus... This one was newer, though.

As you may know, Harvard and Yale are quite competitive in many respects... They play a football game every year and the winner takes that big cup, which moves from one university to the other quite often. In 1982, during the second quarter of the game a big black balloon with "MIT" written all over it suddenly emerged on the Harvard Stadium field. And then suddenly - it exploded. The next day, the headlines of the newspaper said: "MIT wins the Harvard-Yale football game."

One morning, a campus police car appeared at the top of the MIT's main building (the Great Dome). When the policemen saw it, they went to search through their database which car was missing, but none was. They went to investigate that car - it was a wooden model, the registration number read "IHTFP" and the car number was "π" Inside, there was a dummy completely dressed up, with a cup of coffee in his hand and a box of donuts in the other... ("IHTFP" stands for "I Have Truly Found Paradise"...or rather "I Hate This Fucking Place"?)

Can you see those words? "Established For Advancement And Development of Science, Its Application to Industry, the Arts, Agriculture, And Commerce." Once, the students changed the last three words to "Entertainment and Hacking". When the police came to investigate the area, they didn't even recognize that something went wrong - it was done so well... In the end, the students had to cowardly admit what was going on and uncover the original letters themselves...

Then, as usual, I had my pizza-lunch and went to the MIT bookstore. Afterwards, my book. And way home. Since then, I've been sitting in the dining hall of my hostel, online. Skyping with my girlfriend. Looking for an accommodation in the New Haven, searching for a bus to get there. Buying tickets, ordering hostel (I know my credit card number by heart, almost...and my US phone number as well...(almost) :) ), watching Jon Lajoie's videos (I love his last one.). Thinking. Sometimes, that's enough for me.
And that's it.

Boston College (7/23)

2009-07-23T20:31:00.009-04:00

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I went out of the hostel today morning thinking that it was going to be hard to write about something interesting on my blog today... But that day was not boring at all. I took the subway to get to the Boston College, because it's further to the West than the rest of the universities I want to visit. Then I realized why that subway looks like a tram. Actually, after a few stops it goes up to the surface and becomes a tram. So it's not a subway - it is a tram that goes uderground... I was so excited about this, taking photos of the site passing by the windows, that I didn't notice that on one of the stops a MBTA officer approached me: "Hello, sir." "Hello," I said, surprised that it was me he was talking to, actually. "You are taking photos? Why are you taking photos? You can't do it here." "I'm a student, a turist, I'm taking them for my personal purposes, what's the problem??" I replied. "You can't do this here. You need a permission to be allowed to take photos." What??? What kind of Charlie permission I need this time to be permitted to take stupid pictures?!? "Where are you going?" he continued. "The Boston College." I just said. "Okay, anyway, you mustn't take photos here." "Fine, I'm quitting this, I won't take any pictures anymore, okay?" I put my camera into my bag demonstratively. He just walked out of the train, the door closed and the tram started moving. Welcome to America...
(I am not the first one being struck by this - see this blog & read MBTA Photo Policy - at least, the system - even though based on that rigorous policy - works pretty well...)
Anyway, five minutes later, the tram stopped somewhere in between two stops and the driver went running back and forth through it, obviously dealing with some technical problems. I had a nice view of a Boston cemetery which I couldn't photograph, but my mood went up with every minute that passed while we were stuck there. The punchline came after fifteen minutes of our driver's desperate effort: a pissed driver of a tram that approached us from the back in the meantime came into our tram, went to the machine room, spent there one minute pushing buttons and pulling levers, went out and shouted through the whole tram at our driver sarcastically: "Wooow...you're all set!" and marched back to her tram. That was satisfactory enough for me, I like the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority again...
Then we arrived to the Boston College. I attended the guided tour and had a lunch in their canteen then. A very talkative girl accost me there. We exchanged a few sentences and before I left she asked me: "Where's your accent from?" "My accent?" I didn't get it at first. "Yes," she nodded. "Well, I don't know how about my accent, but I am from the Czech Republic, Europe," I smiled and went away. ;)
Then I met my friend from the High School Summer Course who lives in the Boston, we walked through the campus for a while and then went downtown.
On our way by that tram I have seen another strange scene: in a station, a blind woman entered and asked loudly if someone could give her their seat. A closest man immediately stood up. After a while of dumbly watching her he said: "The closest seat to the right, madam." She stopped for a second, considering where the voice came from and then sat down saying: "Well, it is to the right for you, on my left though..." "Oh, I'm so sorry." "It's okay," she said smiling...
In the center of the city of Boston, I've been to Abercrombie & Fitch store for the first time in my life... Well, those of you who haven't been to any yet - just dream on... ;)
Then we went to a city library, where I took out my textbook...
Dinner (two slices - both pepperoni, because they didn't have the cheese one this time) and I'm going to bed asap. See you tomorrow...

Boston University (7/22)

2009-07-22T20:43:00.018-04:00

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Today I've decided to visit the Boston University. I woke up after 8 o'clock, had a breakfast in the hostel and went out. I walked no more than one kilometer in an approximate direction of my destination when I heard something like "[Hej, di:zl!]"... Who else can pronounce it like that? I followed that group of one boy and three girls a few metres further and soon I realized I was right: "Helé, neňy to ten vobchoďák co sme tam byly posledně?!" I smiled. I didn't talk to them but just enjoyed that few moments of understanding someone who doesn't know it. Then I turned around and continued walking my own way because they were from Prague, obviously (or rather - audibly)... ;)

On my way, I bought a map, which made it much easier for me to move along the Boston. When I came to the BU campus, I realized how long it was. I walked to the other end (which took me more than half an hour - partly because I was taking photos all the time) to take some material in the visitor relations office and then back to admissions office on the first end. There I was told about the guided tour that took place in an hour and a half. So I went to the nearest McDonald's to have some lunch.
While I was sitting in the McDonald's, I was watching a boy and a girl maybe two years older than me with a sign "Children International" on their chests. They were stopping people on the street by holding out their hand to them desperately trying to interview them. I had been sitting there for more than half an hour and during that time each of them successfully stopped only one person each. How hopeless this work was, I thought. I wanted to ask them about the purpose of this action, but before I got out of that fast-food, they had vanished.
So I went back to the BU campus and went to the guided tour. It lasted for more than two hours. I have seen a typical students' room at a BU dormitory, for example...

The BU students often take advantage of creating special extracurricular groups - you need at least five students, one supervisor and you can establish a club of any kind. Last year, for example, there was a group devoted to 'watching people'... Such groups, when approved, recieve some grants and have regular meetings. So in the third term, the "People Watching Club" went to Canada to watch Canadians...

After that, I just went to the South part of the campus where the dormitories were to take some more pictures. On the way there, I went across a bridge - on its fence, there were tens of padlocks, just hanging there. I couldn't understand why they were there, I just could take a photo of them... Then I just sat down on a lovely bench in that university village, opened my SAT Biology book and started learning... Not long after that a middle-aged woman sat down on a bench opposite mine. She sat there nervously for a few minutes and then dialed a number on her phone and begun to talk. In a few moments she started to cry, so pitifuly... I really felt sorry for her... But you wouldn't believe how this deep sorrow can gradually transform into an arrogant voice, even though she spoke a language I couldn't understand. After a few more minutes she just stood up and still calling just walked away... Weird.
When I finished a chapter at about 7 PM, I went to a pizzeria across the street to have two slices: one cheese and one pepper, as usual. Then I went back 'home'. In the park, I saw a jazz concert, quite nice... It wasn't far from the hostel - but even though I am really tired now, so just - good night...

What about... an English diary...? (7/21)

2009-07-21T17:30:00.005-04:00

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I think... I have decided to continue writing this blog in English. Temporarily, at least, and then we'll see. I will see. The thing is - now, I'm in the US, enjoying my holiday (or I have been so far). And I'd like to write a diary in English for myself to remember what I've gone through... And the best way to push myself to do it is to post it online on a regular basis (because there is always someone imaginary, at least, who is waiting for the next post...). I'm really sorry about any mistakes that may occur in the following texts, but trust me, I do my best to avoid them...

I have finished the Summer Program for High School Students at Columbia University, New York just three days ago. Then I have been staying with my brother and dad in the Pennsylvania Hotel and today, I took a big black and orange Bolt bus to get here, to Boston, Massachusetts (with WiFi and electricity and everything).
Before taking a subway from the South Station I had to buy a ticket, of course. I came to a set of ticket machines, resembling those from the New York City, but these were much more complicated: I had to decide whether to buy a "Charlie Ticket" or a "Charlie Card" - apart from the difference in their names and material they were made of (paper vs. plastic, respectively), the prices for the same number of rides varied by approximately 20% in favor of the latter one. (I really don't understand why Charlie the Ticket made of paper is more expensive than Charlie the Card made of plastic, while one can take the same number of rides with both of them.)
Naturally, I wanted to apply my student discount, so I asked the bystanding officer how I could get one. "You need a Student Discount Charlie Card," or something like that he said. "And how can I get one, please?" I replied. "You'll get it in your school, in September." Cool. So the possibility of this discount is presently unaccessible for me - I'm not close enough to my school and it's still July, unfortunately... (Maybe tomorow.)
Also the subway itself is quite interesting here. Not only you can exit the train on both sides on some stations, but also you can freely cross the rails as if it was a regular train station (but yes, we're still underground). Moreover, the second vagon that I took (there are only three subway lines here - hooray! - but all of them branch a lot - dammit...) looked rather like a tram in Prague than like a subway train anywhere else...
Everything went (surprisingly) well then so I successfully came to the place where I'm about to stay for the next week or so: International Youth Hostel, Boston. I am in a small room (3x4 metres - I haven't mastered the feet yet, sorry) with five other guys. I have seen only 2 of them (they look fine) so far and really hope the rest of them will come back before midnight...
After the arrival, I tried to connect to the "Free WiFi" in the hostel, but not successfully. So I went to a nearby "RiceBowl Bar" with a big sign "Free wireless". I just ordered something what eventually turned out to be sushi... I knew what it was, but I didn't recognize its particular parts. Have you ever had sushi? Then you probably can imagine how I felt when I tasted that green paste laying somehow strangely aside from the rest on my plate... Yes, it tasted like a concentrated horseradish and it disabled me to breath for a while... After I recovered, I carefully tasted that little red slices on the other side of my plate...but they weren't not so bad, fortunately (maybe also because I couldn't taste anything at all at that time). But I think I like sushi, after all. Anyway, I must have gone to the nearest pizzeria to eat something of a real nutritional value... When I came back, I could access the internet already, of course - so here I am. :)

That's it for today, I guess... Tomorrow, I'd like to see some of Boston and the MIT or the Boston University - I want to go the Harvard campus as the very last one in this city, though... By the way - if you wanted to ask me something, feel free to do so in the comments below...Anyway - good night!

PRO & ITORP

2009-05-10T16:28:00.008-04:00

Už dlouho jsem nepsal. A víte, čím to je? --- A teď by asi měla následovat odpověď, že? --- Bohužel. Pokud jste četli, co si myslím o lidech, kteří píšou na své blogy, tak si to určitě po tomto příspěvku domyslíte. Doufám...

Představte si, nedávno jsem se dozvěděl - lépe řečeno, potvrdilo se -, že moje maminka chodí na blogy (minimálně jeden), na které tu odkazuju. Nenapadá mě jiná možnost, než že se tam dostala přes tento blog. Takže tímto Tě, mami, zdravím a přeju Ti všechno nejlepší ke dni matek! (Ano, je to dneska - nikoli první neděli v kvěnu.) Většinu svých příspěvků někomu věnuju - tenhle tedy patří Tobě. :)
...Ani to mě ale nepřiměje přestat v blogování o všem možném i nemožném, bez omezení.

Víte co? Musím říct, že se mi poslední dobou celkem daří. Nechci to zakřiknout, ale ---

1.) Našel jsem si holku. Nebo teda spíš - Holku. Nebo ona si našla mě? Prostě - našli jsme se. Je geniální. A chytrá a inteligentní a krásná a vtipná a hodná a (...) a tak. A mám ji rád. Moc rád. Nemá prostě chybu; víc nemá smysl psát.

2.) Vyhráli jsme florbalovou ligu. Já osobně teda už potřetí, ale zase to byl perfektní pocit...
První rok to bylo docela jasné - hrál jsem v týmu s Andym, byli jsme nepřekonatelný útok. :) První ročník OG Floorball League, vítězem se stal "BAJT team" (Brunox13, Andy, Jolana, Tomáš).
Druhý rok jsem nehrál nic moc. Už s názvem se to nepovedlo: před prvním zápasem jsme byli na plakátech vedení jako "No name", protože jsme na záčátku ligy pozdě odevzdali jméno klubu (v konečném důsledku vlastně vůbec-) a tak jsem na ten plakát jenom připsal "no sign" a po zbytek roku jsme byli vedení jako tým "No name, no sign" - "Beze jména, beze stopy". A taky že to tak dopadlo - nedostali jsme se snad ani do semifinále.
Třetí rok to se jménem začalo naopak dobře: Chtěl jsem po každém hráči, aby vymyslel, jak bychom se mohli jmenovat. Všichni mi něco navrhli, kromě brankáře, který se na to samozřejmě vykašlal (Co byste taky od Bagíra čekali...) - a tak se ho ptám, jak se teda budeme jmenovat. Jeho odpověď byla stejná, jako na většinu jiných otázek: "Láry fáry..." Nakonec se to ukázalo jako nejlepší návrh, takže jsme se tak po zbytek roku jmenovali. :) Měli jsme nejlepšího braknáře v lize a ke konci jsme ještě dostali výměnou za odevšího hráče jiného, o něco silnějšího, a tak jsme nakonec vyhráli.
Letos to bylo asi nejvíce vydřené, ale o to šťastnější vítězství. Celý rok jsme hráli průměrně, takže jsme hráli předkolo play-off. Tím jsme prošli hladce do semifinále, které jsme vyhráli částečně také díky nedisciplinovanosti brankáře našeho soupeře, který do brány nastoupil až po pěti minutách hry, když už jsme vedli. Ovšem finále - to byl zázrak. Celý rok jsem na své spoluhráče "řval" (někdy i doslova), aby si pěkně nahráli, dívali se, kam přihrávají, hlídali si hráče při obraně, atd., ovšem jakoby až ve finále pochopili co se po nich chce. A k tomu ještě měl jeden z našich střelců nevídané štěstí, takže mu do brány spadlo i to, co nechtěl... Celou dobu jsem jen nevěřícně zíral a když už jsme vedli 3:0, bylo to skoro jasné. A tak to "dopadlo" i letos, "Toy Soldiers" si vystříleli titul (lepší a údernější překlad pro "cínové vojáčky" jsem nenašel :) ).

3.) Mám za sebou testy SAT. Už to je dobrá zpráva, zejména ta část "za sebou". Více napíšu ještě později. (Predsa nemôžem na jednom príspevku vystrielať všetok pušný prach...)

4.) Už mám naplánované prázdniny. Sice docela rámcově, ale přece jen - lépe než kdy předtím. Ovšem to samotné není tak zajímavé jako to, co vlastně budu dělat:
Před dvěma měsíci jsem se začal konečně intenzivně zajímat o možnost, že bych strávil prázdniny v nějaké anglicky mluvící zemi, abych si zlepšil angličtinu. "Ideální by bylo, kdybych to mohl spojit i s návštěvou univerzit, kam se chci hlásit," říkal jsem si. A tak jsem napsal takový velmi oficiálně, anglicky znějící dopis (ano, takový slovosled je tu schválně), ve kterém stálo, že bych měl eminentní zájem strávit alespoň třeba týden o prázdninách v areálu univerzity. Že bych klidně zadarmo pracoval, jen abych měl kde levně přespat a hlavně, abych měl možnost poznat prostředí oné školy. S tímto dopisem jsem zašel za naší školní "výchovnou poradkyní", kterou jsem poprosil, aby tento dopis rozeslala co nejvíce svým kontaktům na anglických a amerických univerzitách - pokud možno všem.
O dva dny později mi od ní přišel e-mail s odkazem na Summer Program for High School S tudents na Columbijské univerzitě. Když jsem si tak procházel ty stránky, říkal jsem si, že tohle by bylo úplně snové (podobný pocit, jako když jsem si před čtyřmi lety procházel letáky o Open Gate :) ). Když jsem ale kliknul na "tuition and fees", bylo po srandě: i s ubytováním přímo v "campusu" to vyšlo na nějakých bezmála $7 000, což je i při klesajícím kursu pořád HODNĚ. A tak jsem jí napsal, že dostat se tam by bylo sice krásné, stejně jako třeba vyhrát ve sportce - ovšem ani jedno se nejpravděpodobněji nestane a navíc k tomu prvnímu bych potřeboval to druhé... A ani když mi odpověděla "nějak to zkusíme", naděje moc nestouply.
Ovšem od té doby se daly věci docela dpo pohybu: Přestože uzávrka přihlášek na tento program byla týden po tom, co jsem dostal ten mail, podařilo se mi sehnat všechna doporučení, napsat motivační dopis a splnit i ostatní požadavky a úspěšně a v termínu odeslat přihlášku. Zároveň jsem podal žádost Nadaci Educa o úplné nebo alespoň částečné přispění na tuto akci... Měsíc trvalo, než jsem dostal vyrozumění od nadace a další měsíc, než jsem se dozvěděl, zda budu přijat. Ono to na těch dvou řádcích sice vypadá, že je to "jedno a pak druhé a nakonec třetí a dobře to dopadlo", ale mezitím mě to stálo docela dost nervů, zařizování, času a tak vůbec... No ale - nakonec to vyšlo. Takže teď další měsíc "nervů, zařizování, času a tak vůbec", aby se to mohlo vůbec uskutečnit, ale aspoň s vidinou něčeho relativně jistého...
Jaké bude mít tento pobyt následky na moje další studia je ve hvězdách, ale vyhlídky se mi rozhodně nezhoršily...

...aby to ale nevypadalo, že se mám jen úžasně a nic mě netrápí, zde jsou stinné stránky výše zmíněného.

1.) To, že mám tak úžasnou holku, samozřejmě žádnou stinnou stránku nemá :D. Samo o sobě ne. (Ale) I jí se poslední dobou daří. Doufám, že jí nebude vadit, když sem napíšu, že se hlásila na UWC (United World Colleges), když jedním dechem dodám, že se nakonec na jednu z nich dostala. A vzhledem k tomu, že Česká republika letos na UWC vyšle celkem 6 studentů, je to "docela" NĚCO. Navíc - s plným stipendiem, ubytováním, letenkami... Takže už od půlky srpna letošního roku bude sedat v lavicích Singapurské školy s mezinárodní maturitou (IB). Je to moc (v kladném významu se vyhýbám slovu "střašně") super a přeju jí to. Ale musím - opět jedním dechem - dodat, že se mi po ní bude moc stýskat...I když - dneska jsme zjistili, že se na sebe aspoň víc těšíme, tak proč ne... :)

2.) Ani vítězství ve školní lize není v ničem špatné. :) Ovšem - nedávno jsem byl svědkem jiného florbalového finále. Na mojí bývalé škole se do něj probojoval v historii snad nějmladší tým Power StRangers (doporučuju sekci "ankety"), kterému chytá můj brácha - byl to krásný zápas plný napětí, krásných akcí a gólů a oni měli na to ho vyhrát. Ale osud tomu prostě nechtěl. Přestože vedli už o dva góly a ještě půl minuty před koncem o gól, nakonec prohráli na "zlatý gól" v prodloužení - pro ně teda spíš "stříbrný". Byla to škoda - ale věřím, že příští rok to dotáhnou až do zdárného konce.

3.) Ještě neznám výsledky SAT, ale nemyslím si, že budou neočekávaně dobré. Sice "propadák" to taky snad nebude, ale vím, že mám ještě slabá místa. Uvidíme - stejně jako maturanti, mám ještě jednu možnost na podzim. :)

4.) Prázdniny strávím v USA úplně sám. Bez kamarádů. Bez rodiny. Poprvé budu pryč z domu na takovou dobu. Ne, že bych to neměl zvládnout, ale minimálně k tomu mám respekt. Už to, že ještě pořád nevím, kde budu vetšinu toho času bydlet, mi dělá trochu vrásky na čele; a ani přes velkorysý příspěvek nemám dostatečné finance úplně jisté. No, bude to ještě zajímavé...
Každopádně bych si chtěl psát o téhle cestě na blog deník, takže pokud Vás to zajímá, můžete si tu pak průběžně číst, jak jsem na tom. :)

Doufám, že to na vás dnes nebylo najednou příliš, ale konečně jsem si po dlouhé době udělal čas na to, nějakým způsobem se tady "zveřenit" ("projevit" nebo "vyblít" mi přišlo až moc explicitní), takže to krátké být nemohlo. A snad se tam našlo i něco trochu zajímavého pro ty, kteří se sem jednou za čas zastaví. Vlastně by mě docela zajímalo složení cílové skupiny tohoto blogu...ale to je zase na jindy... :)

Přeju hezký den!

PS: Body v tomto článku nejsou seřazeny podle důležitosti a ta ani zároveň není naznačena délkou odstavce... Důležitost je v pořadí 1), 4), 3), 2) od nejdůležitějšího k tomu...nejsportovnějšímu. :)

Kruh

2008-10-25T14:07:00.014-04:00

Tenhle set písniček je věnovaný všem, kteří vědí, o čem jsou...

In between

Někde mezi

Let me apologize to begin with,

Než začnu, dovol mi omluvit se,

Let me apologize for what I’m about to say,

Dovol mi omluvit se za to co teď řeknu,

But trying to be genuine was harder than it seemed,

Ale zkoušet být opravdový bylo těžší než se zdálo,

But somehow I got caught up in between.

Ale nějak jsem zůstal někde mezi.

Let me apologize to begin with,

Než začnu, dovol mi omluvit se,

Let me apologize for what I’m about to say,

Dovol mi omluvit se za to co teď řeknu,

But trying to be someone else was harder than it seemed,

Ale zkoušet být někým jiným bylo těžší než se zdálo,

But somehow I got caught up in between.

Ale nějak jsem zůstal někde mezi.

[Chorus:]

[Refrén:]

Between my pride and my promise,

Mezi mou hrdostí a slibem,

Between my lies and how the truth gets in the way,

Mezi mou lží a tím jak se pravda občas objeví,

The things I want to say to you get lost before they come,

Věci, které ti chci říct se ztrácejí dřív než příjdou,

The only thing that’s worse than one is none.

Jediná věc, která je horší než jeden je žádný.

Let me apologize to begin with,

Než začnu, dovoli mi omluvit se,

Let me apologize for what I’m about to say,

Dovol mi omluvit se za to co teď řeknu,

But trying to regain your trust was harder than it seemed,

Ale znovu získat tvou důvěru bylo těžší než se zdálo,

But somehow I got caught up in between.

Ale nějak jsem zůstal někde mezi.

[Chorus]

[Refrén]

The only thing that’s worse than one is none.

Jediná věc, která je horší než jeden je žádný.

And I cannot explain to you,

Nedokážu ti vysvětlit,

In anything I say or do or plan,

V ničem co říkám nebo dělám nebo plánuju,

Fear is not afraid of you,

Strach se tě nebojí,

But guilt’s a language you can understand,

Ale vina je jazyk kterému rozumíš,

I cannot explain to you

Nemůžu ti vysvětlit

In anything I say or do,

V ničem co říkám nebo dělám,

But hope the actions speak the words they can.

Ale věřím, že činy mluví slovy kterými mohou.

For my pride and my promise,

Pro mou hrdost a můj slib,

For my lies and how the truth gets in the way,

Pro mé lži a to jak se pravda občas objeví,

The things I want to say to you get lost before they come,

Věci, které ti chci říct se ztrácejí dřív než příjdou,

The only thing that’s worse than one is none.

Jediná věc, která je horší než jeden je žádný.

For my pride and my promise,

Pro mou hrdost a můj slib,

Between my lies and how the truth gets in the way,

Mezi mou lží a tím jak se pravda občas objeví,

The things I want to say to you get lost before they come.

Věci, které ti chci říct se ztrácejí dřív než příjdou,

The only thing that’s worse than one is none. (3x)

Jediná věc, která je horší než jeden je žádný. (3x)

Figure.09

Figura.09

Nothing ever stops all these thoughts

Nikdy nic nezastaví tyhle myšlenky

And the pain attached to them

A bolest s nimi spojenou

Sometimes I wonder why this is happening

Někdy přemýšlím, proč se to děje

It's like nothing I can do

Jakoby nic z toho co můžu udělat

Would distract me when

Mě nemohlo zastavit když

I think of how I shot myself in the back again

Přamýšlím jak bych si znova vrazil kudlu do zad

'Cause from the infinite words I could say I

Nekonečnými slovy bych mohl říct jak jsem

Put all pain you gave to me on display

Dal na odiv všechnu tu bolest od tebe

But didn't realize instead of setting it free I

Ale neuvědomil si: místo abych to nechal plavat jsem

Took what I hated and made it a part of me

Vzal co jsem nenáviděl a udělal to součástí sebe

(Never goes away)

Nikdy neodchází

(Never goes away)

Nikdy neodchází

[Chorus]

[Refrén]

(And now)

(A teď)

(You've become a part of me)

(Stala ses mou součástí)

(You'll always be right here)

(Vždycky tady budeš)

(You've become a part of me)

(Stala ses mou součástí)

(You'll always be my fear)

(Vždycky budeš mým strachem)

(I can't separate)

(Nemůžu oddělit)

(Myself from what I've done)

(Sám sebe od toho co jsem udělal)

(Giving up a part of me)

(Opouštějíc část sebe)

(I've let myself become you)

(Nechal jsem se stát se tebou)

Hearing your name

Když slyším tvé jméno

The memories come back again

Ty vzpomínky se vracejí

I remember when it started happening

Vzpomínám si kdy to všecko začalo

I see you in every thought I had and then

Vidím tě v každé myšlence již jsem měl a pak

The thoughts slowly found

Myšlenky pomalu našly

Words attached to them

Slova s nimi spojená

And I knew as they escaped away

A já to věděl když odcházely

I was committing myself to them and everyday

Odevzdával jsem se jim a každý den

I regret saying those things

Lituji že jsem tyhle věci řekl

Cuz now I see that I

Protože teď vidím, že jsem

Took what I hated and made it a part of me

Vzal co jsem nenáviděl a udělal to součástí sebe

(Never goes away)

Nikdy neodchází

(Never goes away)

Nikdy neodchází

[Chorus]

[Refrén]

(Never goes away)

Nikdy neodchází

(Never goes away)

Nikdy neodchází

(Never goes away)

Nikdy neodchází

(Never goes away)

Nikdy neodchází

(Get away from me)

(Vypadni ode mě)

Give me my space back you gotta just

Vrať mi můj prostor, prostě bys měla

(Go)

(Jít)

Everything comes down the memories of

Všechno klesá ve vzpomínkách na

(You)

(Tebe)

I've kept it in but now I'm letting you

Držel jsem to vevnitř, ale teď ti chci dát

(Know)

(Vědět)

I let you go so get away from

Nechávám tě jít, tak vypadni ode

(Me)

(Mě)

Give me my space back you gotta just

Vrať mi můj prostor, prostě bys měla

(Go)

(Jít)

Everything comes down the memories of

Všechno klesá ve vzpomínkách na

(You)

(Tebe)

I've kept it but now I'm letting you

Držel jsem to vevnitř, ale teď ti chci dát

(Know)

(Vědět)

I let you go

Nechávám tě jít

[Chorus]

[Refrén]

I've let myself become you

Nechal jsem se stát se tebou

I've let myself become lost

Nechal jsem se stát se ztraceným

Inside these thoughts of you

V těchto myšlenkách o tobě

Giving up a part of me

Opouštějíc část sebe

I've let myself become you.

Nechal jsem se stát se tebou.

Život je jako kruh. Všechno se opakuje s tím rozdílem, že než se dostanete zpátky tam, kde jste začali, už je tam někdo jiný, na kom se dopouštíte těch samých chyb jako na tom předtím…
Pořád dokola.

Život je jako kruh. Všechno se opakuje s tím rozdílem, že než se dostanete zpátky tam, kde jste začali, už je tam někdo jiný, kdo se na vás dopouští těch samých chyb jako ten předtím…
Pořád dokola.

Na jedné straně kruhu vám někdo ublíží a na druhém pólu toho samého kruhu úplně stejně vy ublížíte někomu jinému, jako byste nevěděli jaké to je – být v pozici objektu.
A pak zase zpátky na tom prvním pólu někdo jiný ublíží vám, jakobyste nevěděli jaké to je - být v pozici subjektu.

Popravdě řečeno, vy víte jaké to je.
Víte, jaké to je, když vám někdo ubližuje.
Víte, jaké to je, když někomu ubližujete.
A nemůžete se tomu ubránit.

Už nechci být tím dvoupólovým článkem tohohle řetězu.
...Pořád dokola...

Kde to vlastně začalo?
A kdy to skončí???

Points Of Authority

Ve Smyslu Autority

Forfeit the game

Vzdej tuhle hru

Before somebody else

Než někdo jiný

Takes you out of the frame

Tě vyvede z míry

Puts your name to shame

Zahanbí tvé jméno

Cover up your face

Zakryj si tvář

You can't run the race

Tenhle závod nezvládněš

The pace is too fast

Tempo je příliš rychlé

You just won't last

Tohle prostě nevydržíš

You love the way I look at you

Miluješ způsob jakým se na tebe dívám

While taking pleasure

Zatímco si vychutnáváš

In the awful things you put me through

Ty hnusné věci jimiž procházím

You take away if I give in

Bereš pokaždé když nabízím

My life

Můj život

My pride is broken

Má hrdost je zničená

[Chorus:]

[Refrén:]

You like to think you're never wrong

Ráda si myslíš že se nikdy nemýlíš

(You live what you've learned)

(Žiješ tím co ses naučila)

You have to act like you're someone

Musíš se chovat jako někdo

(You live what you've learned)

(Žiješ tím co ses naučila)

You want someone to hurt like you

Chceš, aby někdo trpěl jako ty

(You live what you've learned)

(Žiješ tím co ses naučila)

You want to share what you have been through

Chceš se podělit o to čím vším jsi prošla

(You live what you've learned)

(Žiješ tím co ses naučila)

You love the things I say I'll do

Miluješ věci které říkám že udělám

The way I hurt myself again

Ten způsob jakým si znova ubližuju

Just to get back at you

Jen abych se k tobě vrátil

You take away when I give in

Bereš pokaždé když nabízím

My life

Můj život

My pride is broken

Má hrdost je zničená

[Chorus]

[Refrén]

Forfeit the game

Vzdej tuhle hru

Before somebody else

Než někdo jiný

Takes you out of the frame

Tě vyvede z míry

Puts your name to shame

Zahanbí tvé jméno

Cover up your face

Zakryj si tvář

You can't run the race

Tenhle závod nezvládněš

The pace is too fast

Tempo je příliš rychlé

You just won't last

Tohle prostě nevydržíš

[Chorus]

[Refrén]

You like to think you're never wrong

Ráda si myslíš že se nikdy nemýlíš

– Forfeit the game

– Vzdej tuhle hru

(You live what you've learned)

(Žiješ tím co ses naučila)

You have to act like you're someone

Musíš se chovat jako někdo

– Forfeit the game

– Vzdej tuhle hru

(You live what you've learned)

(Žiješ tím co ses naučila)

You want someone to hurt like you

Chceš, aby někdo trpěl jako ty

– Forfeit the game

– Vzdej tuhle hru

(You live what you've learned)

(Žiješ tím co ses naučila)

You want to share what you have been through

Chceš se podělit o to čím vším jsi prošla

(You live what you've learned)

(Žiješ tím co ses naučila)

Self Esteem

Sebeúcta

La la la la la la la la la la

I wrote her off for the tenth time today

Dneska jsem jí odepsal už podesáté

And practiced all the things I would say

A nacvičoval co všechno bych jí mohl říct

When she came over I lost my nerve

Když se vrátila zase jsem povolil

I took her back and made her dessert

Vzal jsem ji zpátky a udělal jí zákusek

Now I know I'm being used

Teď vím že mě využívá

But that's okay man cause I like the abuse

Ale to je vpohodě, já mám zneužívání rád

I know she's playing with me

Vím že si se mnou hraje

But that's okay cause I've got no self esteem

Ale to je vpohodě, já nemám žádnou sebeúctu

Oh wayo, yeah, yeah

Ohhhhhhh, yeah, yeah (3x)

We make plans go out at night

Plánujem v noci někam zajít

I wait till 2 then I turn out the light

Čekám až do 2 pak vypínám světlo

This rejection’s got me so low

Tohle odmítnutí mě fakt dodělalo

If she keeps it up I just might tell her so

Když tohle bude dělat dál musím jí to říct

[Chorus:]

[Refrén:]

When she's saying, oh that she wants only me

Když říká, že chce jenom mě

Then I wonder why she sleeps with my friends

Tehdy přemýšlím proč spí s mýma kámošema

When she saying, oh that I'm like a disease

Když říká, že jsem jako nemoc

Then I wonder how much more I can stand

Tehdy přemýšlím kolik toho ještě vydržím

Well I guess, I should stick up for myself

Řekl bych, že bych měl stát sám za sebou

But I really think it's better this way

Ale fakt si myslím, že je to tahle lepší

The more you suffer

Čím víc toho vytrpím

The more it shows you really care

Tím víc prokazuju jak mi na tom záleží

Right? Yeah!

Jasný? Jo!

Now I'll relay this little bit

Teď vám něco řeknu

It happens more than I'd like to admit

Děje se to víc než si dokážu přiznat

Late at night, she knocks on my door

Pozdě v noci klepe na moje dveře

She's drunk again and, looking to score

Je zase opilá a asi zase vyhraje

Now I know, I should say no, but

Teď vím, že bych měl říct ne, ale

It's kind of hard when she's ready to go

Je to trochu těžké když už chce jít

I may be dumb, but I'm not a dweeb

Jsem možná němý, ale nejsem debil

I'm just a sucker with no self esteem

Jsem jenom chcípák bez sebeúcty

[Chorus]

[Refrén]

Let me apologize to begin with...

Než začnu, dovol mi omluvit se...

PS: Víte, co je to "Final four"? Kdekdo by řekl, že turnaj těch nejlepších hráčů... Já jsem loni vyhrál. Ale popravdě řečeno, není to žádné vítězství být součástí té "čtyřky"...

Mějte se na pozoru...

2008-08-15T16:58:00.011-04:00

Tak teď zase chvíli vážně:
Možná, že byste měli něco vědět...

Chuck Norris se zná osobně s Járou Cimrmanem.

Chuck Norris přišel o panictví dřív než jeho otec.

Chuck Norris je tak rychlý, že dokáže oběhnout Zemi a praštit se při tom do zad.

Chuck Norris umí dělit nulou.

Chuck Norris je prvním člověkem, který porazil betonovou zeď v tenise.

Chuck Norris umí mluvit Braillovým písmem.

Chuck Norris napočítal do nekonečna. Dvakrát.

Chuck Norris nespí. On čeká.

Chuck Norris umí praštit točícími dveřmi.

Neexistuje teorie přirozeného výběru. Jsou jen bytosti, kterým Chuck Norris dovolil žít.

Chuck Norris nikdy neměl problémy s alkoholem. Alkohol měl problém s Chuckem Norrisem.

Slzy Chucka Norrise léčí rakovinu. Škoda že nikdy neplakal.

Když jde bubák spát, dívá se pod postel, jestli tam není Chuck Norris.

Když má Chuck Norris zpoždění, čas by měl radši sakra zpomalit.

Když Chuck Norris cvičí, posilovací stroj je silnější.

Chuck Norris ucpává záchod i když jen močí.

Chuck Norris o sobě mluví ve čtvrté osobě.

Microsoft vyvinul nový Antivirový program nazvaný Chuck Norris. Tento program viry vyzývá, aby vstoupily do počítače.

Chuck Norris jí jednou čínskou hůlkou.

Chuck Norris nezanechává zprávy. Chuck Norris zanechává varování.

Chuck Norris hrál ruskou ruletu s plně nabitou pistolí a vyhrál.

Život je jako bomboniéra. Nikdy nevíš, kdy tě Chuck Norris sejme.

V průměrném obýváku je 1242 věcí, kterými vás může Chuck Norris zabít, včetně pokoje samotného.

Chuck Norris vynalezl rakovinu, protože už ho unavovalo zabíjet lidi.

Chuck Norris vás umí praštit tak moc, že ještě vaše děti bude bolet hlava.

Nejefektivnější známý způsob sebevraždy je napsat do Googlu "Chuck Norris" a stisknout "Zkusím štěstí". (Pokud stisknete "Vyhledat Googlem", dopadne to takhle)

Kalendář Chucka Norrise po 31. březnu pokračuje přímo na 2. duben protože z Chucka si nikdo apríl dělat nebude.

IQ test Chucka Norrise dopadl jak nejlépe mohl: negativně.

Chuck Norris kdysi navštívil Panenské Ostrovy. Teď to jsou Ostrovy.

Chuck Norris dostává do e-mailové schránky spam s nabídkou na zmenšení penisu.

Chuck Norris používá Viagra oční kapky aby se mohl dívat tvrdě.

Tep Chucka Norrise se měří na Richterově stupnici.

PS: Ještě nějaké otázky?

"Littera scripta manet."

2008-07-22T16:23:00.007-04:00

"Chlapi, snažte se, máme na to..."
"No jo, ale co máme dělat líp??? Kde pořád děláme chybu?!"
"Ty vole, čoveče...já vám to říkám pořád: 'Mluvte na sebe, ať víte kdo koho brát, kdo je volnej, kam nahrát - prostě po sobě řvěte, pořád při tý hře mluvte...!' "

"Je hodně věcí, které jsem chtěl říct. Je mnoho věcí, které jsem chtěl napsat. Je to už dlouho, co jsem to všechno měl udělat - jenomže že se mi o těch věcech nechce mluvit...i když bych tolik chtěl..."

Jednou bych chtěl být psychologem. Není to takový ten nápad, který vás napadne, když se v neděli po obědě dlouze díváte z okna a nemáte co dělat - prostě mě baví o lidech přemýšlet, zajímat se o to, co se jim honí hlavou a vědět předem co udělají a jak můžou reagovat. Strašně rád si s lidmi povídám, ale někdy se mnohem více informací o člověku dozvím z toho, co píše, než z toho, co říká...
...tím myslím zejména blogy. Na svém blogu člověk píše všechno, co by osobně asi nikomu neřekl, ale přesto chce, aby to vědělo pokud možná co nejvíce lidí, kteří by se o něj potencionálně mohli zajímat - a to i třeba jen virtuálně. Každému autorovi blogu je jasné, že i lidé, kteří jej znají osobně, by se sem mohli podívat. Většinou spíše podle mě doufá, že se jemu blízcí o něj budou zajímat natolik, aby jeho blog psaný anonymně nebo pod přezdívkou našli a začali ho pravidelně číst, i když si to sami nepřiznávají. Tohle sem teď nepíšu kvůli tomu, abych objasnil roli tohoto blogu, ale proto, že mi to celkově příjde strašně zajímavé a chci to trochu rozvést...I když, tohle platí asi pro všechny blogy - bez výjimky ;). Každopádně, až jednou budu dělat diplomku, myslím, že psychologie blogů je dost dobré téma...

Proč čím dál víc lidí píše blogy?? Asi je to prostě možnost, na kterou přichází pořád více lidí. Nebo je snad pořád míň lidí, kterým se to dá říct osobně...?
To je to, co mi vrtá hlavou. A neuvěřitelně mě to mrzí. Všechno nejlépe vykreslí příklady, praxe:
Nedávno jsem měl možnost líp poznat jednu holku. Mnohem líp než jsem ji znal předtím. Každý večer jsem si s ní dlouze povídal a dozvěděl se toho strašně moc. Nebavili jsme se jen o ní, ale vlastně každá informace, kterou mi dala, mi o ní něco řekla - protože už to, jak se na co dívá, o čem vlastné mluví a jak o tom mluví, to vyjadřuje její pohled na svět, co je pro ni důležité, jaká je. Tím líp ve chvílích, kdy jen mluvila a já poslouchal. Bylo to jako pohádka, kterou bych mohl poslouchat donekonečna a pořád bych se nedozvěděl všechno a přitom chtěl vědět pořád víc...
A dneska jsem si četl její blog. Nečetl jsem si ho poprvé, ale předtím jsem četl jenom to, co mělo zajímavé nadpisy;) - dneska jsem četl jiné články. Takové příběhy psané ve třetí osobě. Musel jsem se v tom čtení sám zastavit a nepřečíst všechno, protože ještě jednou chci zažít ten pocit poznat toho samého člověka nanovo. Objevit další stránku její osobnosti...
Na tom blogu jsem se dozvěděl něco dalšího, co v těch rozhovorech nebylo - tím nemyslím informační obsah ale to všechno o její povaze...příběhy v minulém čase o někom cizím, které byly emočné nabyté a neuvěřitelně čtivé, tak opravdové.
...řekl bych, že jejich hlavní hrdinka právě seděla za klávesnicí, když vznikaly...respektive, když psala, co se stalo. Co se JÍ stalo...

Snila v nich. Připomínalo mi to moje snění. O všem možném i nemožném. O tom, co všechno bych mohl zažít, co by se mohlo stát - od těch reálných věcí až po ty nejšílenější. Takhle snívám hodně často - o tom, co bych dělal, kdybych vyhrál ve Sportce, o tom, co bych asi tak dělal, kdybych se dostal na Harvard, o tom, co všechno bych asi tak dělal, kdybych žil s holkou svých snů... Jenže ona se to odvážila napsat na ten blog, což já bych asi opravdu zvážil. A je to škoda. Nebýt toho blogu, asi bych se nikdy nedozvěděl, že má i mnohé podobné myšlenky a sny...

"(...) Snila, že jednou až už bude daleko a ona bude mít kus života za sebou, že ho navštíví. Neočekáváně se objeví u jeho dveří a celou noc si budou povídat. (...)"
...co dodat. V mojí verzi je to jen naopak - ten kluk navštíví tu holku svých snů. Tak neočekávaně pro ni přijede v černém Lamborghini, vezme ji do té nejdražší restaurace a propovídají si celou noc, ale nic víc - večer ji zase vezme zpátky k ní domů. Protože ona už bude vdaná a bude mít vlastní děti...

Blogy, to jsou zpovědi. Tolika lidí. Má cenu je číst, i když jejich autory třeba neznáte a oni neznají vás. Vy zjistíte, že něco podobného prožívají i ostatní, oni ví, že už nemusí váhu svého příběhu nést sami...
Jenže je nutné psát tohle na blog? Proč to nemůžou někomu říct? Nejlépe právě tomu, koho se to týká...je to neuvěřitelně neosobní napsat něco o sobě tolika lidem najednou...a zároveň tak osobní, když tolik lidí najednou o vás ví cokoli z vašich nejtajnějších pohnutek...každý si dává pozor na to, co píše, ale vždycky se něco najde...

Blog je věc, která snese i to, co nespolkne ani nejlepší kamarád. A každý se jednou za čas potřebuje vypovídat.
Jenom je škoda, že to lidé neřeší s těmi, kterých se to týká nejvíce - například ve vztazích, nejčastěji v těch partnerských. V jedné z těch nedávných rozmluv padlo i tohle.

"A já pak vždycky říkám: 'Cože, takže on to vážně řeší?! Tohle on vážně řekl??' "
"No jasně, i kluci nad tím přemýšlej...spíš si teď říkám: 'Holky taky?' "
"To si děláš srandu? Pořád! To kluci na to kašlou..."
"To by ses divila..."

Jo. Přesně o tom to je. Vždycky se něco stane a bůhví proč, nikdo nic neříká narovinu a nechává si to pro sebe, v lepším případě to řekne nejlepším kámošům nebo si to dá na blog, odkud se to druhá strana, při troše štěstí, dozví. Dokážete si vůbec představit, jaká by to byla nádhera, kdyby si všichni vždycky řekli všechno a hned? Kolik trápení by tím odpadlo?! Já vím, nebylo by to tak romantické... a c h - j o .

Jenže poslední dobou je čím dál tím víc lidí, kterým se nedá věřit natolik, aby se jim dalo všechno hned říct - a kvůli takovým pak vznikají blogy...;)

"Je hodně věcí, které jsem řekl. Je mnoho věcí, které jsem napsal. Je to už dlouho, co jsem to všechno udělal - jenom je škoda, že jsem to neudělal ještě dřív...nejhorší je totiž litovat nevyužíté šance..."

To je ten problém. Prostě s lidmi kolem sebe o všem mluvte. Klidně po sobě řvěte, ale hlavně mluvte. Díky...

Linkin Park: Projekt Revolution

2008-06-30T06:05:00.016-04:00

Waldbühne - Berlin, Germany; 27th June 2008

(pokračování předchozího článku)

Takže už to bylo jasné...pojedu do Berlína, snad to všecko dobře vyjde a nic se nepodělá, jak se to tak většinou bohužel stává...

Den před odjezdem přijel brácha do Prahy, kde jsem ho čekal - pak jsme spolu jeli do školy, a přespali na koleji do dalšího dne... (zařídit přespání u nás ve škole pro cizí osoby bývá většinou víc než problém, ovšem po tom, co jsem poslední týden svého volného času strávil děláním jedné velké prezentace a sestřiháváním záznamu ze školního festivalu, svolil pan zástupce ředitele k udělení výjimky;) )

A bylo to tady - den D. Pátek 27. června. Po snídani a krátkém rozloučení se všemi možnými i nemožnými (neměl jsem na to myšlenky - už od rána jsem chodil po škole celý v černém - a ne zrovna kvůli tomu, že bych tím chtěl vyjádřit smutek - to spíš naopak...) nás školní autobus odvezl do Prahy. Jeli jsme přímo na hlavní nádraží, složili nepotřebné věci do úschovní skříňky (taxa těchto plně automatizovaných skříněk je 60 kč za každý načatý den...vedlejší skříňce někdo dlužil už 1260 kč...lol; kromě toho mě dost pobavily podmínky uschování: "...ve skříňce není povoleno uschovat: zbraně, jedy, živá zvířata, mrtvá zvířata (pokud nebyl předchozí preparací vyloučen proces hnití), jídlo,..." xD) a šli na místo srazu.

Chvíli jsme čekali, až jsme si všimli týpka s taškou "Evropa2" - shodou okolností to byl moderátor Carlos (Karel Zídka - docela v pohodě borec), který právě moderoval, když jsem vyhrál. Přišel jsem k němu, představil se a hned jsem od něj dostal CD Minutes to Midnight (které věnuju Milče a Ludánkovi - kámošům, kteří mi půjčili telefony k mojí výherní akci (- děkuju moc!)...kromě toho, já už svoji originálku mám;) ). Po chvíli přijel žlutý (nebo spíš oranžový) luxusní autobus Student Agency, do něhož jsme se všichni, kteří jsme čekali, naskládali.

Už cestou busem do Berlína byla docela sranda...na jedné ze zastávek jsme si udělali společnou fotku (byly vlastně dvě, ale ani na jedné nejsem, protože mě ten autobusák, co to fotil, prostě nějak vynechal ze záběru xD...nakonec jsem se objevil na jiné fotce, ale mám tam trochu nepřítomný výraz =) - většina těch fotek je použita v tomto článku) a pak mi Carlos nabídl, jestli nechci do mikrofonu zazpívat něco od Linkinů - prý vypadám na to, že bych mohl něco znát zpaměti (černá lesklá košile, černé kalhoty, černé kožené polobotky, černé "bezprstové" rukavičky, skoročerné nagelované vlasy...;) ) a že pak dostanu za odměnu koláč xD...tak za koláč - kdo by do toho nešel, ne?
No, mohlo to dopadnout i hůř - vybral jsem si svoji nejoblíbenější písničku, Numb - a výsledek je zde pod názvem Karaoke show v autobuse na Linkin Park - a je tam i pár dalších nezajímvých videí...;)

Po asi 5 hodinové cestě jsme konečně přijeli k berlínskmu amfiteátru Waldbühne a už z dálky jsme slyšeli křik tisíců fanoušků, které na hlavní vystoupení zahřívala třetí předkapela (ze čtyř), N.E.R.D. . Její koncert jsme už nestihli, ale zato poslední předkapelu jsem viděl celou - a vzhledem k tomu, že jí byli legendární H.I.M., tak už to byl hezký zážitek - zazpíval jsem si s nima starší kousky, které jsem znal, jako Burried Alive nebo The Funeral of Hearts...

Waldbühne, Berlín

Mezitím jsme se s mým bráchou snažili dostat co nejblíž k jevišti. Měli jsme samozřejmě ty nejlevnější lístky - nejbližší možné místo 70m od jeviště, s čímž jsme se, samozřejmě, jen tak nespokojili... Jenže u každého průchodu níž stáli dva sekuriťáci a moc se netvářili, že by nás bez razítka chtěli pustit dál (to jste dostali, pouze pokud jste u vchodu ukázali dražší lístky). Tak jsme to pořád zkoušeli, až najednou u jednoho z vchodů pouštěli větší skupinku lidí (vraceli se právě z toalety, a tak si je sekuriťáci "pamatovali"), k níž jsme se "přifařili" i my s bráchou. Já jsem prošel v pohodě, jenže, nevím proč, tomu pánovi v oranžové bundě s vysílačkou se můj brácha prostě nějak nezdál, a tak se ho zeptal na to razítko. Ještě jsem se otočil, ale už bylo pozdě - já jsem se tam dostal, ale brácha ne... a tak jsem na něj ještě mával, ale radši jsem moc nepoutal pozornost, protože jsem nechtěl, aby někdo chtěl to razítko i po mně...

Pak jsem se otočil, a brácha nikde...prostě jsem ho mezi tolika lidma neviděl a nemohl jsem jít zpátky blíž. Jeden ze sekuriťáků mě napomenul, abych nestál na schodech, že mám sejít až úplně dolů. Takže jsem ho nemohl zahlídnout už vůbec. Naposled, když jsem bráchu viděl, tak ukazoval, že to zkusí ještě jiným vchodem, ale pak už se mi ztratil ze zorného pole.
Tak jsem teda čekal, jestli se mu to povede. Ale už to bylo tak deset minut a on pořád nikde. Tak se o sebe snad dokáže postarat, ne? Ale co když se mu to nepovede? To jako budem na Linkiny koukat každý odjinud? Vždyť tu jsme spolu... Dvacet minut a on pořád nikde. Začal jsem být nervózní... Snad se mu nic nestalo - jsme v Německu, a myslím, že německy neumí o moc líp než já, takže napočítat do deseti a "danke schön"...možná ještě tak "gesicht", protože je to stejné jako ksicht, ale tím to asi končí. Po půl hodině jsem se rozhodl obětovat svoje těžce vybojované místo, vrátit se a zkusit najít svého bratra.
Když už jsem skoro prošel kontrolou zpátky, zahlédl jsem ho naštěstí v tom davu čekajícím na vpuštění - ukazoval, že ho bez razítka nepustí. Já jsem na něj zas mával, aby zkusil sejít co nejníž a přeskočit živý plot oddělující zóny, v nichž jsme oba byli... Ale okamžitě po tom, co to udělal, k němu přišel další sekuriťák, ať se vrátí zpátky. A mě si zase nevšímal, i když jsem mu pomáhal se přes ten plot dostat...
Sešel jsem až dolů a otočil se, co dělá brácha - ten mezitím změnil identitu (ne však image;) ) - sundal si svůj černý baret a šedou mikinu, pod níž měl vínové tričko (s utrženými rukávy). Pak se přidal ke skupince lidí, která právě scházela dolů kolem něj a celou dobu, nenápadně se dívajíce směrem nahoru, tak aby onen security guard nezahlédl jeho obličej, kolem tohoto pracovníka pořádkové služby prošel úspěšně až ke mně. Já jsem se mezitím dole válel smíchy.

Tak jsme se tam nakonec prodrali. Poslední překážkou mezi námi a pódiem byl dav asi dvou tisíc stojících mačkajících se lidí.
Když jsme byli asi v polovině tohoto davu a dál už se dostat nedalo, začal celý amfiteátr ječet, pískat, volat, křičet a všechno co se jenom dá na takovém koncertě dělat - nastupovali totiž ti, kvůli kterým jsme se tam tak dlouho probojovávali. Po jednom. Postupně se nejdřív ozvaly tři kytary, pak bicí, na pozadí zvukové efekty a nakonec přerývaný zpěv. Announcement Service Public Projekt Revolution 2008. Něco, co v Brně zaručeně neslyšeli. Na to hned navázalo What I've done, a už to jelo. Pak byly postupně zahrány písničky v tomto pořadí:

Setlist

01. What I've Done
02. Faint
03. No More Sorrow
04. Wake 2.0
05. Given Up
06. Lying From You
07. Don't Stay
08. In Pieces
09. Somewhere I Belong
10. Points Of Authority
11. Leave Out All The Rest
12. Numb
13. Shadow Of The Day
14. Valentine's Day
15. Crawling
16. In The End
17. Bleed It Out
18. Pushing Me Away
19. Breaking The Habit
20. A Place For My Head
21. One Step Closer

Jedinečný zažítek. Už tím, že jsem tu slyšel něco, co nikde jinde nikdo jiný nikdy neuslyší - třeba druhá verze intra z Minutes to Midnight - Wake 2.0, na začátku Points of Authority Mike zarapoval Petrified a na konci stejné písničky There They Go ze svého projektu Fort Minor, a samozřejmě speciální verze Bleed It Out, včetně Bradova famózního sóla na bicí a Chesterova "učení zpěvu".

Brácha na mě po dvou písničkách přes ten hluk zavolal, že to nemůže vydržet (lidi se tam pod pódiem tlačili fakt neuvěřitelně) a tak jsme se dohodli kde se po koncertě sejdem a odtlačil se pryč. Mně to v tu chvíli tak hrozné nepřišlo, a tak jsem zůstal a pomalu se propracovával dál. Po chvíli jsem pochopil, o čem mluvil - bylo těžké se vůbec nadechnout toho vydýchaného vzduchu, natož se nějak jinak pohnout.
Každý lehčí závan větru byl požehnáním, slabší povahy kolem mě začaly omdlévat - a překvapilo mě, jak rychle se dá udělat dost místa pro takovou obéznější fanynku, která si v tomhle tlaku viditelně "nedávala" a lapala nahoru po dechu jako kdyby stála ve vodě, jež jí sahá tak akorát po čelo. Všichni, na které zakřičela, že se potřebuje dostat ven, se rozestoupili, až se dostala úplně dopředu, kde ji dva silnější sekuriťáci vytáhli za paže jako z bazénu.
To se opakovalo s různými fanoušky kolem mě mnohokrát. Jedna dokonce pustila kabelku na zem a hýbající se dav ji samotnou odsunul asi dva metry pryč - naštěstí jsem pochopil proč tak křičí, když jsem tu kabelku ucítil pod nohama - takže jsem se ohnul (což už samo o sobě bylo riskantní) a podal jí její kabelku. Ona se na mě podívala jako na zjevení, ale pak se raději začala rychle sunout kupředu, aby ji taky tam vepředu vytáhli.

Celý ten koncert, to byl křik, skákání do rytmu a samozřejmě zpívání. Perfektní odreagování. Super zážitek. Během vystoupení jsem se dostal (protlačil) až do druhé řady. Každou chvíli jsem vytáhl mobil a fotil (dost jsem tím riskoval, ale za ty fotky to stojí) - byl jsem tak blízko, že když jeden z Linkinů sešel po molu, tak byl asi dva metry za mnou...byli tak blízko, že bych na ně doplivnul :). Fotogalerie z koncertu je níže ---

Nakonec Rob samozřejmě rozhazoval svoje paličky - a víc než jen ty dvě, se ktrýma hrál. Tři dopadly asi v okruhu metru ode mě, jenže jsem nechytil ani jednu :(...a když jsem se snažil dostat k té, co letěla asi půl metru přede mě, dostal jsem akorát od nějakého dederona do zubů...

Kluci se na konci vraceli dvakrát - bez Breaking the Habit a One Step Closer by to nebylo ono. Po koncertě jsme se s bráchou našli rychle...dali jsme si párek v rohlíku a pepsi (záloha na plastový kelímek byla 1 Euro - to mě docela dostalo, ale je to chytrá vychytávka) a sešli se s ostatníma z busu Evropy2. Asi dva kluci co jeli s náma to trochu přehnali s německým pivem, takže byli dost veselí, ale jinak všechno v pohodě.

Koncert skončil něco okolo půlnoci - pak už "jen" pět hodin do Prahy, hodina čekání na vlak v 6 a další čtyři hodiny domů. I tohohle půl dne stráveného na cestách stálo za to.

Bylo to něco. NĚCO. Byli to Linkin Park.

A tady obrazová dokumentace --- enjoy...

PS: Foceno z mobilu ;) ...tohle je asi ta nejlepší čtvrtina všeho co mám...kdyby jste někdo chtěli všechny fotky co jsem ten večer nafotil, stačí říct...:)

...tak se tam dostanu!

2008-06-29T16:36:00.007-04:00

(pokračování minulého článku)

Ten týden, co jsme byli na vodě, na celostátním rádiu Evropa2 probíhala soutež o 2 lístky na koncert Linkinů v Berlíně, který se konal v den vysvědčení, tedy 27. června. To pro mě byla jediná možnost, jak se letos podívat na Linkiny - a kromě toho šance vidět Linkin Park exklusivně na jejich evropské části velkolepého turné Projekt Revolution, v Evropě probíhající vůbec poprvé...a tak jsem se té šance chtěl samozřejmě co nejlépe chopit...

Soutěž spočívala v tom, že od pondělí až do něděle v čase od 9:00 do 18:00 hodin (kromě neděle - to bylo pouze do 16:00) jednou za čas (vlastně 3krát denně) zahráli song z produkce Evropy2 "Nambr van hártkór" (docela vtipná verze Numb-Encore) - ten, kdo se dovolal jako třetí a uhodnul 1 z 8 "správných sedaček v autobuse" (těch bylo celkem 30), vyhrál 2 lístky na Berlínský koncert...

Zkoušel jsem to hned v pondělí cestou na vodu...jednou jsem to zaspal a když jsem se jindy snažil dovolat, vždycky bylo obsazeno... Pak jsem celý týden soutěžit nemohl, až zase v pátek cestou z vody...a zase - beznadějně obsazeno...chtělo to prostě taktiku...
A tak mě napadlo, že volat, až když slyším písničku, je pozdě - proto jsem v době, kdy jsem očekával výherní song, volal na konci KAŽDÉ písničky (asi tak 10s před koncem), což většinou obsazeno nebylo, a doufal jsem že následující písnička bude ta na kterou čekám...tak jsem posloucháním a čekáním a soustavným vytáčením strávil někdy až 2 hodiny v kuse - většinou se stejným koncem...obsazeno.

V sobotu jsem s touto "taktikou" a dvěma mobily v ruce volal a volal, až jsem se někdy odpoledne konečně dovolal: telefon zvoní a já slyším, že začíná TA písnička...tak napjatě čekám a najednou se hovor spojil a ze sluchátka se ozvalo:

"Haló, tady Evropa2..."
a já na to: "Jo, ahoj...."
"Tak volej dál..."

...a nic...cože?!? Takže po takové době se konečně dovolám a tam jenom "Tak volej dál..."????? To snad ne...

Další den byla neděle, poslední den soutěže. A tak jsem si vzal 3 telefony a už od 9 hodin volal...někdy v 11 najednou hrála vítězná písnička a z těch 3 telefonů zvonil jeden (ostatní - obsazeno) ...a tak napjatě čekám a najednou se to spojí a ze sluchátka se ozve:

"Ahoj, Evropa2"
Tak říkám "Čau, tady Marek..."
"Seš druhej, já čekám na třetího - vytáčej dál..."

...to snad ne...zase??! To snad není pravda...to se prostě MUSÍ povést...už kvůli tomu našemu rozhoboru s bráchou přes icq:

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:28):

zdar dave - jsi tu?

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:30):

??

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:37):

toz ale

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:41):

jo

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:41):

hrube....normalne - rikal jsem ti jaxem se tam vcera dovolal jako 1. nebo 2.??

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:42):

j

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:42):

tak dneska - dovolam se tam a zase - "tady evropa2 - jsi druhy, ja cekam na tretiho - tak rychle volej dal...zatim..."

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:42):

omfg

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:43):

ty voe to je k nasrani...takovy mega problem se tam dovolat ty voe a pak takhle tesne...

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:43):

curaci

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:43):

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:43):

tak jestli ted mozes tak to poslouchej, mozna bude stacit kdyz budes volat i az po tom co to uslysis - tak do pul hodky to podle me budou hrat....naposledy to bylo v 10:45

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:44):

kua ja ted budu odjizdet na park (skatepark)

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:44):

aha....tak na to pec - ja tu mam 3 mobily tak to snad vyjde...

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:44):

ja su mega cheater

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:45):

i kdyz ono to vlastne nikde neni zakazane..

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:45):

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:52):

a kde jdes dneska? normalne na park? a na zelene (koupaliste) uz chodite?

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:52):

jo tos zelene je hrozne drahe- 70kc

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:53):

jinak na park idu

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:53):

no toz to prelezte ne?

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:58):

hej jako ty kdyz volas tak volas trema soucasne?

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:59):

jj

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 12:59):

a uz se mi nekolikrat povedlo ze zvonily vsecky tri - ale prave to nebyla ta pisnicka...podle me tam maji 3 telefony...

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 12:59):

a poslouchals aj v tech ostatnich jak ses dovolal druhy?

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 13:00):

takze kdyz treba zavolam v pulce predchozi pisnicky a budou zvonit vsecky tri tak bych to mel mit jiste....ne, v tu chvili se ty ostatni dva nedovolaly

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 13:01):

aha

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 13:02):

du na bus chus

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 13:02):

no mozu to zkusit ale podle me v tom bude nejaky hacek...ale bylo by to hrube - proste to nechat zvonit pul hodiny vsecky tri...

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 13:02):

oka zdarec!

Brunox13 ‎(22.6.2008 20:40):

zdaaar

DaveFreedom ‎(22.6.2008 20:40):

cus cus

...Nakonec jsem si vzal k ruce 4 telefony a čekal...bylo 15:30, takže do konce souteže zbývala poslední půlhodinka a v pomyslném autobuse do Berlína poslední sedadlo - a asi 8 možností, ze kterých se mohlo hádat...tak jsem vytáčel a vytáčel...
Proběhlo asi 5 písniček a pořád nic...a najednou slyším ten Numb-Encore s českým textem - naštěstí jsem nezapomněl vytáčet a tak koukám - 3 z těch mých 4 telefonů zvoní, obsazovací toń je jen na jednom!
Netrpělivě čekám a najednou - jeden z nich se spojil...vzal jsem ho k uchu a tam:

"Ahoj, tady Evropa2..."
"Jo..."
"Seš první, volej dál..."

Tak jsem to položil...ale ostatní 2 pořád ještě zvoní - a najednou: další z nich se spojil!

"Čau tady Evropa2..."
"...ano?"
"Cože...no seš druhej - toč to dál..."

...to snad není možné...ale co to - do hovoru se spojil i ten třetí!!!

"Nazdar, tady Evropa2..."
"Prosím..."
"Cože?! Jak to děláš??? To seš zase ty??"
"No jasně - já na to čekám už od pondělí, mám tady 4 telefony...!"
"Tak jo no...jaký číslo sis vybral?"
"13...nebo už to bylo?"
"13 už bylo..."
"Tak 21??"
"21 už taky bylo - zkus dál..."
"Tak 22??"
"Taky ne...ještě dál..."
"Tak teda 23...23, jo?"
"No, uvidíme - zatím počkej..."

...a tak jsem celý napjatý čekal na telefonu než dohraje Nambr van hátkór, abych se dostal do "éteru"...

"...a jedním z těch šťastlivců může být i další volající...kdopak se dovolal?"
"Čau, tady ... (Brunox13)"
"Ahoj, zdravím tě - tak jaký číslo sis vybral?"
"No...23..."
"Tak řeknu ti to takhle - a to ti můžu říct rovnou...23 to není..."
(a zazněl ten zvuk odjíždějícího autobusu jakože jsem další, co nevyhrál...)
"Ale protože tohle číslo už někdo zkoušel, dám ti ještě jednu možnost...a tochu ti napovím - kdybys byl holka, tak ti to ani neřeknu, ale - MÁŠ TO TESNÝ..."
"Tak teda...24???"
(chvíle napětí)
"Jo, je to tam, jedeš na Linkin Park do Berlína a CDčko Minutes to Midnight ti balím k tomu!!!"
(apaus, gratulace, děkovačka...)

...takže já se tam nakonec vážně dostanu!!! Nechal si moje číslo, na které mi po dvou dnech zavolala asistentka z Evropy2 všechny podrobnosti ohledně koncertu...

No to je sen...JÁ - POJEDU - NA - LINKINY!!!
...neuveřitelné...

PS: A jak bylo v Berlíně na koncertě??? (viz následující článek)

Když chci na koncert, ...

2008-06-23T15:04:00.010-04:00

2. dubna bylo na oficiálních stránkách Linkin Park oznámeno datum dalšího koncertu v České republice. "Linkin Park vystoupí na Brněnském Velodromu 17. června 2008 v 19:00..." - což bylo úžasné...představa, že zase půjdu na koncert mojí nejoblíbenější skupiny, tentokrát pod širým nebem...prostě super...
(poprvé jsem na nich byl skoro přesně rok předtím - viz článek: Linkin Park v Praze)

Jenže po pár dnech jsem si uvědomil: "sakra - vždyť my máme někdy tou dobou jet se třídou na výlet, doufám, že se to nepřekrývá..." Když jsem zašel za učitelkou, moje obavy se potvrdily: 16.-20. června jedeme na vodu do jižních Čech.
Sakra.
Tak jsem začal vymýšlet, jak se to dá skombinovat - jak v úterý odjet vlakem na koncert a někdy v noci se vrátit...cesta do Brna nebyl problém, ale co zpátky? Nic nejelo a nebyl nikdo kdo by mě odvezl...a ještě k tomu se učitelka moc netvářila na to, že by mě vůbec chtěla pustit...
Tak jsem se musel rozhodnout - buď výlet se třídou, nebo koncert Linkin Park. To bylo opravdové dilema.
Když jsem nakonec zvážil, že se jedná o poslední výlet s mojí třídou, že hodně lidí ze třídy odchází a tak je to jedna z posledních příležitostí spolu strávit nějaký čas mimo areál školy...taky že Linkin Park jsem viděl před rokem a za rok snad přijedou zase, protože oznámili plánované vydání dalšího alba...když jsem si uvědomil, že je to přece jen zážitek z celého týdne proti zážitku z jednoho večera (i když jednoho z nejlepších) a když jsem se dozvěděl, že by na ten koncert se mnou nemohl jít můj brácha, se kterým jsme oba velcí fandové, tak jsem usoudil, že nakonec pojedu se svými spolužáky na tu vodu...ale i tak mě to mrzelo - i když nakonec spíše naopak...

Výlet na vodě byl super - vůbec poprvé jsem sjížděl nějakou řeku, a tak jsem si to parádně užil...taky bych chtěl poděkovat všem, kteří tam nakonec jeli (včetně pedagogického doprovodu;) ), protože to stálo za to. Prostě týdenní pařba na vodě i na suchu...

PS: Pokračování v následujícím článku...

Těsně před půlnocí

2008-05-09T17:38:00.011-04:00

Tak mě teď napadá, že už vím, podle čeho Linkin Park pojmenovali svoje poslední album. Sedím v našem obýváku a po celém dni flákání se jsem se až teď rozhodl udělat něco, co jsem měl udělat už dávno... Just few MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.

Dneska nechci psát nic o hokeji. Stalo se toho zase strašně moc od poslední chvíle, co jsem sem psal, ale do tohohle už bych moc neryl. Mohl bych sem třeba napsat, že jsem s trénováním svého klubu úplně skončil, a co víc, že jsem začal hrát (ano, aktivně) úplně jiný sport - florbal (a hned se se svým týmem probojoval do semifinále) - a mnoho dalších, ať už více či méně trefných metafor, ale jak říkám - nechám to teď být...zaprvé proto, že to nikoho už dávno nebere, zadruhé proto, že se mi nechce, a zatřetí proto, že jsem se už mnohokrát od různých lidí dozvěděl, co všechno je tady vlastně v mých metaforách skryto, a přitom jsem to tak vůbec nemyslel...a co hůř - že to byla většinou pravda...

Nebudu psát ani žádná srdceryvná zamyšlení, ba ani historky z natáčení - to zas někdy příště... Dneska píšu, protože se mi chce. A víte co? Až mě zase něco někdy napadne, tak to sem dopíšu, do tohole interaktivního článku. Ptejte se, budu odpovídat. Čtěte, bud psát dál.
Act - react.
Write - read.
Zapněte si zvuk - přeji příjemný poslech...

Volné asociace. Říkám si, co budu vlastně psát. Je toho tolik, co sem chci napsat, jenže skoro nic z toho není něco, co by měl vědět kdokoli, kdo se sem podívá. A většinu z toho bych nechtěl vědět ani já sám. To zní docela divně, co? Tak si to klidně přečtěte ještě jednou ať vám dojde co tím chci říct, já počkám...
Kdosi mi kdysi - vlastně docela nedávno - říkal, že informace jsou to nejdůležitější, co člověk má (vzpomínky nebo informace - prašť jak uhoď). Že informace jsou dnes cennější než peníze. Že data vládnou světu - v tom našem informačním světě.
Dívali jste se někdy někomu do hlavy? Obrazně myšleno samozřejmě... Je to docela sranda, vědět co se komu honí hlavou...dá se to nejlíp vyčíst z toho, jak ten člověk mluví když se nekontroluje. Když mluví ve volných asociacích, spontánně - třeba při náhlém vzrušení, při hádce, při opilosti. Když ho znáte dost dobře, můžete pak předvídat co udělá, jak se zachová, jaký je, a možná pak i to nejdůležitější - proč takový je. Co tomu předcházelo a co bude následovat.

Proč je nejdůležitejší přijít na to proč? Abychom se už nemuseli ptát.

PS: Post Scriptum

11/11/09 - Nevyřčené
Jak jsem slíbil, tenhle post neskončí jen tak... A vlastně potom, co jsem se rozhodnul ve svém blogování pokračovat už jen anglicky, je tenhle post taky posledním místem, kde můžu psát "legálně" česky... Blog v blogu. --- To by k dnešnímu úvodu stačilo.

Z mnoha blogů - ne, z většiny blogů - se dozvídáte, jaký člověk je. Píše, nepřemýšlí, pak jen zkracuje. Já píšu jinak. Píšu pro pointu, pro nějaký nápad, pro celkovou strukturu. Se sebekontrolou. Už se nedivím, že dosud jediný způsob, jak ze sebe něco opravdu dostat, pro mě bylo mluvení - neuměl jsem to napsat dost čistě. Vždycky jsem to promýšlel. Psycholog. Hrošokožec. Příznačné... Už nechci psát o tom, jak píšu.

Ano, i já bývám zmatený. Dneska je den, kdy chci napsat něco, co si asi už stejně nikdo nepřečte - v tomhle zaházeném, zapadnutém článku, který bude vždycky končit tím stejným věnováním...

Jak se to stalo, že jsem se sem dostal? Najednou vidím věci, které jsem kdysi buďto neviděl, nebo vidět nechtěl. Ne - bál jsem se. Teď už bych to zvládnul - ano, slibuju, zvládnul!
Jenže svoji druhou šanci nedostanu, nemůžu. Nesmím.
Spíš tím, že jsem se sem dostal, jsem to zase znova pokazil. Sakra. Nechtěl jsem...aby to mělo takový konec.

--- Ano, byl jsem schopný předvídat; od jistého bodu bylo jasné, kam to spěje. A tehdy ještě nebylo pozdě. Teď už je. A stane se znova to samé, co se stalo před jen o trochu více než třemi lety. Sakra. Kdybych nemusel, kdybych se mohl rozdvojit, kdybych uměl dost dobře lhát, kdybych mohl na chvíli přepnout na "paralelní". Nebo aspoň "přetočit"... I když... Možná bych to pak vrátil o ty tři roky a tři měsíce zpátky... Bylo by to správně...???
Myslím, že by mi to přinejmenším ušetřilo hodně bolesti. Nám oběma.

Vím, jak se cítíte, když ty věci říkáte. Přestože to tak nevypadá. Jenže já dokážu hodně svých citů ovlivnit, sám sobě zakázat. A v nejhorším aspoň zastřít, zahodit, udupat. Vetšinou.

Nevím, asi neumím psát tak nějak vytříbeně a přesto zajímavě. Ty jo. Jsem jak nějaká blbá patnáctka, co neví, co se sebou... Asi na to stejně budu za pár let vzpomínat jak na vojnu a říkat si, jaký jsem byl pošetilý... Ale i pak budu mít podobné problémy. Kruh? Ne, tak fatalistické to nebude.

Do háje, to je docela nanic, mít debilní náladu (jo, fakt - strašně debilní!) a nemoct to s někým probrat, přes někoho to profiltrovat. A když už se někdo takový najde, nemůže to zajít příliš daleko, protože pak by to ...bylo ještě víc debilní. Asi se znova budu muset naučit stát se tím Hrošokožcem. Protože tehdy mi to šlo dobře. A dalo se to. Pak se ten koncept nějak rozpadnul a --- a teď to takhle dál nejde, jestli chci dodržet to, co jsem (si) slíbil. Jestli nechci pokazit to nejvyšší, co znám. Asi to udělám. Umím to.

A pořád věřím, že to za to stojí.

PS: Díky za korekci. I matematik se přepočítá...

Pátek 13.

"Vždyť jsi nám sám vdycky říkal, že to není správné... Mám z toho prostě špatný pocit."

Dnes jen krátká poznámka. Ještě snad zaházenější než cokoli ostatní na tomhle blogu. Dneska jsem si zase uvědomil, že jsou i opradu špatné problémy. Takové, které nejsou s úsměvem "debilní". Myslím tím takové, které jsou "f a k t š p a t n é". Mrzí mě, jak brzo si uvědomuji, jak pošetilé jsou řádky jen o pár centimetrů výše. Takhle lidi dospívají.
Kdybych měl najít nějakou nestinnou stránku, tak snad jen to, že je to hodně motivující. Když kolem sebe vidíte smutek a bezmoc. "Desperate" mě vždycky napadne jako první. Ale teď je to horší: "zoufalý". Až jednou budu psychologem, budu si s tím vědět rady. Teď umím být jen silný. Respektive - umím to předstírat a dodávat lidem sílu. Sám se za chvíli někde sesypu na hromádku. Ale teď se vzpřímím, zhluboka nadechnu, nasadím úsměv a budu tím, koho potřebují.
Sakra, kdyby jen někoho napadlo, že je to pro mě docela těžké. Znám jediné východisko, a to pracovat tak tvrdě, abych tak nemusel sám dopadnout. Snad to tady do té doby vydrží. A pak jim pomůžu. To je můj sen, to je moje motivace.

8/2/2012 - Po dlouhé době

No ne, že by tahle stránka nebyla z nejosobnějších, to zas ne... Slouží mi jako deníček a slouží asi i ostatním jako cesta do mojí hlavy, jak to tak vidím, takže mám asi nějakou touhu, aby se o mě někdo zajímal a měl možnost i na něco nakonec přijít. Zastírat to asi nemá cenu. Pro mě je každopádně hodně důležité občas se podívat, jakým jsem byl a jak se to promítá (filtruje) do současnosti. Že některé problémy se nemění a některé jsou pořád aktuální. Například ochrana před vlastními emocemi/pohnutkami je pořád aktuální. Racionalita občas bolí, ale kategorický (morální) imperativ je zatím pořád silnější, stejně jako u mě, myslím si, vždycky byl. (Ano, právě jsem dočetl Kanta, takže se s tím budu ještě nějakou dobu sám před sebou - a před kýmkoli, kdo bude natolik vytrvalý, aby došel až sem - takhle vytahovat.)
To je to, kým jsem. To mi dovoluje si sebe vážit. (Tohle si sem píšu pro pozdější referenci, kdyžtak.)

"Je vám něco v tomhle článku vlastní? Tenhle článek je už předem (celý) věnovaný, takže jste se spletli - není...

Dobrou noc, Dave."

Hodnotím a přehodnocuju...

2008-02-09T13:24:00.002-05:00

"Andy, prosím tě - počkej..." dohnal jsem ho na chodníku mezi školou a kolejí...šel samozřejmě v doprovodu svojí holky, ale přesto trošku zpomalili...
"Andy...mám otázku - nestává se ti někdy, že měníš svoje hodnoty, to co tě vlastně utváří a to, co rozhoduje o tom, jak žiješ???"
Zamyslel se, a pak odpověděl: "No, myslím že občas i jo..." ale asi ještě pořád nevěděl, kam mířím...
"No, to ale asi jenom kvůli tomu, že tě třeba někdo donutí, ne?" a letmo jsem se podíval na dívku po jeho boku...
Okamžitě pochopil a hned říká: "No jo, to máš pravdu...a víš, že poslední dobou i docela často?" lehce se usmál...a zadíval se na mě, zatímco jsme oba cítili nechápavý, ale čím dál podrážděnější pohled jeho děvčete...
"No ale - Andy, tím přece postupně ztrácíš sama sebe...!"
"Jo, jenže když ti, kteří mě nutí, mívají občas dost podlé metody..."
"Takže to za to stojí...???"
"Jinak bych to nedělal..."
Ještě jednou jsem se na něj otočil, oba jsme se na sebe usmáli a v tu chvíli začal být bombardovaný různýma výčitkama, lehtáním a plácáním z míst, kudy ještě před chvílí kráčela klidná osoba...

Snad to za to opravdu stojí.

Jenže jak co a jak komu. Když změníš či porušíš svoje zasady - nebo hodnoty, chceš-li - pak se s tím mění i kousek tebe. Je to takový precedenc, který tu už bude napořád a nezmizí. Proto by měl člověk nad tím, co je pro něj důležité, přemýšlet - ať už tento svůj žebříček hodnot utváří, nebo porušuje...

Je to zvláštní - představ si třeba, že jednu z těch mezí překračuješ kvůli tomu, aby ses s někým sblížil, nebo se někomu zalíbil. Na první pohled se může zdát, že je to jednoduché a nic tím nemůžeš ztratit. Jenže co když tě třeba ten člověk má rád právě takového, jaký jsi a to, že tohle porušíš, ač kvůli němu, pak má za následek to, že on tě naopak přestane mít tolik rád, že v jeho očích prostě a jednoduše klesneš? Má to pak vůbec cenu? Je vůbec správně měnit sebe kvůli druhým?

Nevím, to každému ukáže čas...
(Nechtěl jsem psát "To ukáže čas každému z nás", protože to zní divně a ještě k tomu se to rýmuje;) )

S tímhle vším souvisí i spolehlivost. Když je někdo zásadový a své zásady nemění, pak každý ví, že tenhle člověk jej nezklame. Poslední dobou, bohužel, čím dál víc musím přemýšlet nad tím, jestli někdo takový vůbec existuje. Není to vůbec příjemné - zmýlit se v někom, komu věříš, být zklamán někým, od koho bys to nečekal. Každý z nás má totiž někoho takového, dokonce i já;).

Takový člověk, v kterého vkládáš veškeré své naděje, aby ses na něj pak mohl obrátit když je ti nejhůř, je v tvých očích skoro až dokonalý, nečekáš žádný podraz. Je na něm pak ale strašná tíha a zodpovědnost. Jenže ať je jakkoli obrovská, ten člověk by si ji měl uvědomovat a opravdu nezklamat.

Když se to totiž stane a i ten poslední, komu jsi veřil, přestane být tím pevným opěrným bodem, pak se už hodně těžko sbírá ze země. A dokonce to sráží ještě hlouběji do kolen.

Jestli se tedy na někoho spoléháš, pak mu to dej radši dostatečně najevo ať tě opravdu nezklame a třeba ještě přehodnoť, jestli opravdu víš komu věřit. A jestli víš o někom, kdo ti věří, pak ho nezklam.

Je totiž jenom jedna věc ještě horší, než být zklamaný...Zklamat.

NUM13 by Brunox13

2007-10-27T06:17:00.002-04:00

Na konci minulého školního roku jsem se asi strašně nudil...nebo spíš - dostal jsem chuť něco udělat. Něco velkého - většího než jen tak nějaký školní projekt, ale bez toho, aby mě do toho někdo nutil. A tak jsem to udělal. Natočil jsem hudební klip na moji nejoblíbenější písničku - Numb - od mojí nejoblíbenější hudební skupiny - Linkin Park.... Nejdřív jsem přemýšlel jak to udělat...a pak mě napadlo, že se i originální klip k Numbu točil v Praze (koukněte se na originální klip) - takže bych mohl aspoň něco natočit na stejných místech jako je to v originálním klipu. Kostel jsem ovšem bohužel neměl, jen školní divadlo, které ale víc než stačilo. I ostatní prostory jsem nějak dokázal nahradit - teď už šlo jen o tu samotnou realizaci. Chtěl jsem natočit klip Numb záběr od záběru stejně jako v originále, ovšem podle sebe - ve vlastním prostředí, s vlastními herci. A tak jsem se do toho dal...

Zůstával jsem na víkend ve škole na koleji, takže jsem si musel vystačit se vším, co bylo po ruce. Školní divadlo, hudební nástroje v hudebně, herci - tedy spolužáci, kteří na koleji zůstali také. Předem jsem měl připravenou jen tátovu kameru se širokoúhlým objektivem a stativ.
První, co jsem potřeboval, bylo udělat si plán toho, co všecko je potřeba natočit...prostě scénář. Tak jsem si stáhnul klip Numb a záběr po záběru jej přepsal do scénáře(až ho najdu, hodím ho sem)...trvalo to čistého času asi tak 10 hodin, strávil jsem na tom páteční odpoledne až do pozdní noci a polovinu soboty.
No a pak přišla příprava na natáčení. V sobotu večer mi kámoš (Smajlix) pomohl nanosit nástroje do školního divadla a samotné divadlo upravit tak, aby bylo všechno připraveno na další, natáčecí den...uklidili jsme pódium, rozestavili nástroje i repro bedny, nastavili osvětlení.

V něděli se šlo 'na plac' - já, dalších pět kluků a tři holky jsme se dopoledne odebrali do divadla, abychom tam strávili následujících 10 hodin (s jednou, třičtvrtěhodinovou přestávkou) natočením asi 90 záběrů, z nichž ani jeden nebyl delší než 2 vteřiny. Natáčeli jsme je popořadě, tak jak jdou za sebou, aby v tom nebyl nepořádek.
Nás šest kluků jsme v tom klipu všichni hráli, takže naše přítomnost byla nezbytná, ale z těch holek v tom klipu hrála jen jedna a to až na úplném konci, takže tam vlastně být nemusely. Jenže tam byly a strašně moc mi pomohly, nevím, jestli bych to bez nich všechno stihl. Jedna dělala klapku, druhá pomocnou kameramanku a třetí kontrolovala dodržování scénáře - a to bez toho abych jim cokoli řekl...neprosil jsem je, ale jsem jim neskutečně vděčný. Díky.
Další záběry byly ty, které měly být natáčeny na stejných místech jako v originále - to znamená na Karlově mostě. Do Prahy jsme jeli jen dva - já a naše 'herečka';). Sice jsme neměli tu možnost natáčet na mostě bez lidí, ale i tak jsme to nějak zvládli - nejlepší byli Japonci, kteří se nervózně zastavovali a čekali až donatáčím, i když už byli stejně dávno v záběru.=)
Tady taky vznikl podle mě jeden z nejlepších záběrů, a myslím, že je lepší než v originále - je to ten podhled na jednu ze soch na Karlově mostě, kdě nad ní v originále rychle přecházejí mraky. Já jsem neměl dost času na to, abych čekal na přecházející mraky a kromě toho jsem s sebou netáhl stativ, takže natočit to by bylo asi ostatně dost těžké. Proto jsem ji chtěl prostě natočit 'jen tak', jenže jak jsem tak natáčel, tak na té soše seděl holub. Křičeli jsme na něj, protože žádný holub nebyl v plánu - a tak odetěl. V tu chvíli jsem si ale uvědomil, že jsem ten jeho odlet celý natočil - a byl to krásný záběr...Myslím, že odlétající holubice je pro tento klip mnohem lepší, než plynoucí mraky...

Asi herecky nejsložitější byly záběry, kdy dívka v klipu 'maluje' na plátno. Tyto záběry jsme natáčeli asi na nejvíce pokusů, protože získat aspoň trochu důvěryhodný výraz je v tomto případě dost těžké. To bylo další odpoledne strávené natáčením, tentokrát v učebně výtvarné výchovy. Pak přišlo ještě jedno odpoledne natáčení na školním hřišti a v interiéru na kolejích (kuchyně a obývák) a jedna vyučovací hodina s kamerou ve škole. Tímto však moje práce neskončila.

Čekalo mě totiž ještě sestříhání celého klipu, načasování a synchronizace s hudbou - na tom jsem pak strávil další jeden celý víkend ústavné práce. Celou dobu jsem jen trnul, abych měl všechny potřebné záběry a aby na žádném nebyly nějaké chyby. Bohužel samozřejmě byly, ale na první shlédnutí klipu si jich všimne málokdo. Nic nemůže být dokonalé...
It doesn't even matter how hard you try, keep that in mind...(Linkin Park-In the End);)
Název jsem už jen odvodil 1.) od svého nicku (Brunox13, přičemž se podepisuju 13runox), 2.) samozřejmě od původního názvu Numb a 3.) celkově NUM13, protože Numb je na albu Meteora 13. a zároveň poslední písničkou v pořadí, je to docela symbolické...

Jak vidíte, stálo mě to hodně času - a to všechno jen kvůli 185 vteřinám klipu. Do jaké míry se to vyplatilo, nechť hodnotí jiní...(podívejte se jak to dopadlo: NUM13 by Brunox13 - doporučuju si nejdřív pustit originál - odkaz viz výše - a až potom můj klip)

NUM13 na Óčku!

Půl roku po natočení tohoto klipu jsem se dozvěděl o soutěži 'Natoč si svůj klip' na hudební televizní stanici Óčko...nakonec se mi podařilo jej tam dostat a klip byl odvysílán v premiéře 10.10. a poté v reprízách 11.10. a 14.10...v současné době až do 2.11. probíhá na stránce http://www.natocsiklip.cz/ hlasování, které rozhodne o tom, jestli můj klip postoupí do dapšího kola...
Ze začátku to vypadalo slibně (bezmála 90% hlasů na mojí straně mělo být zárukou vítězství), ovšem od té doby uplynulo hodně vody a mnoho smsek bylo odesláno, a tak to teď vypadá na druhé, nepostupové místo...hlasovací sms bohužel stojí 30,-Kč, ale přece jenom - pokud se někomu z Vás můj klip líbí (aspoň víc než ty ostatní, které soutěží - omg), a máte aspoň trochu kreditu navíc, tarif napsaný na nějakého jiného člena rodiny, popřípadě po ruce cizí telefon, tak Vám budu neskutečně vděčný, když mě podpoříte posláním smsky ve tvaru "KLIP(mezera)H(mezera)2" na číslo 900 11 30.
Děkuju Vám moc...a strašně moc děkuju taky všem, kteří už hlas(y) poslali!!!

Face to face

Ještě jednou dík,
Brunox13

Nic než tenis

2007-09-29T07:52:00.001-04:00

O víkendu 21.-23.9. jsem byl přímým svědkem něčeho, na co v životě nezapomenu - myslím, že to nejlépe popisuje následující článek, který jsem napsal pro studentský časopis na naší skole...to všechno, co je tam zmíněno, jsem prožíval společně s těmi všemi emocemi v bezprostřední přítomnosti a blízkosti, intenzivně a zaníceně...tohle je ten článek:

Český tenis opět mezi nejlepšími:

ČESKO – ŠVÝCARSKO, 3:2

Minulý rok byl hned v prvním kole Světové skupiny Davis Cupu český tenisový reprezentační tým poražen, a tak jej čekal barážový zápas o udržení se v této nejlepší šestnáctce. Tento duel se uskutečnil 21.-23. září v pražské Sazka areně, a to proti reprezentaci Švýcarska. Český tým nakonec uspěl, a tak se v příští sezoně můžeme těšit na boj o nejcennější trofej na poli reprezentačního tenisu – Davisův pohár.

Pátek, 21.9.

Ve čtvrtek 20.9. los na pražské Staroměstské radnici určil, že v prvním z pěti utkání měli proti sobě nastoupit druhý nasazený český hráč Radek Štěpánek proti Švýcarské a zároveň současné světové jedničce Rogeru Federovi. Tento zápas byl uveden slavnostním zahájením duelu České Republiky proti Švýcarsku, a okolo půl třetí odpoledne se hráči již rozehrávali k vlastnímu zápasu.

Bleskový první game odehraný za jednu minutu začal dlouhý, téměř tři hodiny trvající zápas, během něhož nedošlo k ničemu tak neočekávanému – švýcarský reprezentant ztratil jen jediný set, a to i přesto, že to na konci čtvrté sady vypadalo na pětisetové drama. Konečný výsledek prvního utkání byl tedy 6:3, 6:2, 6:7(4:7) a 7:6(7:5).

Ani další zápas nepřinesl překvapení – více méně vyrovnaný souboj české jedničky, Tomáše Berdycha se švýcarskou dvojkou Stanislasem Wawrinkou dopadl po více než dvou a půl hodinách hry jednoznačně 7:6(7:2), 6:4 a 7:5.

Po prvním hracím dni byl před čtyřhrou stav 1:1 na zápasy.

Sobota, 22.9.

Druhý hrací den, jak už je v Davis Cupu zvykem, byla na programu čtyřhra. V té na Švýcarské straně nastoupili Roger Federer s Yvesem Allegrem proti neočekávanému českému nasazení obou singlových jedniček Radka Štěpánka a Tomáše Berdycha, zatímco podle nominace na místě druhého jmenovaného měl nastoupit deblový specialista Martin Damm. Nakonec však tento překvapivý krok českému nehrajícímu kapitánovi, Jaroslavu Navrátilovi, vyšel.

Byl to nejnapínavější zápas česko-švýcarského duelu – i po úvodních dvou prohraných setech a odvráceném švýcarském mečbolu česká dvojice dokázala odolat náporu, zvednout se a nepříznivý stav zápasu senzačně otočit ve svůj prospěch. Na obou stranách stáli tenisté z první světové desítky podpoření dalšími, jen o několik příček níže umístěnými hráči. Tato atraktivní, tří a čtvrt hodinová bitva v pravém slova smyslu nakonec skončila po pěti setech 3:6, 5:7, 7:6(9:7), 6:4 a 6:4.

Po odehrání klíčové čtyřhry byl stav 2:1 pro reprezentaci České Republiky.

Neděle, 23.9.

Poslední hrací den přinesl rozuzlení celého klání mezi Českou a Švýcarskou reprezentací. V prvním, nejatraktivnějším zápase duelu, se střetly obě nasazené jedničky – Tomáš Berdych proti Rogeru Federerovi.

I když hned druhé Švýcarovo podání Český reprezentant prorazil, nakonec si ani on svůj servis neudržel a set ztratil i přes urputný boj ve zkrácené hře. Stejně tak druhý set prohrál v dlouhém tie-breaku a do konce zápasu se Berdychovi získat set již nepodařilo. Výsledek byl tedy nakonec stanoven na 7:6(7:5), 7:6(12:10) a 6:3 v prospěch Rogera Federera.

O konečné vítězství v Davis Cupovém utkání Česka se Švýcarskem se tedy v pátém rozhodujícím zápase utkali paradoxně druzí nasazení hráči obou týmů – 35. hráč světa Radek Štěpánek proti o deset příček horšímu Stanislasu Wawrinkovi. Ve vyrovnané hře si český reprezentant vedl lépe než jeho protějšek, a tak po dvou vyhraných setech to ve třetí sadě vypadalo na podobný průběh až do konce zápasu. Ovšem za stavu 4:3, 40:30 přišel šok pro všechny, kteří tento zápas doposud sledovali. Radek Štěpánek si totiž při podání natrhl kolenní úpon, což si okamžitě vyžádalo ošetření. I když skrečování zápasu viselo ve vzduchu, Štěpánek nakonec za bouřlivého potlesku nastoupil zpět do zápasu, který v zápětí v tie-breaku vyhrál.

Po dramatickém závěru nakonec Česká Republika porazila Švýcarsko 3:2 na zápasy a bude bojovat ve světové skupině o Davisův pohár. Švýcarsko zůstává v Euro-Africké zóně Davis Cupu.

Marek Svoboda

Fotky jsou samozřejmě moje;)

Tenis je ale opravdu krásný sport...!!!

Májový Svět

2007-08-19T13:53:00.003-04:00

Tenhle příspěvek bych chtěl věnovat Máje (a čtenářům jejího krásného blogu) - taky proto, abych jí dokázal, že existují i hezké majáky...a jeden podobný jsem jí už nakreslil, tak aby věděla, že si nevymýšlím;)...

Tyhle prázdniny jsou pro mě dost zajímavé. Ale nevím, jestli je to dobře - to, co teď prožívám, začalo už před začátkem těchto prázdnin...

...jak jste možná z příspěvků patřících pod téma "Mám v životě trochu HOKEJ" pochopili, rozešel jsem se se svojí holkou, a nebylo to úplně tak jednoduché. Ale ještě před prázdninama jsme se zase spolu začali bavit, vypadalo to, že jsme se udobřili a dokonce, že "by tým teoreticky opět mohl nastoupit do další sezony se staronovým brankářem" (viz "Mám v životě trochu HOKEJ")...byli jsme ve stálém kontaktu, a to i na začátku prázdnin...
Avšak při jednom z telefonátů - jak se to tak stává - došlo k tomu, že jsme se pohádali...prostě šlo o to, že jsem nejdřív neřekl celou pravdu (je to takový můj zlozvyk), která pak v průběhu tohoto rozhovoru vyšla najevo, což jsem si samozřejmě neuvědomil, protože mojím záměrem nebylo něco zatajit, nebo lhát - a tak jsem se do toho pak zamotal ve snaze to nějak napravit, protože šlo právě o téma, na které je ona velice háklivá (prostě bezdůvodně žárlí na určitou osobu - což je pro mě opravdu úsměvné) a kvůli tomu "nějak se z toho dostat" bylo prakticky nemožné...prostě pak docela rychle ukončila hovor (ne, nezavěsila hned - ještě se stihla rozloučit).
Nevím, co se vlastně stalo, protože jsem jí nechtěl nijak ublížit, nic překrucovat ani lhát, ale i kdyby to tak bylo (no asi to tak z její strany vypadalo), tak mi to jako nějak příliš velká hádka nepřišlo. I přesto, že jsem jí ještě týž večer napsal 2 omluvné smsky a další dva dny se marně snažil navázat kontakt, tak mi dalších 14 dní nepřišla ani jedna zpráva (teda pokud nepočítám odpověď na přání k svátku "Děkuju mocinky - pa", která je asi tak osobní, jako uvítací dopis do nového školního roku od pana ředitele pro studenty na našem gymnáziu, který jsem dostal minulý týden...)
A i po těch 14 dnech byla naše vzájemná komunikace níž než na bodu mrazu - za vše mluví odpověď na otázku "Jak se máš?", kterou jsem položil poprvé za ty dva týdny s reálnou nadějí na odpověď, které se mi vzápětí dostalo: "Ja ani nevim jak se mam,protoze tuhle otazku nejvic nesnasim! jednou jsem dole a jednou zase nahore!asi jako kazdej..." a nic dalšího tahle smska neobsahovala...přestože i pro mě je otázka "jak se máš?" už spíš otřepanou frází, na niž se po jejím každodenním pokládání opravdu špatně hledá variabilní odpověď, tak mi tahle (vlastně originální) odpověď dala dostatečně najevo, že si už nemáme co říct...a ještě k tomu mi ten den ukradli telefon - prostě nádhera...
Po dalších 14 dnech mi však přišla smska jako z období před tím, než jsme se pohádali - vřelá, otevřená, vstřícná a dokonce se smajlíkem :-* na konci...to jsem dost dobře nechápal, a tak jsem tak nějak neutrálně odpověděl - ani naštvaně, ale ani s tou vstřícností jsem to moc nepřeháněl...a další den přišla další - v úplně stejném stylu, dokonce ani ten smajlík tam nechyběl - a já, ještě víc zmatený, jsem opět odpověděl tím nic neříkajícím způsobem...další den žádná smska nepřišla, naopak já jsem jí napsal o tom, že její počínání dost dobře nechápu - až po měsíci mi zase pořádně napíše, přičemž mezitím to byly jen popuzené, nebo odbývající smsky...že by mi možná mohla pomoct s tím, to pochopit...
...neodepsala. Jsou to už víc než dva týdny.

Jiným, avšak paralelním příběhem, byla oslava konce školního roku - to bych tady asi moc nerozmazával...sice si z ní všechno pamatuju, ale to asi je zároveň ten důvod, proč jsem se musel za své chování ten večer později někomu omluvit...

Krátce potom jsme odjeli na chatu za babinou - bylo tam fajn, a většinu času jsem tam docela tvrdě pracoval - a to jenom proto, aby mi pak ty prachy ukradli na nějakém podělaném koupališti. Do hajzlu.

O pár týdnů později jsem začal chodit na brigádu...první týden nic moc - prostě obvolávání firem, kde pořád opakujete tu samou frázi nabízející "antivirové a zálohovací řešení firmy Symantec, popřípadě od jiných výrobců" a následné zaznamenávání přicházejících odpovědí, mě moc nebere...
Ovšem další týden byl o něčem jiném - přišla nová práce v nové kanceláři, noví spolupracovníci, nové spolupracovnice...do práce se mnou začal chodit i brácha a kromě něho i dcera mojeho šéfa, se kterou se mi zanedlouho podařilo navázat kontakt. Všechny rozhovory s ní, včetně těch za procházky v dešti, při posezení v zaměstnanecké kuchyňce, nebo jenom těch na icq, opravdu stály za to. Měly smysl. Teda až do té doby, než mi řekla, že je zadaná - ne, dělám si samozřejmě srandu - to, že je zadaná, mi řekla už v jedné z prvních vět našich rozhovorů...ale fakt to stálo za to. This Hot Fudge.

Tady je jedna z ukázek našeho rozhovoru na icq:

Ona: tak me napadlo - co je lepsi sex bez lasky nebo penize zadarmo?
Já: kdybych dostal prachy zadarmo, asi bych se divil proc...:-D
Ona: to je ofsem materialisticke a sex bez lasky je zvireci
Já: hmn - ale co z toho je vic materialistike??
Ona: jedno vic nez druhe...ale kdyz dostanes penize zadarmo, tak si za to zadarmo muzes koupit sex bez lasky, takze sou asik fckt lepsi ty penize, pac mas vic casu na rozmyslenou
Já: a kdyz mas sex bez lasky, muzes dostat penize...
Ona: ale zas tam chybi ten cas na rozmyslenou:-D

...tohle, myslím, mluví za vše. A to ještě nevíte jak vypadá. Jo, je krásná. Občas mě až štvalo, když začala mluvit o tom "svojem". Myslím, že dál to asi nebudu komentovat...

O jednom víkendu dělícím tyto pracovní týdny jsem zajel za kámošema do Prahy. Nejdřív jsem šel s jedním kámošem (Darkwarden) na takovou menší party, kde jsem mimochodem potkal i Máju a další účastníky smlouvy s jednou takovou akciovou společností, Mája ale bohužel od smlouvy odstupuje - bude mi chybět...ale zpátky k tomu výletu - pak jsme zajeli k němu domů (vždycky mě pobaví když nás z nějaké podobné akce vyzvedne něčí máti) a tam jsem si dočetl Harryho Pottera 7 (bohužel již odstraněno), kterého jsem z předchozí doby měl rozečteného, a někdy okolo půl čtvrté šel spát...další den jsme na obědě v McDonald's potkali tři Holanďanky, se kterýma jsme si dobře pokecali a zašli na film Next - vážně doporučuju, nejvíc na tom filmu mě dostal ten konec, jestli se to tak dá vůbec nazvat...no a pak jsme zašli k dalšímu kámošovi (iCube), kde jsem jim oběma ještě představil "mojeho kamaráda z Moravy", ale pak už jsme šli do našeho oblíbeného klubu. Ten večer jsem si opravdu užil, Darkwarden mi otevřel oči, dalo by se říci...další večer byla taky sranda, Darkwarden už se sice nezúčastnil, ale zase přišla jedna kámoška (Frog), takže ani pak nuda nebyla...když pak do toho všeho iCube pustil Prodigy a na celou obrazovku vizuální efekty z WindowsMedia Playeru, nemělo to chybu...;)

No a tak teď většinu času sedím na compu, jednou za čas zajdu na koupaliště (se starým telefonem, protože ostatně žádný jiný teď nemám), nebo do kina (s kámoškou (emaus) jsme byli na Simpsonových ve filmu, fakt nářez), někdy s kámošema někam večer zapařit - třeba předevčírem jsme byli v Music lAndu ve Zlíně...bohužel jsem tam nemohl být dost dlouho, ale i tak to byla sranda - seznámil jsem se s novýma lidma, potkal pár známých. Každopádně si myslím, že chlastat za SYASky je zhovadilost;)...ale vyplatí se.

Nedávno jsme byli na koupališti a kámoš (Mak.) mi říká, že prej by se mu taky hodila nějaká brigáda, že by potřeboval prachy - na dárek pro svoji holku a tak...tak jsem se pousmál a říkám si - no jo, to my, nezadaní, takové problémy řešit nemusíme...jenže jsem si pak uvědomil, že mě to dost štve, že pár takových starostí bych unesl. Bych chtěl. Nějak jsem si zvykl a nebaví mě to - být sám. Prostě jak tak chodím po světě, říkám si, že kolem chodí tolik pěkných holek - to snad ani nemůže být možné, že já jsem sám...
Ale asi je.

Tenis je tak krásný sport...

2007-07-23T15:10:00.001-04:00

O víkendu jsem byl s bráchou na tenisovém turnaji...nehrál jsem - jenom jsem ho doprovázel...já jsem s profesionálním tenisem seknul ve chvíli, kdy jsem odešel na intr...
Byla to sranda - tatík mi totiž půjčil svůj foťák, a tak jsem celý den strávil běháním po tenisovém areálů a focením velice akčních momentek - nakonec to bylo skoro tisíc fotek...dopoledne hráli kluci, jenže odpoledne přišly na řadu i holky dorostenky, takže se bylo na co dívat...lidi, ty holky co hrajou tenis jsou fuckt kočky...sice se najdou i výjimky, ale většina tenistek je při hraní tenisu fakt neodolatelná...;)
Samozřejmě bych se s vámi o své zážitky chtěl prostřednictvím těch fotek podělit...a dovolil jsem si vypsat soutěž o nejlepší 'sérii fotek tenistky'...rofl

2

3

4

PS: Pokud by nějaká z těch, které jsou na obrázcích, chtěla vznést stížnost na publikaci těchto fotek, ať mi napíše na mail 'brunox13@seznam.cz' - rád se s ní seznámím a osobně tento problém prodiskutuju...=D

Brunox13. komnata

2007-07-22T11:42:00.002-04:00

Lidi, to snad není pravda...buď mám tak provokativní xicht (no posuďte sami) nebo jsem tak neuvěřitelně naivní...anebo obojí dohromady =( ...nejpíš.

Loni o velkých prázdninách jsme byli se třídou v Anglii, konkrétně v Londýně, na jazykovém kurzu...Studen Agency nás velice rafinovaně nastěhovala na pomezí městských částí Lewisham a Catford, Londýnských čtvrtí, kde více než 90% populace tvoří obyvatelé černé pleti...(samozřejmě nic ve zlém)
V 10 hodin večer jsme měli nařízeno být zpátky u našich hostitelských rodin, takže jsme se s kámošem (má přezdívku Bagír) někdy okolo 9 vydali na malou večerní procházku městem...po nějaké době jsme před sebou uviděli jít ulicí tři bělošky - Bagír do mě drbnul a říká: 'Čoveče, naberem zkušenosti z Anglické konverzace...jdem za nima...' - já jsem jenom rezignovaně odpověděl 'Seš magor...' a šli jsme jejich směrem...
Asi po 5 minutách jejich pronásledování mi to už přišlo docela trapné, tak říkám: 'Ty voe, sme jak dva úchylové, kašli na to...' a on že prý: 'Ale pojď, bude sranda...dívej - už si sedly na lavičku...' A fakt, sedly si na lavičku v malinkém parčíku, který odděloval hlavní silnici od chodníku - tak jsem si řekl, že na tom nemůže být nic nebezpečného...přidal se k nim jenom nějaký malý kluk, kterému mohlo být tak 7 let...
Tak jsme k nim přšli, nějak je oslovili a začali se s něma bavit...teda hlavně já, protože Bagír lehce nestíhal...ten malý kluk byl dost oražený, na to, že jsem byl dvakrát tak starší a skoro i dvakrát větší než on...

Kluk: Have a quid?
Já: What?
Kluk: A quid...o-n-e - p-o-u-n-d
Já: Aha...I see...yes, I have...(vytáhnul jsem peněženku)...why do you want it?
Kluk: To the phone machine...I need to call...
Já: What? Why?...no, I'm not gonna give you that...
Kluk: Why not?
Já: Do you think that I'll give you a quid for no reason?
Kluk: Yes...
Já: What?!? (nechápavě jsem se na něj podíval)

Holka: What's the time?
Já: (Podíval jsem se na mobil) Nine, twenty-two...

Bagír: Hele - ta druhá říkala, že prej tam někam chodí...sednout si do parku nebo co...jdem s něma...
Já: Hej kašli na to...já za nima nelezu...fakt, ser na to...
Bagír: Fajn, já ale jdu...
Já: Si debil, nebudem se rozdělovat...
Bagír: Tak pojď taky...co se může stát - jsou to jenom tři holky...
Já: Jo, a jeden malý hajzlík...
Bagír: No vidíš...jdem...

Já: What do you do...here, during holidays?
Holka: Everything we do during the school year...during the whole year...
Já: You don't go to school...?
Holka: School? Out of fashion...

...tu peněženku jsem asi vytahovat neměl...a ten mobil už vůbec ne...právě v tu chvíli jsme totiž vešli hlouběji do parku, kolem jakéhosi starého kostela okolo nějž byly za plotem rozmístěny náhrobní kameny, někam na rozcestí toho asfaltového chodníčku, kde postávaly nějaké dvě neurčité osoby...
...Ty osoby přestaly být tak neučité už ve chvíli, kdy ke mně obě rychle přistoupily - byli to dva černoši tak o tři roky starší než já (u černochů to nepoznáte), jeden vyšší, ve světlém třičku bez rukávů a holou hlavou na níž se jen odráželo matné světlo lampy, která stála mnohem víc opodál - ten v té tmě stál za tím druhým, který na sobě měl šedou mikinu s kapucí přes hlavu a mě chytl za klopy jeanové bundy, přitiskl mě ke hřbitovní zdi, přiložil mi třesoucí se rukou nůž na krk (který jsem tam samozřejmě ne viděl, ale cítil) a stále zvyšujícím se chraplavým hlasem mi řekl, ať moc neřvu a radši se vůbec nehýbu...ten druhý ho musel docela uklidňovat, protože ten s tím nožem se celý třásl a byl čím dál víc nervózní...

'Hey, stop....don't move...understand? Don't shout......be quiet...and don't move...no moving...okay..?!'
'Calm down...get it an' let 'im go...keep calm, fine?'
'And what about the second one? He just ran away...'

Mezitím, co mě prošacovával, ty holky co jenom stály opodál je upozornily na Bagíra, který zcela nerušeně udělal asi deset kroků a pak, až mu došlo co se děje, docela rychle zdrhnul (což mu nezazlívám, neměl na vybranou, asi by mi neměl šanci pomoct...) - oba dva šli po mně, jeho si snad ani nevšimli, přestože šel hned vedle mně.
...hned jak našel peněženku a mobil, přestal hledat a odstoupil ode mně...docela mě překvapilo, jak jsem byl při smyslech - jak ode mě udělal par kroků a ty moje věci podával tomu druhému, požádal jsem je o své doklady z té peněženky...dali mi je a pak mi řekli ať rychle zdrhám pryč...

'And what about my parpers?'
'What?'
'Can I get my papers...from the wallet?'
'Papers - oh yes, his papers...fine...yes, give him his papers...where is it?'
'Here (ukazal jsem na kapsu v peněžence)...here it is...'
'Okay...now, run away...go!'

Skoro vždycky, když to někomu vykládám, tak se mě s úsměvem zeptá: 'Hm...dobré...a proč sis z toho mobilu nevzal simku...?'
'Protože jsem stejně chtěl nové číslo, ty blbe...'

No o těchto prázdninách jsme si s Makem (viz předchozí příspěvky) zašli na koupaliště ve Zlíně, kde bydlím...bylo to celý den super, každou chvíli jsem si kontroloval věci a nic nechybělo...tak jsme si okolo sedmé řekli, že už bychom mohli jít, tak že zajdem naposled do vody - fakt jsme tam nebyli dlouho (asi tak 5 minut) a když jsme se vrátili, posbírali jsme si věci a šli se převlíct...když jsem si plnil kapsy, tak mě přišlo docela zvláštní, že nemůžu najít telefon (což zas není tak zvláštní - když někdo nemůže najít telefon, přijde mu to prostě divné...) a tak jsem běžel na místo, kde jsme kempili...cestou tam jsem si uvědomil, že týpci co byli vedle nás, se nějak podezřele rychle balili chvíli před naším odchodem, ale to mi bylo už v tu chvíli platné jak mrtvému zimník...samozřejmě jsem nic nenašel a když jsem se podíval do peněženky, kterou jsem měl do té chvíle v kapse, zjistil jsem, že je zip v ní otevřený a chybí 2000,- Kč...chtěl jsem si ještě večer jít koupit tenisky, ale asi ani to mě neomlová, že jsem šel na koupaliště s dvěma litrama...tři kila nechali, asi jakože tuzer či co...

Bože!!! Dva litry a telefon za dalších osm!!! A před rokem to samé!!! Skoro totožný telefon, jenom 'štěstí', že těch prachů bylo tak o půlku míň - asi 'jen' 23 liber...

Po obou těchto případech následovalo 'řádné vyšetřování', které nepřineslo vůbec nic - snad jen v tom prvním případě ještě další problémy v podobě honby za pojistkou, kterou se bohužel pracovníkům již zmíněné agentury nepodařilo zajistit...když jsem se ve škole asi dva roky před tím učil anglicky fráze popisu, nikdy by mě nenapadlo, že je budu tak potřebovat...

'...and the second one was smaller, the same age, and he wore a grey jacket with hood over his head...

Od té doby vím, že se mám pořádně učit angličtinu...a taky co je to 'insurance'...

PS: It's my life...;)

No - a teď zas něco o mně...

2007-06-16T12:01:00.002-04:00

Říkal jsem si, že pokud se mám někomu představit (k čemuž tento blog slouží), tak to bude asi nejlepší tím, že sem napíšu co dělám - podle toho si uděláte nejlepší obrázek jaký člověk je - podle toho jak se chová (nebo jak píše), samozřejmě...jenže já chodím na kolejní školu, takže se naplno můžu projevovat jenom o víkendech, jinak je to pořád takové...omezené...

Skoro každý druhý víkend jezdím domů...a někdy doma dokonce i něco dělám - chodím s kámošema na pařby atd., jinak je to nuda...

Co si tak vzpomínám - jednou mě kámoš (Mak.), se kterým jednou za čas někam chodím zapařit, vytáhl na nějakou dýzu - tam jsme do sebe kopli Heinekena, a pak jsme přešli na Absinth, no a pak jsme si dali Absinth a ještě jendou Absinth, což jsme zakončili Absinthem...prej se to nemá moc míchat, takže jsme to s ničím jiným ani moc nepřeháněli;)...pak mi napsala moje máma, že pro mě přijede (asi o půl druhé v noci) - průser...tak jsem se 'dostavil' na smluvené místo a máti mě vyzvedla...no buď to nepoznala, nebo je tak benevolentní, protože neřekla ani 'ň', jenom mě nabrala, svezla, vyklopila, uložila do postele a ani se na mě ráno křivě nepodívala...tak mě napadá, že mi Mak. ještě pořád dluží rundu...;D

Pak zas jednou Mak. eště s jednou kámoškou přes celé město táhnul v krosně vodní dýmku do čajovny...tam ji stejně nevytáhl, protože se přece nesluší vybalit z krosny jen tak svoji vlastní vodárku, když v čajovně nabízejí místní...;) takže jsme se po chvíli sebrali, koupili si pizzu, vzali si ji do městského parku a tam i vytáhli tu vodárku...tam jsme strávili nějakou dobu, pak se sebrali a zašli do místního klubu (zaplatili vstupné) kde hráli nějací nešťastníci, typoval bych něco jako alternative rock - tam jsme se usadili a dojeli tu vodárku...no a protože z vodárky se člověk bohužel moc nezhulí a chlast tam mladistvým nepodávají (to je snad první klub kde jsem na to narazil), tak jsme se v nějakou rozumnou dobu vzali a odebrali se domů...pohoda, ne?

No asi nejzajímavější pařbu mám za sebou docela nedávno, kdy jsme já s jiným kámošem (iCube) měli za sebou docela nabitý den (viděli jsme třeba i přehlídku spodního prádla) a večer jsme se sešli s dalším kámošem a ještě dvěma kámoškama, my dva si dali jointa a vydali se do jednoho punkového klubu, kde jsme potkali další dvě kámošky...celý večer probíhal docela vpohodě, nikdo nic nehrotil - až do chvíle než jsme zjistili, že ten třetí kámoš to dost přehnal a válí se někde venku před tím klubem na trávě a není schopný ani sám vstát...takže nám nejdřív trvalo strašně dlouho ho přesvědčit, že už nemá moc smysl se tam vracet - což se nám ani po dlouhé době nepovedlo, a tak jsme rezignovali a nechali ho se vrátit zpátky dovnitř (i když samozřejmě cestou několikrát skončil na zemi)...tam jsme mu už žádné pití nepovolili - jediné, co do sebe ještě před odchodem dostal, byly 3dcl Fanty (zavolal si mě k sobě, a říká "hele pocem...pocem hele - tady máš prachy (natáhl jsem ruku) a kup mi...fantu...3 deci (položil mi na dlaň padesátikčku a tu dlaň zavřel jak když vám babička dává kapesné a bojí se, abyste těch pár korun někde neztratili nebo co hůř - třeba neutratili...) a peníze vrátit...!"
No a pak následovala cesta domů - tedy 100 metrů táhnutí kamaráda k zastávce tramvaje, 20 minutové čekání na tramvaj, během něhož se několikrát snažil vyšplhat na značku tamvajové zastávky (bohužel vždy neúspěšně), cesta tramvají a konečná cesta domů dlouhá si 500 metrů zakončená během do schodů v druhém patře...to celé bylo doprovázeno dlouhým vykládáním toho nejtajnějšího co dotyčný věděl a zdravením bez výjímky každého, koho jsme potkali...prostě zajímavý zážitek...
Domů jsme se dostali až někdy o půl čtvrté ráno - kamarád nám dvěma udělal vajíčka na pánvi a zapnul dokument o Ramsesovi, egyptském faraonovi, s vysvětlením že 'to byla první kazeta kterou vzal do ruky'...takže poslední, co si z toho dne pamatuju 'je tedy fakt, že Ramses nemohl zemřít následkem nějakého fyzického útoku a ani jedu v jídle, nýbrž pravděpodobně hadího uštknutí, protože jeho smrt byla dlouhá a bolestná - umíral totiž minimálně dva až dva a půl týdne...'

Pařby, kalby a rauty nejsou naštěstí jedinou náplní mých víkendů - taky třeba rád hraju tenis - kdysi na závodní úrovni, nyní už je to jenom taková lepší rekreace...kromě toho, teď jsem byl třeba o víkendu na soutěži 'Downhill' pořádané ve Zlíně (opět s Makem a dalšíma kámošema) - prostě týpci, co normálně jezdí z prudkých kopců lesem, se teď přesunuli do města, kde byla vybudovaná trať vedoucí po asfaltu, chodníku, dřevěných prknech přes schody do podchodu...prostě atraktiví adrenalinová podívaná včetně několika (atraktivních) bolestných pádů, zatímco se kolem potloukalo hejno víc než atraktivních 'koček', které se dost stroze oděné snažily nachytat co možná nejvíc toho jarního brozu...jo, ten závod - můj bývalý spolužák a kámoš se zúčatnil v kategorii Juniorů a schrábnul 3. místo i s tisícovou prémií...no, a potom se konal i závod skoků na dirtu, ale to už jsem pomalu odcházel...

Tenhle týden vůbec stál za to - v úterý jsem byl na koncertě mojí nejoblíbenější skupiny - Linkin Park (viz yuc-lp - můj další blog). Koncert se konal v Praze v Sazka Areně a byl to vážně nářez...kdo nebyl - neuvěří, nepochopí...jako předskupina byli 30 seconds to Mars, což taky 'docela' ušlo. Měli jsme sice lístek na obyčejné stání, ale chytli jsme perfektní místo nejblíž u pódia jak to pro nás bylo jen možné, takže jsem si to mohl užít opravdu naplno...byl to zážitek, na který nezapomenu...LP 4ever!
Bohužel v průběhu koncertu došlo k prodlevě, kvůli které se koncert protáhl a tak jsme museli odejít 5 minut před koncem - šel jsem bráchu doprovodit na vlak, kterým měl jedinou možnost se dostat domů...a přišel jsem o What I've done - no co už...ale ta bráchova cesta byla prý taky zajímavá - on totiž není zvyklý cestovat vlakem - ten měl zpoždění, takže ve chvíli, kdy už měl zastavovat v Kolíně-hl.n., zastavoval v Kolíně-zastávka, kde brácha taky vystoupil...no a pak si dal přespolní běh o půl jedné v noci napříč Kolínem, aby stihl další spoj...;)

Jo - a taky někdy rád chodím do kina;).

Nevím jaký obrázek si na mě uděláte po tomhle vyprávění, každopádně vězte, že jsem úplně normální týpek, který si snaží užít si života, a to se vším všudy. Ale právě teď bez holky...:(

PS: jo, tohle je život...