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| 1593080697
| 9781593080693
| 1593080697
| 4.04
| 455
| unknown
| Dec 15, 2003
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it was amazing
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The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest writers in history, three of his magnum opera, Anna Karenina https://rea
The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest writers in history, three of his magnum opera, Anna Karenina https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/... War and Peace and The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories are on the list of Greatest books of All Time 10 out of 10 There has been a backlash, what with the war in the Ukraine, the invasion launched by tyrannical Putin (who may be closer to victory now, alas, because of a shortage of conscripts, now Orange Jesus has been elected) readers have taken another look at Leo Tolstoy and other paramount Russians and rejected their work Or else, found passages, aspects that are debatable, or outright jingoistic, which is to be expected frankly, they did not have the same standards, convictions a couple of centuries ago (even one hundred years back) and then in various places, here too, there is revision of the classic history, the triumphal version Indeed, in lands like Hungary, Italy (which has a prime minister from a party that was descended from the fascists, and other extremists in coalition) there is a vision that demands the present to get inspiration, and copy the past, which was absolutely glorious, and they have to keep the hordes of invaders away In my realm, we have had this extraordinary historian, Lucian Boia, who gave us food for thought https://realini.blogspot.com/2012/07/... with his books, which dismantled the idea that ‘we saved Europe, we were the brave, smart, fabulous nation that won against the Turks, stopped them and so on… Vienna, Paris and others have us to thank, but that is just that verité ‘history is always contemporary history’, written by the winners, we project in the past our image, select the wins, discard the losses, or just pass over quickly, we could also see it this way “History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.” Another truth The latter is from the wondrous History Boys https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/... by Alan Bennett, but I need to return to the case in point, eventually, Insha’Allah, albeit there is a new strategy, one that I devised yesterday, thinking I better divide my notes, in…two, short, relevant And the second part, where I could ‘weave’ – that is what the elected leader of the free world, Orange Felon, calls his ramblings – on the blog, and nobody would mind…true, why would they mind the way it is now? Well, it is a different scheme, and if nothing else, maybe it proves that I have an open mind, creative energy, which have been identified by Martin Seligman https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... as two of the character strengths, plus, there is the lasagna effect mentioned in… The most popular lectures at Harvard, where Tal Ben Shahar used to be a teacher – you find his wonderful talks on YouTube, available because they want them to be, free of charge – and he said that his favorite dish is lasagna made by his mother, but he could not eat it all day, every day, hence the Lasagna Effect I have found the – I thought of stopping here, and send the rest of this on the blog, but on the other hand, I have already digressed to the pint where there is no Ivan Ilych, and he is unlikely to show in these lines, so let us get on with it, as it is, or is not – same principle at Stefan Klein, a German expert on positive psychology The only one I know, author of The Science of Happiness – How Our Brains Make Us Happy and What We Can Do To Get Happier https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/... who has some good points there, some of which I remember, one regarding the need for change This does puzzle me at times, because Stefan Klein, Tal Ben Shahar and others insist on this principle, while talking of rituals – just like we need to wash our teeth, a few times every day, the Harvard professor explains we need to have these positive thoughts, rituals, the eight hugs every day and more, the gratitude exercise for instance So, what do we do, change, or do the same ‘we are what we regularly do, excellence is not an act, it is a habit’ and the same Aristotle talked of The Golden Mean, virtue is in the middle, with vice on either side, excesses, so maybe the same applies here, we have to have change, if only on the route to work and back While also thinking of the Talmud ‘be careful with your thoughts, for they become words, mind your words, they become acts, the acts get to be habits, habits form character, and character is You’ so change some things and keep the good habits seems reasonable, now about Ivan Ilych, he finds he will die soon, and his world is turned upside down For some reason, I think of Dostoevsky, who was sentenced to death, had three minutes in front of the firing squad and left one to say good bye to family and friends, another to pass his life in front, and the last to admire a ray of sunshine, he is however pardoned (maybe it was a ruse all along) and he writes in his masterpieces about this, the moments when we face death, memento mori, how we would rather be on a rock, in the middle of the ocean than face extension, so we need to think Carpe Diem, enjoy the moment and read -“The person who doesn’t read lives only one life. The reader lives 5,000. Reading is immortality backwards.” Umberto Eco Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 09, 2024
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Nov 13, 2024
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Nov 13, 2024
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Paperback
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| B09GBS3F5Y
| 5.00
| 2
| unknown
| Sep 14, 2021
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it was amazing
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On The Happy Life, Providence by Seneca – one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and one of the richest men of ancient, and presumably also of all
On The Happy Life, Providence by Seneca – one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and one of the richest men of ancient, and presumably also of all time, one of a dozen notes on Seneca and the stoics is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/... we need stoicism to face the American elections 10 out of 10 It is the proper time to read or take on again Seneca, the Stoics, Michel de Montaigne https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... great luminaries that could help us get over the stress of the coming days, this is the Sunday before November 5 Nevertheless, we could try and be Panglossian https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/... proclaiming that ‘we live in the best of all possible worlds’, regardless of the upcoming Armageddon, what with Orange Jesus favorite (2 in 3 at betting houses) to be the most powerful man on earth So let us listen to Seneca, a real ‘very stable genius’, unlike the self-proclaimed buffoon, who may destroy NATO, bring Russia again in our courtyard, not just the backyard, and try to apply those precepts ‘wish for what you already have’, which is incidentally the secret for Nirvana, the state where there are no more cravings… The fact that an Orange Felon, who uses a lot of make-up, while screaming about ‘you send your child to school, and he comes home with a sex change’, which is preposterous, not just false, but this is the paradigm of the crazy, ‘disgusting’ monster – the highest ranking republican in the Senate called him that, just lie almost all of those who worked for him denounced the danger he presents, ‘fascist, fucking moron, and more such labels…you would not hire someone with such a CV, would you’ – is likely to be president is awful This is why we need Stoicism, before we get Atomised https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/04/... for it ‘is not what happens, but what we make of what happens’, although in this particular r case we need many more words of wisdom –‘the mind is its own place, it can make… Hell out of heaven, and heaven out of hell’, in other words, if the votes go for the absolute lunatic, we need a paradigm change like the one described in Vernon God Little, Booker Prize Winner by DBC Pierre, which is something like this ‘imagine you enter a room and a stranger has his finger up your grannie’s bum, what do you think…I will kill the bastard…but then you find that he is only trying to save her, she is in danger Well then, I say he is my hero, and that is paradigm shift for you https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/... talking about those crazy elections, it is about the same, in my mind, we either have a finger or worse in the ass, or else we are saved Which will not come easy, for the idiot will challenge the results, indeed, he has already done it, he made it clear, either he wins, which means it is all fair and just, or he loses, and that can only happen if the votes are rigged, by the way, he also won the last time around, in his fantasy world and that of his cult members In the psychology classic Influence https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/... by Robert Cialdini we have six principles, and among them there are the Principle of Respect for Authority, Social Conformity, Reciprocity, and those three led to a mass suicide in Guyana, some decades ago I refer to this, because it could happen again, although this time, it could be much worse, for the numbers involved could be catastrophically higher, and besides, those MAGA morons would not just affect themselves, but large parts of the world, if not all of it, what with destruction of NATO, blowing up world trade and worse It does not have to be this way, but as The Economist explains in its lead articles, the risk is too high with Trump, and they endorse Harris, on the economic front, where he was supposed to be ‘better’, he will cut taxes, making the budget deficit astronomically higher, he keeps talking about tariffs with gusto, emphatically In an interview with Bloomberg, he was told about the impact, when you raise tariffs, the cost is passed on to consumers, and then you have inflation, something for which he attacks Kamala Harris and Biden, but he will take to dangerous levels, especially if we will have the 20% on all, and thousands percent on some Chinese goods Then there is the attack on democracy, what he did on January 6, 2021 and looks like preparing again, as I said, I mean as it is explained by so many, he insists he has won in 2020 (one of the tens of thousands of lies) and those hooligans and terrorists that occupied Congress are ‘patriots’, I mean what more do they need You also have his talk about putting Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad (words to that effect) having the army set on ‘enemy within’, he wanted soldiers to shoot protesters in the leg, when he was president, talked about sending missiles into Mexico, love affair with Kim of North Korea, how he likes Putin, Xi… So we need stoicism, Seneca https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... has written about the Brevity of Life, among other things and it is indeed a waste of time to talk about a fool, also to speculate on what will happen, it is the old Zen Master Story, ‘we shall see, he keeps saying’ when the villagers alternate between sorrow, compassion, and mirth, he shows equanimity, for we do not know the future Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 05, 2024
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Nov 05, 2024
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Nov 05, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 3.92
| 83
| unknown
| 1968
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it was amazing
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A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess – what it means with the paramount elections taking place next week, wherein Orange Jesus aka a version of the p
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess – what it means with the paramount elections taking place next week, wherein Orange Jesus aka a version of the psychopath Alex has 2 in 3 chances at the betting houses of getting the dictatorship he wants – a previous look at this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/... where you find thousands of other reviews… And a lot about Orange Alex, a calamity, but likely to be president next week, just like the mass suicides of the past 10 out of 10 This is the fourth time I take on A Clockwork Orange and I think it is not the last – Insha’Allah, you never know, with Orange Felon favorite to win the most powerful job in the world, however diminished if the fool is getting it, who knows what will happen, maybe this will be a province in Russia, and I will be in the gulag They did bring communism here before, we had Ceausescu and I stood up and fought against tyranny, here is the proof http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... I am mentioned in the Newsweek covering the December 1989 toppling of one of the most vicious despots… Come November 5, we could see the making of something we have never seen before, and not in the sense the lunatic keeps in his mind, but because he will take what was once the greatest democracy in the world, and smash it into the ground, the real carnage he spoke of about eight years ago, to quote George W Bush: ‘That was some weird shit’ Now, I think A Clockwork Orange is not just a fabulous chef d’oeuvre – and here is a second look at the magnum opus https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/12/... - but it is also so accurate, useful in explaining some of what we see now in America, the part worshipping the Orange Crook In the Anthony Burgess masterpiece, Alex is the antihero and I see the one I try not to name, expect using the nicknames provided by his cohorts, Orange Jesus, the criminal record he now has, Orange Felon, because he has been found guilty on what was it, thirty-four counts, and he clearly has done so much more Alex is vicious, violent, irate, aggressive, but on a small scale, and although the supporters of the Orange Demon would say ‘look, it is exactly what the radical left does, they make up things, haunt the poor guy, witch hunt and the rest’, I say the man who had been president for four years has shown with acts and words how awful he is So, what do you choose, if the alternative is a psychopath, with limited power, or a sick bastard with narcissistic personality disorder, who will have access to the nuclear codes and the button, his defenders say ‘he has been there, and we did not see Apocalypse Now, but that was because he had some sane folks nearby And it is a miracle – like in The History of The World by Mel Brooks – almost all those sensible generals, secretaries of defense, chief of staff, vice president, I mean dozens of the ‘best people’ (for the idiot said and keeps saying that he always selects the best people, what a lousy leader) say he is an imminent threat to democracy At least Alex gets punished – he attacks innocent men and women, then he is abandoned by his partners in crime, and he gets punished, even tortured, so now we are in contrast territory, Alex has similarities with Orange Jesus, in my mind at least – doing the ‘weave’ - but there is also the severe contrast, one mentioned above The Orange Alex however was not abandoned by the hoi polloi (his garbage crowds, I think Biden was confused when he said it, maybe he meant it after all, but then I see it as one of those absolute truths, for Musk and all) they worship him, it is a cult, he is the Chosen, no less, and they connect him with Cyrus in the bible And yes, he gave them these three fucking stupid judges, and then the end of abortion, reproductive rights in so many states, and the whole thing looks like a nightmare, it is also a question of Influence https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/... the rules you find in this classic Robert Cialdini explains how you can have mass suicides, as in Guyana, some decades back, when they followed this Trump-like prophet all the way to South America, and then when the lunatic decided it is time for…mass killing, they just obeyed, that is the Principle of Respect for Authority for you and you can see some weird experiments Then there is the Social Conformity, we tend to follow the example of others in unfamiliar territory – when an accident happens, one has to name the ones that need to help, because the tendency is to just pass and do nothing, but if you say ‘you in the blue jacket, call 911, and the red shirt, come and help, then you may get through Finally, I must think of the Zen Master Story, wherein all kinds of bad, then good things happen, but the Master has equanimity all the same, it is mentioned at the end of Charlie Wislon’s War, and then maybe we get more wisdom from https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/08/... Ian Morris is a fabulous author, he has also written Why The West Rules For Now, and it is fantastic Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 27, 2024
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Nov 02, 2024
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Nov 02, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 2070426777
| 9782070426775
| 2070426777
| 3.59
| 39
| Jan 15, 1992
| Jan 01, 2003
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it was amazing
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On Vanity aka De la Vanite by Michel de Montaigne, his essays have been included on The 100 Greatest Books of All Time, I have a few notes on some of
On Vanity aka De la Vanite by Michel de Montaigne, his essays have been included on The 100 Greatest Books of All Time, I have a few notes on some of these brilliant thoughts at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and other reviews 10 out of 10 The essays of Michel de Montaigne are so wonderful helpful, substantive, meaningful that my plan is to continue reading them for the foreseeable future, in small installments, a few pages this morning, some more on Monday, next week, so tat the pleasure lasts and the wisdom has time to sink in, Insha’Allah, with patience One major advantage is that they make us think, as opposed to some other oeuvres that fail to stimulate the under signed -one recent example is The Transit of Venus https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... one of the important works… Actually, one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, but which failed to keep me on track, never mind to think seriously, now, Montaigne is another story altogether, earlier I was thinking that there are some paradoxes though, and his quoting of Seneca, other luminaries from ancient days could puzzle a modern reader Take Vanity, there could be a fine line between being pompous, arrogant and vain, and too modest, indeed, I am struggling with some of those concepts and the encouragement one gets from one side to be happy with what you have, and the urge to seek for more from another book, or source of Sagesse, allegedly The epitome of vanity is Orange Jesus, betting houses have him with two chances in one of winning next week’s election, which may be the Armageddon, though let us not be realistic, let us settle for just being Panglossian https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/... stating that it will all be fine We have the definition of paradigm in a superb Booker Prize Winner, in which the protagonist, Vernon God Little, is an adolescent and he has to hear this: imagine you enter a room, and a stranger has his finger up your grannie’s ass, what do you think, and the answer is I want to kill the bastard, but then there is a twist You see that this unknown man overcame his nausea to save your dear relative, what about now, well, he is my hero and then this is a paradigm shift for you https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/... the fantastic work, especially in the first part, was written by DBC Pierre and it is a favorite of mine Then we have the precepts of stoicism and what modern self-help books teach us, also psychology, the positive kind in particular, what do we do, do we show pride, have hope, or just stay modest, humble, and accept whatever the fate offers, ‘wish for what you already have is essential for Stoics and Buddhists alike The answer is in Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... on The Golden Mean, virtue is in the middle, on either side we have vice, say munificence – it is not giving away all you have, so that family and all are left paupers, neither being a miser, like me, would be the answer Now, I was reading earlier from Karen Armstrong, the ultimate expert on religion, and she was explain how yoga would be approached, it is not the physical feast – by the way, look at what I can do here http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... and tell me if you have any idea Maybe we can make a million bucks with this, and we find a way to share, if you are an agent, know somebody, have the plan for what can be done, it is an invention of mine, at least third of it, the lotus and the head posture are from Yoga, but then I added my own contribution, so what about selling an ad, or more… I eat this, drink that other, use a service and then boom, I am able to do magic, which is the exercise at the link, however, I have tried to get a reaction and had zero, so why am I wasting my time here, well, because at this very moment, they may know about the future at the company, which is in dire straits now My senior partner, who has 70% to my 14%, is meeting a fellow who handles investments, maybe intermediary for buying, and we will see, the products we import from Germany are not selling well (or at all) any more, so there needs to be a way out, or else, no more writing for you, but just some work at the mall And in the meantime, I am trying to sell that invention, without any effect – 50 Cent was at the sauna downtown, all dressed, shoes in his feet, and I was thinking I should do this think at the link, so that the singer would see me and maybe take me on his team, and pay good dollars for it, except my buddy stopped me Anyway, one week later, there is Christ Hemsworth, at the same gym, in the center, coincidence, and then there is only this place with facilities, and I do my trick, gig, next to the treadmill, he sees it, but no invitation, like ‘I know somebody man, and I will tell him about you, you will be on stage, or something’ nothing of the kind It looks like I did not concentrate much on Vanity, just because I am vain, and concerned with the menacing situation, gas expensive, German things unaffordable and what will we do, some answer maybe in store just about now, at 2pm, today, but I will return to Montaigne, the plan is to read and comment on him, for months to come Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Nov 2024
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Nov 2024
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Nov 01, 2024
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Paperback
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| 1533412286
| 9781533412287
| 1533412286
| 4.60
| 5
| unknown
| May 22, 2016
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it was amazing
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Letters and Essays of Montaigne, Volume I by Michel de Montaigne, my notes on some of his essays are at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... toget
Letters and Essays of Montaigne, Volume I by Michel de Montaigne, my notes on some of his essays are at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... together with other reviews 10 out of 10 The Essays of Michel de Montaigne are among the 100 Greatest Books of All Time, and I am not talking my own notion of that, there is a serious list, created by The Norwegian Book Club, but not some amateur concoction, they have asked luminaries like Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco, John Irving about this Furthermore, reading those pages of wisdom is inspiring, useful, overwhelming and relevant, just like consulting the pages on Liars https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20..., America and our own land will have lections soon, and one is really a standout, but as a phony Orange Jesus is one of those names that keep coming up in these lines, because he serves as a paradigm, he is the representation of evil, for yours truly, while for his cohorts, he is The Chosen, there is an article in The Economist, which looks at the religious vote, evangelicals represent a quarter of the electorate in the US And they see this son of Satan – if they were to really use the criteria of their dogmas, I am an atheist, and what they do in this case is just another argument to stay that way – as the one sent, they look at the section in the bible where Cyrus, the pagan king, has saved Jerusalem, or something else, and connect it to… Orange Jesus, you have a flawed individual, but sent by God, no less, and then there is that assassination attempt the first one (alas, I say here, where nobody is present, it was a failed try, I am convinced that for the good of human kind, the poor guy should have made the perfect shot, it is also a question of Bentham and utilitarianism) Those insane fools see the hand of God there too, but they are individuals who pray for a parking spot, and when one is available, they see it as a granted, small miracle, so what can we expect, if seventy million in the US (he has worshippers elsewhere) will vote in about 12 days for the Orange Devil, what can we do? In fact, I think they said that thirty million have already placed their ballots, by mail, and out of that, maybe 16 million will be Democrats (as in sane, even those extremes there are more palatable that the red goons of the Orange Felon) given that they are more likely to vote early, the idiot discouraged his fans to use mail One of the essays of this morning was on age, and I look at the application for the event of November 5th, They used to scream that Biden is too old, and his performance in the only debate he had with the Oange Fool was a sorry spectacle, but what about this boxer they send in the ring from the former GOP aka… Grand Old Party, he is all over the place, I mean he has this townhall meeting, and asks for disco and Pavarotti music – he insults the tenor, saying he liked him, but he was difficult, something like that – and then he dances for half an hour, really, is this the serious candidate, the one who will fix economy, wars, or just dementia on display? And that was just one event, on one day, this catastrophe of a monkey went on to talk about the…penis of a deceased golfer, who had this father, worked hard, then went to the locker room and they were all impressed, because you see, the world needs to know about that, it is paramount, imperative and essential Look, if he talks like a grandfather, at some club, or at his kitsch place, it would be alright, if only this would be a retired old guy, with no impact on the world, NATO, my poor country and most of the world, if not all of it, he represents the decline of his once great democracy, and the ‘progress’ humans have made Yuval Harari https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/02/... is one of the great thinkers of our world, he has launched a new book, Nexus, recently, and I have just plunged into it, he talks about information, Google, Qannon, the idea that information is not really the end of it all He has reminded me of the psychology classic The Paradox of Choice https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/... by Barry Schwartz, which explains how having choice is good, but once you get too much, it can be overwhelming, in fact it is, it is not just it can be One example I remember is the tasting of things in shops, when they offer three to five jams, say, would be customers buy, but if it is a tasting with thirty, or else many choices, they do not take those at the counter, it was too much to ask, Barry Schwartz insists also on the difference between Maximizers and Satisfizers You want to be a Satisfizer, because this is the one who wants very good, excellent things, but will not demand perfection, which is the domain of the maximizer, who wants perfect – something I listened to in a song, recently, told as if this is the norm, I need perfection, yeah, right, go find it – and ergo is always dissatisfied The thing with too much information is the same as with the Paradox of Choice, it can be overwhelming and that happens to supporters of the Orange Hurricane (as in really awful, not good), they think they know, but they are deplorables, Hilary was right! Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
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Oct 27, 2024
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Oct 27, 2024
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| 2,956
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| Oct 13, 1993
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really liked it
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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, author of Anna Karenina, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/... together
The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, author of Anna Karenina, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/... together with thousands of other reviews 9 out of 10 Leo Tolstoy was one of the most respected, best known writers ever, his Anna Karenina, War and Peace and The Death of Ivan Ilych https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/... are among The 100 Greatest Books of All Time, although as a human being, the novelist was less resplendent Anna Karenina is one of the most overwhelming love stories and ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’ the first line is one of the most used quotes, the fate of the heroine has stayed with me ever since high school, when the end (is there a need for a spoiler alert, there here it is) … Was used by the professor of literature, the great Anton Chevorchian, as a material to explain the differences in style, a naturalist, or was it hyper realist author would give all the details of the suicide, the blood, everything connected with the train, gruesome aspects, while others would avoid such gory description Professor Chevorchian also explained what we find in magnum opera – he was of the opinion of Milan Kundera https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/... in that we are too wasteful with terms like genius, there were only Leonardo Da Vinci, Einstein, Shakespeare and just a few more A crime plot is necessary, in Anna Karenina we have another set of ingredients that are necessary and have been set by Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... who wrote that we have to have a climax, but also a reversal, a surprise if you will, and the death of the main character is a shock War and Peace is a vast fresco, I am just wondering how many of the young ones will find the time to take it on, it was criticized, indeed, the idea of reading Russians, now that they have invaded Ukraine is anathema for millions, just as multitudes embrace Putin and such monsters, nevertheless, we may have to separate the two Besides, there is the fabulous Intellectuals https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/... by Paul Johnson in which you find gory details from the lives of Leo Tolstoy, Henrik Ibsen, Ernest Hemingway, Jean Jacques Rousseau, the latter abandoned his children at the door of an orphanage, and nine of ten died in such circumstances, although a cynical mind might look at this and say six of ten did anyway I was reading in The Economist – more precisely, somebody read it for me, I have been using the audio version for many years now, and started reading this fantastic publication about four decades back, at the British Library, under the Ceausesc regime, which I have helped topple, the link is at the end – about the War Which is at the center of War and Peace, in anew book on…horses, there are some striking details, how they have been the most important weapon of war – we used the dear animal for millennia – and have influenced so much, fashion for instance, the first pants belonged to a man who had mounted a horse, then the genes As for the invasion of Napoleon, this horse book argues that it was not so much the death of the troops, which covers so many chapters in War and Peace, what with the occupation of Moscow, the fires, guerrilla fighting, the traps set by the general – I think it was Kutuzov – who allowed the French to appear victorious Only it was a Pyrrhic one ‘which is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat’ Napoleon only occupied some territory, which was in fact the temptation that would cut him down, but it may be that the loss of so many horses that did it for them, the most important blow As for The Death of Ivan Ilych, it is less known than the two massive masterpieces, you can read it in a few hours – is it about six – but it is fundamental, fantastic, looking at death, as the title makes plain, the protagonist has to face his imminent departure, with all the challenges, the fears, refusal, humility, pain and suffering It is something that I may need to take up again, although it has been through my hands twice – I have offered a link, up there, at the start of this, and now there is another dispatch, to a second look https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/... as if you were interested Alas, there is almost no interest, I have this blog, with a pitiful audience, 5 clicks per day, but then we have to be ‘merit finders, not fault finders’, in the words of Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/... the upside is I can write whatever Nobody reads it anyway, and then as The Death of Ivan Ilych brutally shows, the end is near, and then what comes next can be upsetting – a few hours ago, my business partner called to say that those that sell goods through us are no longer reliable, the Germans have raised prices to the point were sales are very low… He has a meeting next week, to see if there is some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, but what if the news are still negative, it is really another bad situation, just like we were wondering what to do about food, after the 2008 crisis Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
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Oct 26, 2024
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Oct 26, 2024
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Oct 26, 2024
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| 4.11
| 13,973
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| Aug 29, 2013
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really liked it
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How much land does a man need I have been a fan of short stories for a long time. Most of all I loved Maugham’s short stories. Sick with ulcers, I had How much land does a man need I have been a fan of short stories for a long time. Most of all I loved Maugham’s short stories. Sick with ulcers, I had to spend time in a hospital and Maugham provided me with an excellent treatment. We all know about War and Peace and Anna Karenina (the book, not the recently released film). I was surprised to find Tolstoy on the list of 100 best books ever, with the above mentioned masterpieces, but with his short stories also. I started reading them and found the reason. In How Much Land a Man Needs We have a short, well known answer: six feet (under- like the HBO series) But the short story was a joy ride for me, with very good and high doses of adrenalin. I was anxious to find out how much land we need and the size of the final fortune of the main character. ...more |
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Oct 24, 2024
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Oct 24, 2024
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Oct 24, 2024
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it was amazing
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Works of Claude Monet by Claude Monet – the ‘father’ of the Impressionism, a note on that is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/11/... where I have
Works of Claude Monet by Claude Monet – the ‘father’ of the Impressionism, a note on that is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/11/... where I have thousands of other reviews 10 out of 10 Claude Monet was (still is actually) my favorite painter, I even had my garden at Rosenau (and now this one in Straulesti) modeled on what he had at Giverny, on a smaller scale, evidently, but trying to get plants, flowers from the list – before he died, he demanded there will be no flowers at his burial, saying morons could cut them from my garden – such as irises, Japanese acer, bamboos, which are now some ten meters high As a child, he was a rebel, however much this sounds like an oxymoron – nonetheless, those I see around are spoiled and allowed to be violent, much more than active babies, they use firecrackers, pee everywhere, the teenagers, not the babies, use the foulest insults, etc. – but he did not go to school, and made…caricatures He was a prodigy in that field, and he was so good, the teachers, famous folk from Le Havre would buy their own representations, to avoid laughter, then they were exposed in the widow of the shop from which he would buy pencils, colors, where a painter saw them and noticed the talent, talked to the adolescent They lived in Le Havre, where his father was in commerce, selling furniture for ships, so the boy would learn about money, pretty soon he would ask for money for his drawings, when there would be demand from two would be buyers, that notwithstanding, his father would disagree with his option to go into painting Indeed, for half his life, the future glorious artist would face hardship, and in his young years, he would often be so destitute, he would write multiple letters to one other painter, Bazille, who agreed to buy one canvas for fifty francs paid monthly, telling him that he does not have anything to eat, and no money prospects whatsoever… He would be part of the group of innovative creators, Degas, Sisley, eventually Manet, that would revolutionize art, but not before enduring rejection, contempt, mockery – there was an established Salon, where one could show the works of art, but not before the examination of a special commission which had stringent rules They would need the subjected canvas to have been drawn first, then colored, it had to be a major subject – say Napoleon, classic legend – and they wanted conservative rules to be obeyed – Gericault was an example of the established star, with money, an apartment in a good area and the new comers will have to wait Edouard Manet caused a scandal when he painted Dejeuner sur l’herbe aka Le Bain or The Bath, with two dressed men and one naked woman sitting on grass, something so outrageous it caused a furor, and Claude Monet was so impressed that he decided to make one of his own, thus upsetting Manet, because of the copycat The two would become friends, however different their personalities – later, Monet would get rich, have many paintings, some of them with their back to the room, because they were so good he said he cannot make their equal, though he also had the habit of painting with other tableaux turned, so that he can focus Camille Doncieux was his model, but she would give birth to Jean Monet – I wonder if this is the one who gives the name to a high school here, where the offspring of the rich and famous study, in manner of speaking, I am not sure if they do that, it is in one of the poshest places in town – and then they get married It would be an outré relationship, towards the end, in the meantime, he becomes friends with Ernest Hoschedé, an art dealer who had a chateau, in his good period, and Claude Monet paints some turkeys there, with the small castle in the background (small when compared with Buckingham, not with what you and I have) Alice Hoschede has four children and yet, it seems that she became the lover of the painter, and there is speculation that her youngest may be the result of that affair, and when they come to the end of their money, Ernest declaring bankruptcy, the two families move…together, in the same house, until the dealer abandons his family Then Camille Monet is diagnosed with uterine cancer, suffers and at the age of only thirty-one dies, nursed by her would be replacement, Alice, and on her death bed, she has the husband alongside, and after she had departed, he has an impulse and makes the portrait of the deceased, kept away for some time… Claude Monet paints the tableau that would give the name of the movement; indeed, it was the contempt of a critic that gave the group the name in mockery and then that was it – I would not progress beyond this much, I love pointillism, Sisley, and then Vincent Van Gogh, but do not like Picasso, the abstract and never mind Damien Hirst They participate in the Salon des Refuses, initiated by the emperor, and then paintings of Monet reach the USA, the Yankees had won the Civil War, the economy was booming, and the new money would find their way towards these paintings as well, and then they became successful in France, Europe as well, and at the age of fifty, Claude Monet could feel relaxed, finally, he would not have to worry about financial problems anymore He would move with Alice and their six children at Giverny, then they would marry, travel To Venice, where he has a series of wondrous works, Alice dies and he is cared for by her daughter, there is an incestuous air about the situation there, she would marry the second son of Claude Monet, but then move back in at Giverny Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 22, 2024
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Oct 22, 2024
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Oct 22, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0B3YCN1FG
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| Dec 31, 2050
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really liked it
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The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature's Lessons for a Long and Happy Life by David B. Agus, MD author of A Short Guide to A Long Life – one of my takes o
The Book of Animal Secrets: Nature's Lessons for a Long and Happy Life by David B. Agus, MD author of A Short Guide to A Long Life – one of my takes on this book is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/... and I will soon write another review on this 9 out of 10 This is essential reading, in that we all want a Long and Happy Life, unless of course, we are talking depression, suicidal tendencies and other ailments, but then the good doctor has some suggestions that will work for, better said against such states, like the immersion in nature, the seventeen minutes or so daily of contact with it I am blessed to have two macaws – also had five borzois, all at the same time, a few other canines, and now I have to feed many cats in the garden, the other day I have had the record dozen guests – and according to doctor David Agus, there is a lot to gain, I just have to sit back and watch, take notice, apply and enjoy Or else, use ear plugs for when Balzac - the fifteen years old, at least that is what I think he is, I can remember the period, but not exactly – screams, because I just stepped out to give some food to a couple of pigeons, and spoiled as he is, well, both, Puccini, the reg and green, too, he does not tolerate absenteeism One issue I have with The Book of Animal Spirits is that it gets too technical at times, and I mean not for the average reader – all of the content is really easy to get – just for lazy, uncooperative yours truly – and let me add, the crowd that worships the Orange Jesus, those people are morons in my book, Elon Musk included Yes, he knows about rockets, electric cars – which his idol despises – but still, he is stupid as glass in the matter of choosing this monster – he also exemplifies, with Orange Felon and some others, what happens when somebody is rich, but has no means to reach Eudaimonia, a state of an elevated happiness Sure, he jumps on stage with the Orange Fool, at his rally, he gets high, but that is not substantive, meaningful, it is the cheerfulness of an idiot – enough said, besides, I am going against the Spirit of the book, which teaches about being optimistic, and ‘embracing the weirdness of others, including ourselves’ I venture to speculate and say that the good doctor David Agus does not mean supporting a would-be Hitler – over the past days, the favorite to become the next (and former) leader of the free world has said he would use the army against internal enemies, the former chief of staff of the army said he is the most serious danger… And a fascist, before I forget, the Orange Baboon has also sent Covid tests to his buddy, Putin, when there were queues that were miles long, of people waiting to get tested, and this is just over the past few days – I mean some of the aforementioned details appear in an upcoming book, by the iconic Bob Woodward The journalist https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/... that had exposed Nixon, together with Carl Bernstein, will release new secrets, and it is so tragic that the needle will not move, voters are so dumb (on that side) that they will not consider anything new, and just push the monster higher And to say that some of the Animal Secrets include being alert, and studies show how important positivity is https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/05/... some aspects are beyond our control, like the Eight Hugs Each Day rule, which is highlighted by doctor David Agus What to do if you do not get those, say in my case, where I just live with the spouse – who says frequently enough, the end of the arrangement – because of material considerations, and the macaws, otherwise there is no touching, anything, so yes, there is paying for intimacy, which I do, within the impose limits Here the notion that money does not bring merriment can be disputed, I get it, you could not get to those sex workers and increase the financial exchange and say hugs, make me felicitous and more, it does not work that way, but there was this ad for Lexus, saying something like those who say money do not bring joy do not know what to do with it As in buy a Lexus, and for the case presented, more cash would get access to better service, looks, oxytocin – take what happened last Thursday, when I went to somebody recommended by a man from…Chile – he works here, but let us stay on course, I am supposed to talk about Lessons For a Long and Happy Life, right, yes, it is supposed to be the book, but this is how I operate in this space, mixing things up Doing the ‘weave’, if I quote the Great Orange Ape, so I call, and this woman who sells happiness says avenue Victoria, number 32, and when there, I ask what entrance, she confused the matter, it was one, instead of two, which is annoying, and when up on her floor, she has this tv on, with a loud noise and aggravating program I say lower the volume, and when she just acts with reluctance, I say better turn it off, and she replies no, for during the ‘hugs session’, she would be watching the show, she did only oral sex, saying at this price, what do you expect, albeit her rates are average, never mind exorbitant for what is (not) on offer and when I said I want to see something, she reluctantly took the top off, and nothing more, saying I just gave birth, you want secretions pouring, or something like that, and she had no idea what Chile is, talk of recommendation, it must have been some scheme, as in they exchange the number between or something, anyway, it does not pay https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/12/... Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 08, 2024
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Oct 17, 2024
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Oct 17, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 3150199700
| 9783150199701
| 3150199700
| 4.50
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| unknown
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really liked it
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Au Revoir Les Enfants by Louis Malle – my previous note on this wonderful work is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/03/... where I have some other
Au Revoir Les Enfants by Louis Malle – my previous note on this wonderful work is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/03/... where I have some other texts 9 out of 10 Trying to start off with a joke, the title is very attractive for this cinephile, because it means Goodbye Children, and considering where I live, that would be a nice prospect, if it could happen literally, as in this is a gated community we have here, with fat cats, and spoiled children, who abuse firecrackers and almost anything As it is clear already, I will get to some points in Au Revoir Les Enfants, Insha’Allah, and then rant on this topic, and possibly others – as I write this, I have John Oliver in the background, with his latest episode of Last Week Tonight, where Orange Jesus rambles on something, what an idiot, OJ, not Oliver – so you have been warned It may not be necessary to keep using these spoiler alerts, albeit some fellow did read, and then he did not like the shots (metaphorical) I take at this monstrous Orange Felon, and complained I did not alert him to that looming attack, I mean, I have seven clicks on my blog, on a regular day, so it is not popular, nobody cares This is not lamenting, it is like in that Zen Master story, where he loses a horse, then the animal brings some other, wild ones, the son breaks his leg, but thus avoids the army, and all in all, the village laments, cheers, and the Zen Master shows equanimity, Ataraxia, eudaimonia and more and keeps saying we shall see It happened to me https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/... on a day when the pool had no water, at the downtown club, and I was so angry, for they had not even told me, but like with the Zen Master, I had to use the gym upstairs, instead of swimming, and that changed everything I took part in the ten-kilometer run, a couple of weeks ago or so, and I was about to join another such coemption, two days back, only the spouse said no, she had me confined – as the geese keeper – with the macaws, over the weekend, but who knows, I hear a runner died, so maybe she saved me from a similar demise There is a psychology classic, Games People Play https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/... by Eric Berne, which explains that one of the most frequently played games is If It Weren’s For You, people blame the spouse, claiming they would have done so much, reached the top, if only… So let us put down some words about Au Revoir les Enfants, about time, right, now that there is nobody to read it, here is some useless fluff, well, ‘we shall see’, Zen feelings, the action takes place during World War II, and we have the themes of loyalty, betrayal, munificence, indeed, some of the superb traits, and their opposites The children in the narrative learn in a place supervised by the clergy, actually, there is a bombardment, and the teacher takes them to the shelter, I think it was the cave, but he instructs them to take the books and all, as they descend, and they continue to study there, in even worse conditions, they have to suffer upstairs as well It is very cold in the buildings, and the children complain, one teacher tells one child to put some wood on the fire, but the main problem is that they shelter three Jewish people within, and this is France under occupation, with the Nazis looking for victims to send to the death camps, extermination was rampant and millions will be killed It is not just the Germans – one was is decent in fact, when the heroes, Julien Quentin and Jean Bonnet, are lost in the woods, this one brings them back, and when he hears about the ‘Boches’, which was a pejorative, actually outright insulting term, he lets it off – there were some loathsome collaborators, and they will kill indirectly One is Joseph, who has a lame foot, and ergo we feel sorry for him, he has to work in the kitchen, gets into the black market and is cheated at times, an adolescent (he looked as if he was) who has to work quite hard, the others are better off, they can study, he looks at a life of some hardship, and yet, he is a vile figure Another spoiler alert, I will say what happens – this Joseph alerts the Nazis, and they come looking for the three Jewish personages, one is Jean Bonnet, the name is in fact a cover, just as the boy of maybe 12 claims he is a Protestant, but he has a Hebrew ritual going on at night, when the others are asleep, and they will find them Jean Bonnet is bright, one of the best students, in fact, he competes for the first place, now that he arrived at this new class, but just because he is of a different faith, he will be arrested by the collaborators, and we find at the end of the movie that he, along with the others, and millions of innocent people will be massacred This is an extraordinary film, with plenty of moving, heart-breaking scenes – one is in the restaurant, where they have to use coupons, Julien’s mother asks about fish, but the waiter says they have not had that for a long time, so they must take the rabbit, one coupon for half something like that, but the enemy walks in The collaborators are in the restaurant and they ask to see the papers, for they are looking for the Jewish people, and one client, a man of perhaps seventy, he is singled out – you, are not allowed with the others, and insults pour, and the waiter says, this gentleman has been coming for decades, and eventually, some Germans interfere, and tell the collaborators to get out, showing the complexity of the situation, think Schindler’s List https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/07/... Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 16, 2024
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Oct 16, 2024
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Oct 16, 2024
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Paperback
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| 0803280041
| 9780803280045
| 0803280041
| 3.55
| 3,670
| 1920
| Apr 01, 2002
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really liked it
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A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, along with Herland – my note on this is at https://real
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, along with Herland – my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... within the following lines, there will be more links to the same blog, maybe there will be more than the 7 clicks it gets daily 9 out of 10 Apparently, this is not just one of those books everyone must read, but the "greatest novel of the twentieth century”, it was a central influence on C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, and through him on J. R. R. Tolkien, who said he read the book "with avidity"…Clive Barker called it "a masterpiece", so what else is there? In many ways, it feels as if there would be nothing to add to the above, I mean if a few say this is nec plus ultra, crème de la crème, magnum opus, who am I to deny, or ponder these pronouncements, well, I am the one who writes these lines and Protagoras comes to mind ‘man is the measure of all things, of those that are, that they are, and of those who are not, that they are not’, which is sage and quite pompous at the same time This is taking a light, jocular tone, in case it is not obvious, or funny, so let me just say that CS Lewis is one of my favorite, most respected luminaries https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... in my book, and if he vouches for Voyage to Arcturus, then I am bound to listen... On the other hand, I was thinking this morning, in the…garage, which has been turned into a sort of gym, and hot house, storage, and place where I misplace things (if you listen to the spouse https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/... which you should not) about reading There are some conditions which have to be met, and earlier it was the image of trying to find a radio station, and at times, the frequency is right, I hear the music or information, but somehow, it is missing on some days, or we could barely hear – this was happening very often, or about all the time, in the communist days My father was tuning in to listen to Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, then I did this on my own, and with that influence, I would later take part in the Revolution of 1989, the link is down there, access to the copy of the Newsweek page which mentions my name, and what I told the correspondent met during those memorable days The introduction to Voyage to Arcturus is captivating, we have this gathering, a medium, and then ‘Maskull, longing for adventures, accepts an invitation from Krag, an acquaintance of his friend Nightspore, to travel to Tormance after a séance’ Thus, we are invited to a different world, with strange habits, intriguing characters, I was thinking that writing Science Fiction affords so many advantages, the author is not constrained by the limits of earthly stories, for instance, at one stage Joiwind and her husband, Panawe, drink water, they do not even eat plants Maskull lands on Tormance, which is orbiting Arcturus, and meets Joiwind, one of the most endearing figures of this narrative, and we could add any story indeed, she is there to save the man, and literally gives him her blood, it is a sort of transfusion, not constrained by what we would need on earth, needles, compatibility It is a question of life and death, for without it, the alien Maskull would not make it, he hears a very interesting story from Panawe, the spouse, who was something of a transsexual, if we try to put his experience in a matrix that would be more palatable, another advantage of the science fiction tale is that it challenges our minds On a side note, let me just mention The Long Goodbye https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... the most recent example of an acclaimed work (on that 1000 list) that has been mesmerizing, and I could keep the frequency, even when running at the gym, at 6 in the morning Yes, there were some times when, for a couple of minutes or so, the sound was lost, as in I did not pay enough attention, but overall, that was a magic success, in what concerns me, because it often happens – it might also be a worry with age, Insha’ Allah not a condition – that I tune out, just like with Voyage to Arcturus Most of it is entrancing, when meeting with Joiwind, she explains she worships Surtur, and that right there, makes me see that there is that old problem, people in various parts of the earth see one and another figure as the Maker, Great Sculptor and Colorist https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/11/... We then get to encounter a woman, Oceaxe, who wants Maskull as a lover, though she is married to Crimtyphon, the latter is evil, tries to make one man into a tree, and ergo our hero – is he the role model, or not, he is no anti-hero, I think, but I have qualms about his status, which is as it should be, in a great novel – Kills this outer planet Orange Jesus – I see this future leader of the free world as the epitome of the monster – and then he has to witness quite a few more deaths, first of all, Oceaxe, who is dispatched by another wife of the late foe, Tydomin is using her will, which reminds me of ‘where there is a will, there is a way’, and the psychology classic Man’s Search for Meaning https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/... by Victor Frankl - Voyage to Arcturus is great, however much I have been absent from the picture, missing quite a few twists Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 05, 2024
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Oct 15, 2024
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Oct 15, 2024
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| 4.08
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| 1572
| Sep 02, 2004
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it was amazing
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On Liars – Essays of Michel de Montaigne – The Complete Essays are among the 100 Greatest Books of All Time – my note on some of some of these exquisi
On Liars – Essays of Michel de Montaigne – The Complete Essays are among the 100 Greatest Books of All Time – my note on some of some of these exquisite thoughts are at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... along with hundreds of other reviews 10 out of 10 The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne is not just a chef d’oevre, it is also a companion for many days…long, long days, for it has what, over fourteen hundred pages, and this is not to complain, indeed, I realized this morning that I have something fabulous, astounding to keep me high for days ahead, in the morning I have taken to listening to the audiobook – you can get the magnum opera from the Gutenberg project, or the LibriVox site – as I run in the early hours, and this might be the perfect balance, and more – ‘Happiness Activity No 12: Taking care of Your Body- engaging in physical activity, meditating and smiling and laughing’ The latter is from the glorious The How of Happiness https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... and I venture to say that running and listening to Montaigne or similar would just offer more than one felicitous activity, say number 11, albeit that is focused on transcendence more, a higher level ‘Happiness Activity No 11: Practicing Religion and Spirituality- becoming more involved in your church, temple or mosque or reading and pondering spiritually themed books’ and we could argue that Michel de Montaigne would touch on all, he talks about Horses, Battles, Cannibals, you name it, and you have the whole spectrum Ancient customs is one of the subjects of this morning, and again, we have the rituals that are so necessary and many involve levitation, a lifting of the spirits – ‘we are what we regularly do, excellence is not an act, it is a habit’, says Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... But we also have some of the more mundane, even terrestrial, some could say vulgar habits, customs – this makes me think of Anais Nin https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... not because she is coarse, but the stories she writes are something I have not seen before, at that level Michel de Montaigne mentions the use of sponges to wipe the ass, after using the toilet, and how a slave, destined to die, used such a stick with a sponge to kill himself, probably because the death waiting for him would have been even worse, however much I struggle to see how inserting such a thing in the mouth and trachea, the rest could be better The horses are given a whole essay, and for good reason, I was reading in The Economist, maybe the issue of last week, if not that, then a recent one nonetheless, in the Culture section, a review of a book about horses, how important they have been in our history, the author suggested that they may have ‘bet on humans’ Fashion was modeled by riding them, the first pants come from some of those early horse riders, and they can trace the genes to the region of Central Asia – if I am not making this up, thinking I remember reading it, but then it could have been Something Completely Different https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/... but it may be where they started that bond Then they speculate on the cause of the Napoleon debacle, the author of the book on horses thought it was the death of so many of these vital animals that brought the calamity for the French, and not the loss of so many men, for millennia, the horse has been a crucial weapon, indeed, they had them even in World War II All the points that Michel de Montaigne makes are underlined with quotes, many are from Socrates https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/08/... one of my favorite thinkers, and…my business partner, his father gave him this divine name, only he chooses to go with another Everyone, well, more or less, calls him Dan, only I prefer Socrates and that is what I use, in a total contrast with my own choice, my name is Ionescu Marian Realini, the latter is very peculiar, there is an actor who has this name, but otherwise, you do not find it, and that is what they all use for me, Realini, not Marian They do not even know about the other one, when they did, in elementary school, they made jokes, seeing that I like to be different, enjoy that exotic name – alas, it is a sign of weakness, frailty, it would have been better to ‘make a name for myself’, maybe my associate shows assurance, in using a banal calling Socrates was declared at one point the wisest man of ancient times, and that was the Oracle of Delphi, something of an absolute – maybe not absolute – authority and the philosopher wondered why this was happening, and looking around, he saw so many stating that they know about so many things, when they did not So it had to be that he did not like to say stupid things, ‘he did not claim to know, what he did not know’, and finally, just a few words about the Liars in the title, the epitome, paradigm is Orange Jesus, not the worst liars in the world, but the most dangerous, disgusting, he has a bigger chance than Kamala Harris to become leader of the free world (again, god damn it) and this is like the peak of the Big Lie, a catastrophe, I do not mean that this terrible war will happen, or the other, just that ethics, morals, standards, authenticity appear to die Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 13, 2024
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Oct 13, 2024
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Oct 13, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 9789600319446
| 9600319448
| 3.56
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| Jan 01, 1998
| 1998
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really liked it
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The Model and Other Stories aka Το μοντέλο και άλλες ιστορίες by Anais Nin, an overwhelming read, erotic 9 out of 10 This is incredible, and I mean that The Model and Other Stories aka Το μοντέλο και άλλες ιστορίες by Anais Nin, an overwhelming read, erotic 9 out of 10 This is incredible, and I mean that – it was for me, the encounter with these extremely arousing stories was a shock, trying to be mirthful, I was thinking that we had here some years, even decades back, Sandra Brown, as a famous – maybe infamous, we need to consult Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/... on this matter - author of soft porn tales In the days of the communist regime, we had to resort to other sources for wet dreams, other activities and I remember Ion https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/10/... a celebrated local opus, indeed, the author, Liviu Rebreanu, was part of the curriculum, one had to study him However, there were some hot scenes – I stopped before putting that in, realizing that they were far from titillating, in a world with porn accessible anywhere, on the phone, but het, back then, I did not have a phone in the house, let alone in my pocket, and I had to wait out of a box, to call somebody- for that era So the question now is, what is the difference between modest, irrelevant writers -such as yours truly, I have tried my hand at telling about my own saga, actually, these notes are the result of that failed attempt, in so many ways, and besides, there comes the tale of what happened just a few hours ago, to me – and somebody so admired, Delta of Venus is in fact on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, it was very successful Without further ado, let me switch to erotica of my own ‘creation’, after all, when reading the stories from the Delta of Venus, I get excited and then feel the need to really find a way for sexual intercourse, not masturbation if possible, so if we are to write in these notes what the impact of a book was, well there it is Here are the consequences of reading from Delta of Venus, the stories, which by the way, I have to take slowly, over some days, I keep putting in my age, which is not a good idea, it will be 61 soon, so there is only this much a man who is no longer twenty can take – but hey, I took part in the 10-kilometer run, and did well, a couple of weeks ago The thing with the age was studied by Ellen Langer, Harvard Professor, mentioned by Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... she took some men, placed them in some isolated premises, and made them talk, think, live somehow in the past, a couple of decades Name tags had their photos from back when, the newspapers in the house were also old, no news, nothing to make the ‘present’ felt, and they were encouraged to talk about their old days, and to put this in a nutshell – I am supposed to tell you about my sexual adventure of a few hours ago, I promised that – At the end of the experiment, these guys got younger, as a result of this time travel, you find more on the net, or you could call me, then there is another test, where people were exposed to words associated with old age, and they showed the symptoms at the end, in other words, remind me to stop saying 61- biological age is 28 here So now with this sexual thing, on a par with the Anais Nin stories (just joking) I know this fellow from…Chile, somehow, he came all the way, from the end of the earth, to work in this place, so we meet at the gym, sauna, and got to talking about…women, and how it happens that we both use escorts, sexual workers called today I know, if we were in Sweden, we would face charges, or worse, because there, clients are breaking the law, so anyway, he sent me two links, to two ads, and I write on WhatsApp to both, and went a few hours ago to one of these workers, and I think it was both funny, and a fuck up, here is why- I tell her I know the man from Chile He recommended the services, she writes what she charges, which is in the medium range, then something about the happy client, who is he, and when I describe him, happy, nice, amusing, she says ‘aha’, but she is rather opaque, not the best customer service online that you could get, still, I say if Chile liked her, and indeed, he was enthusiastic… Then there must be something there, I was talking about this, at the same sauna, with another mate I know, and speculated with him, well, if she is so short, and even a bit off-putting, it must be because she knows she is gorgeous, does not charge like those deluxe hotties, and so she says ‘I am fabulous, I do not have to brag’ In Latin, it was acta non verba, so in spite of some warning signs, I say I will go, even if she did say she does not do this, and the other, so I ask for the address, suitable, not far, Alhamdulillah, but when I get there, I ask what entrance, and she is going ‘it is across the street’, she did not know, and I heard a baby, I thought Which is very upsetting for me, it does not put me in a sexual mood, but anyway, she explains very badly, says it is entrance 1, call 27, I do, and keep doing it to nausea, she says she will come down to fetch me – most buildings offer access only though calling – but then I see she does, at a different place and tell her to look up and see where she is, I mean she did not know the street, the entrance, anything, but we get up, and then more Suprises, she starts felatio, but without taking anything off, what is this? And there is worse, I say get the volume of the TV down, or you know what, when I see she does not, turn it off, and she says no, so she wanted to suck my dick, fully clothed, and watching whatever was on right then… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 12, 2024
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Oct 12, 2024
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Oct 12, 2024
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| 0141043857
| 9780141043852
| 0141043857
| 3.62
| 1,048
| Nov 01, 1580
| Sep 22, 2009
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it was amazing
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On Solitude by Michel de Montaigne, author of one of the Greatest books of All Time, my note on some of this fleuve are at https://realinibarzoi.blogs
On Solitude by Michel de Montaigne, author of one of the Greatest books of All Time, my note on some of this fleuve are at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... 10 out of 10 Michel de Montaigne was one of the brightest minds of all time, however much we could try and poke holes, or apply some of our standards to his writing and go ‘oho, this is not ethical, appropriate, inclusive or whatever today – for instance, I am thinking now of the passage where he says something along the lines of ‘I am not interested if a coachman is clean, if the waiter is smart, I need them to do their job’, this is no way near what he said actually, but that is how it gets distorted in my head, and this serves as a warning, it is what you are about to get more of, if you stay on this page, we could try and entice you, twist this around- Hey, this is creative, inventive, you will get an unexpected, outré angle, even if it means reading with opaque glasses – let us get back, revenons a nos moutons, as the French say, and insist on the paramount importance of Solitude, which has both its attractions, and some very serious shortcomings, dangerous traits Psychology studies https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/11/... have shown that Solitude kills, in fact, for those who are recluse, really live isolated from the rest of humanity, it is twice as dangerous as smoking, so imagine that, we all know about tobacco, as in the smoked kind I have read in The Economist that the republicans – that is the sect of crazies that worship Orange Jesus, one of the most disgusting idiots we could find, and I am so enraged by this, indeed, I keep returning to this topic, but then I see this as the epitome of evil, stupidity and if we read and try and put some thoughts here, separate the good from the bad, show we have learned something from say Montaigne, then this is the litmus test Actually, I am now processing this, and feel like here we have the upside of Solitude, so it is dangerous, we need to be with fellow humans, but then if they belong to that massive cult that worships the Orange Dracula, then I am sorry, but I am way better off in Solitude, with all the risks involved, it is preferable than the other pain If the alternative is getting out of Solitude with a bunch of morons aka MAGA, well buddy, you just leave me the hell Alone, even if I die twice as fast that if I take up smoking (again, I was smoking while a student because…I was hungry, these were the days of communism and we were on practice and had little food But then there comes 1989, and I take part in the Revolution that toppled Ceausescu – I have a standard ending, in order to place this act that I am so proud of, then something with AT&T, maybe I find a lawyer reading this and we come into money, and some other gadgets, quotes, it is down there, if you want to jump I have read somewhere – maybe in this book, which I review here https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/10/... that the brain is so big, when compared with other animals, not because of the need to get food, but because of the…social challenges In order to juggle with what Fred needs, Mary wants, the spouse objects to, you need a lot of ‘grey cells’ – Hercule Poirot https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/08/... kept referring to those – now, the wife was in her usual Contempt mode, I wanted to take part in the ten kilometers run This Sunday, and she said no, well, I have done it two weeks ago, and in 56 minutes, which is astounding, considering that I will be 61 in February, then I have had little training, albeit I owe it to the great Magister Ludi, the one who paid for the running shoes, equipment, tax, even sent a man to give me the kit And an Uber, the driver of the latter stole my competition shirt, and at the end of the run, I had to wait to see if they have an extra, so that I will have this special memory, and something to wear and show off, so that people can see The Run of The Arenas, so this guy is really an athlete, and so on, well talk of Solitude Emotional Intelligence https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/08/... is the domain of Daniel Goleman, the ultimate expert, and again, my feeling is that I have read, probably in his book, that EQ is twice as important as IQ, because we do not live in Solitude, we are social The Female Brain https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is another psychology classic by Louann Brizendine and we find about the difference between the Female Brain and the Male Brain, they are so much better in Emotional, Social arenas, superior skills Speculation, yet again, it seems it is somewhere, in some book, I could not have come up with this – nevertheless, I have invented a position, on head, lotus position, and abdomens, the link is a few lines down here – it goes back to the times when males went hunting, and women stayed with the kids and the other families in the caves, ergo, they needed to interact, to develop communication and social skills, which we can appreciate – I also strongly recommend 50 Psychology Classics https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/11/... a must read, if you ask me… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
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Oct 11, 2024
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Oct 11, 2024
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![La cloche de verre / [nouvelles]](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1699703319l/84671188._SX50_.jpg)
| 2721000322
| 9782721000323
| 2721000322
| 4.00
| 1
| unknown
| unknown
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really liked it
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La Cloche de Verre by Anais Nin, in a brief assessment, I would say this works like magic, or Viagra, perhaps Sidenafil 10 out of 10 I am reading the as La Cloche de Verre by Anais Nin, in a brief assessment, I would say this works like magic, or Viagra, perhaps Sidenafil 10 out of 10 I am reading the astounding Delta of Venus and I am flabbergasted, it is both hot, nay, incendiary, and hard to take in, I mean it is so erotic, arousing that I forget I will be sixty-one in February – indeed, our fantastic, greatest luminary, Andrei Plesu has something to share on the matter, albeit it is from a late friend of his Our Magister Ludi and philosopher spoke about getting old, and the advantages we have in that process (yes, I know it is counterintuitive, but we are talking Silver Lining Playbook https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/... so be a merit finder, not a fault finder) When advanced in age, you get away with spots on the tie – if you wear one – do not care so much about (well, anything, look at Orange Jesus, favorite to win the most powerful position in the world, again, and damn soon) what happens, but then there is a secret that Alexandru Paleologu shared with us, eventually ‘It is not what you think that lets you down, it is the knees’, he meant the penis still functions (helped by Sidenafil probably, this is what I take, it is a generic, cheaper version of Viagra) but then you have to see about other body parts, and now in a sort of boring circle, which could have served as a spoiler alert, I am getting back to the story https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and say that the stories of Anais Nin work like Cialis - let us make publicity for another product now…incidentally, I have a scheme, if you read this, would be interested and want to share some million dollars with yours truly, and here it is: I do a fabulous, incredible trick, which you can see here http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... and I could do a commercial with that, say that I drink, eat this, or use the services of that doctor, lawyer, etc. and then it is so fantastic, it makes me get on my head, in lotus and do…abdomens So I have the whole package for a possible ad, and would only require a few million bucks to do it, so if you have the client, gig, then we can share, let me know…and let us get back again, I know, I know, it is getting outré, perhaps boring, and hey, it might be time to leave, but then this is how one works, after so much standing on the head… In the lotus position to boot…’I hear, I hear you, a deaf man can hear you’, this is from a Mel Brooks comedy, astounding, marvelous https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/02/... - Anais Nin would be cancelled in some ways today, never mind that she is a woman and they should be celebrated Besides, in Florida, or other MAGA territories, they would just burn her books, eliminate, ban them, those people are crazy, but also, you find within pedophilia, like in The Hungarian Adventurer, who is some sort of modern Cassanova, with priapism, something our king, Carol II suffered from, a rather unfortunate, dictatorial fellow, you see a replica in The Prince and The Showgirl, with Marylin Monroe as the girl https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/07/... this was so hard to make, it was the inspiration for a recent, good motion picture, My Week with Marylin, but I am getting distracted, again, better said always…The Hungarian Adventurer is into having affairs with multiple women he meets this Brazilian dancer, Anita, who appears to get him to stay, she is performing on stage, but then she moves into the multiple audience, where she…sucked men’s penises, and that is not all, this orgy is spiced with her rouging her…sex, in front of a small crowd, her private part is like a ‘giant hothouse flower it has abundant, curly hair – if there is a young reader here, if anyone, back in those days, pubic hair was a thing, indeed, I have seen an ad on the net, one woman was advertising sexual services, by specifying she has that kind of ornament, which makes her one in a million, maybe – and then The Hungarian Adventurer is hooked they marry, and he stays for a couple of years, they have two daughters, later on, when they are adolescent, he invites them to his house, he is married again, and then he has sex with them, so incest, checked – granted, another great work, I am not sure about Anais Nin, but Sophocles write a magnum opera which has incest at the core Oedipus Rex https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/... is one of the Greatest Books of All Time, as estimated by some of the luminaries of our age, who have been asked by the Norwegian Book Club to rate their favorites, and Aristotle had a model for the best drama, and Oedipus appears to be it We need reversal and a revelation, and this happens at the same time, when Oedipus finds he had killed his father and married his mother, so on that count, Anais Nin does not have the killing, so we should not be outraged, overwhelmed by just the inappropriate sex, only there is more, so much more, as in pedophilia When in Rome - do what the Romans do is the saying, which conforms with one principle of Influence https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/03/... the classic of psychology, Social Conformity would be one of the six principles detailed in the master[piece – The Hungarian Adventurer has some sort of sex with a ten years old and I forgot how old was the other one, but it is out there… Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
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Oct 10, 2024
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Oct 10, 2024
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Oct 10, 2024
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| 2350301400
| 9782350301402
| 2350301400
| 4.50
| 2
| unknown
| Dec 16, 2010
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it was amazing
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The Essays book I aka Les Essais Livre I by Michel de Montaigne, author of Essays on Friendship, my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.
The Essays book I aka Les Essais Livre I by Michel de Montaigne, author of Essays on Friendship, my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... along with other reviews 10 out of 10 Let us try to start off with an attempt to be humorous – this is so spectacular that it is very difficult to read, I mean I am trying the audiobook version – by the way, seeing that this is centuries old, and thus the copyright has expired also some hundreds of years back, you can listen to it for free, or find it on this site https://www.gutenberg.org/ It is more difficult to listen to someone reading the book for you, it is nay impossible if we are talking about Ulysses or Beckett https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/08/... and Michel de Montaigne has so much packed in, that the average brain would have trouble assimilating, at least mine has On the other hand, there is a lot that makes sense, seems so reasonable, as in well, I might have thought of that, or I did read this before, and it has crossed my mind, most often the thinker is so decent, he even takes a relaxed attitude towards cannibals, if I have got that right, I may just sell you poppycock here, unintentionally though Some of the essays have been through my ears this morning, as I was doing my fifteen kilometers run – is it not impressive, I just inserted this here, to show off, if I cannot put here exquisite, awe-inspiring lines that would catapult me to offers for writing a Pulitzer Prize winner, at least let us brag about some brawn, and I am sixty! Therefore, it was difficult, though there is that thing called the ‘runner’s high’, developed though millennia of evolution, nature has provided humans with a system to keep them active, you see a predator, and you need to get away fast – we are talking prehistory, right? – so the body has to face the challenge Well, the brain would get a dose of stimulants, the perfect cocktail of dopamine, serotonin, adrenalin (or the latter is for the heart), some of these would be present, but I forgot the rest, the point of it is that this stimulates, offers a sensation of getting to what might be called Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... a classic of positive psychology Indeed, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, co-founder of positive psychology, along with Martin Seligman, has studied what brings humans into The Zone, to a Peak Experience, and contrary to what some expected, that lethargy would be so pleasant, participants would express felicity when sitting on the couch, it was a surprising result We are in (near?) ecstasy when we are challenged, tested, granted, one paramount rule is that challenges meet skills, or else you must be on the line between boredom and burnout, not too easy as to be uninteresting, nor too heavy as to make you suffer and lose joy, time is relative, that is another condition of flow If you have an overwhelming experience, in that it is too much, time will dilate, it will feel as in the Einstein quote “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.” The pain of the hot stove, but when it is splendid, time is short I will refer to Positivity https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/05/... another essential book in psychology, the author, marvelous Barbara Fredrickson, looked at what is positivity, what are the elements, how do we get there, and evidently, you need to read the book to get to the essence Nonetheless, there are ten components which are sine qua non, awe, interest, joy, inspiration, pride, amusement, hope, serenity, gratitude and love, albeit I have some qualms, in that at least two of them look to me as contradicting some principles from other, sage thinking, in particular, that of the stoics, the ascetic luminaries That is we need to be happy with what we have, hence what is the need for hope, and if modesty is the key word, how about pride https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/... it is just a mind game, for there is a need to apply moderation, or what was called the Golden Mean I am thinking now of a real-life example, with fucked up office here – my daughter made me buy a camera, worth near 3,000 Dolars, with the incentive that they would give 300 back, after waiting for one month, so that they are sure we keep the goods, and not return them, only now we are caught in a clash with them Well, it is about finished, because they just do not want to give the 300, because they claim that the registration did not take place in time – which even by that standard is gruesome, in my mind, for they say wait one month, but not more than five, and then this was not like big, on the site, it was just wait a month And then the huge cost, 3000 dollars, why not say now, we are seven months out or so, that alright, you are valuable customers, we get the point, she may have registered on the site, these have problems, they have had those with that The Interview movie, when Kim of North Korea got upset, and then they hacked their game But no, they just refuse to pay, and I need to remember ‘Happiness Activity No 6: Developing Strategies for Coping-practicing ways to endure or surmount hardship or trauma’ from the book The How of Happiness Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
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Oct 09, 2024
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Oct 09, 2024
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Oct 09, 2024
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| B003X72ELK
| 5.00
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| Jan 01, 1931
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it was amazing
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not set
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Oct 09, 2024
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| 0394757688
| 9780394757681
| 0394757688
| 4.19
| 43,941
| 1953
| Aug 12, 1988
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it was amazing
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The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, author of The Big Sleep – my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/... where I have a few thou
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, author of The Big Sleep – my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/04/... where I have a few thousand reviews 10 out of 10 The Long Goodbye is a mesmerizing magnum opus, and I find Philip Marlowe to be absolutely heroic, in that he checks so many of the boxes for Character Strengths, loyalty, courage, resilience, open minded, creative, generous, emotionally intelligent (and otherwise), with great sense of humor, grateful, modest, and it goes on Indeed, the chef d’oeuvre is twenty relevant lists, and you find that from the site of The Greatest books of All Timehttps://thegreatestbooks.org/books/2028 where you get many relevant details, so we have this on the Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time, Anthony Burgess Best 99 Novels, The Guardian, The Times and other lists Terry Lennox could be considered the second most important figure in this superb narrative, the two meet and they become friends -at one point, I was musing that they get so intimate, that a gay romance might be assumed – they go out to drink this special drink, speak the same language, and the hero would prove so damn loyal Terry Lennox has a terrible side of his face, with scars presumably made in World War II, premature white hair, he was married to a very wealthy woman, the daughter of the recluse Harlan Potter (so close to Harry Potter, you may wonder if the author JK Rowling did not get her idea from here) but though they re-marry… It is not for long, since one night (was it night, or I am just making this up, since I do not remember well) Terry Lennox is asking his friend to take him away, because he is in trouble, the detective knows about accessory, so he does not want to know, he would just help, but without being aware of what had happened Which he will find out anyway, once Terry is hiding in Mexico, we can see that Sylivia was found dead, with her face so smashed with a statue, that she could not be identified if they were to use that, and it is even more complex, it was not this statue that was the murder weapon, she had been shot and then disfigured – A detail that will matter later, in a text book of what Aristotle demanded of a good drama https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... that it has a good reversal and revelation, in Oedipus the two happen at the same time, when the king finds he had killed his father and married his mother Terry commits suicide – or this is what we see at this point, in spite of the suspicion that maybe he was killed – and leaves a confession, stating that he was the killer, and with this, the police investigation, and the story in the papers are stopped, the latter because of the rich dad of the late Sylvia, who was sleeping around, ergo it is assumed that the motive would have been jealousy, the husband caught her and then took revenge It is not the end, indeed, there would be plenty of reversals, and till the end, you have a full set of surprises, a Las Vegas gangster makes a visit, telling the detective to keep his ‘nose clean’ – when taken in by police hoodlums, the hero does not talk about his dead friend (assumed, actually) and he is behaving like a super hero Howard Spencer is a publisher and he wants the detective to help with a writer, Roger Wade, who is an alcoholic, incidentally, he blacks out when he is drunk and he becomes violent, and needs a ‘male nurse’, somebody to keep an eye on him, and eventually, bring him back to writing one of his bestselling, if not wonderful books The wife of this author is stunning, Eileen represents one of those details that make the narrative a bit improbable, just like I thought the connections somewhat hard to buy, I mean she just meets this fellow again, in that big country, he arrives in the same circle, maybe, nevertheless, this is a masterpiece, as I said right at the start The Wades have a houseboy, Candy, who is from Chile, he repeats that, and handles a knife, he is very devoted to his boss, so much so that he is ready to engage in violence, and he does not like Marlowe at all, at least in the first stages, things are complicated when at a gathering, doctor Loring threatens Wade and he is jealous Linda Loring, the wife of the doctor, happens to be the sister of the deceased Sylvia, fortunately for Philip Marlowe, she is different, privileged, yes, she had been raised in a big mansion, they have had tones of money, but her character appears to be much better, albeit there would be some reserves up to the end, and maybe beyond that This will not reveal much of what happens, the dead people mentioned show up early, and in one case, there is still more to be discovered, but I must say that Roger Wade appears to be suicidal, depressive, and then he becomes a sort of suspect, what with his blacking out, and that gruesome killing of Sylvia, the treatment applied to her face Maybe he just did it, in one of his rages, induced by alcohol – he did try to do something, he even checks in with some disreputable doctor V, to try some sort of detox outfit, illegal and rough – and then he just forgot about it, or he has some anxiety, he fears what he can do when not in control and this is haunting him… Then there is Eileen, who is so attractive that Marlowe kissed her, then, while he is looking for her husband, who went to bed, she just jumps on the detective and then claims she was dreaming, and thinking of a late lover, it gets so complex, spectacular and thrilling, one of the best books I have read in some time Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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Oct 2024
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Oct 08, 2024
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Oct 08, 2024
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| 0192839136
| 9780192839138
| 0192839136
| 3.46
| 6,609
| 1759
| Apr 22, 1999
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really liked it
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The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read 9 out of 10 Rasselas, Prince of Abiss The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read 9 out of 10 Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia has reminded me of Candide, wherein I liked so much the character of Pangloss, albeit Panglossian is now an insult, it is someone who has so high, stupid, preposterous expectations, or he is deluded https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/... Indeed, Pangloss was exaggerating – and I am aware of that, it is just that it seems to be better to live in a fictional world, where all is sublime and paradisical, than moan all the time, which is what humans tend to do anyway, we have that built in, because it was essential to be ‘negative’ in pre-historic times or the days of Wine and Roses https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/08/... The ancestors had to be concentrated on the threat, the perils and then run or be a meal for some predator, or conquered by some other male – these were the developed animals that fought, assaulted and the rest of it – whoever had a tendency to be Panglossian would have no time to enjoy that imagined Eden However, Rasselas seems to err on the side of negativity, they are all lamenting in the beginning, the middle and the end – I am attempting satire here, and trying hard to be funny – only they also propose some ideas, principles that have been confirmed by psychology tests, research, take the Boredom that is affecting the personages Among the conditions for Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... being in the Zone would be nothing else matters, you are in control, there are clear goals, it is autotelic, time is expanding, or compressing, maybe both, feedback is instant and continuous and then you are on a line… Between boredom and burnout, and this is where Rasselas and his community come short, in fact, they seem to fulfill none of the aforementioned rules, and then we also come to another classic, Stumbling On Happiness https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/... by a Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert looked at the myths of happiness, and one that concerns Rasselas would be that if one is wealthy, then he must be happy – there was an amusing Lexus ad, something along the lines of he has money and not happy, well, he does not know how to spend it, ergo get a Lexus and bingo, felicity is there. Other misconceptions include if you were to live in California, on a Caribbean or Pacific Island, then you would hit the jackpot, just like winning the lottery, with more than a million dollars prize was tested and it brings merriment, but only for a few months, than it is back to the base level, due to Hedonic Adaptation ‘Wisdom surely leads us to choose the least unhappy life’, there are lines like that, and Rasselas, those he encounters do investigate and arrive to some clever conclusions, which made me think of the Stoics https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/04/... and other ancient philosophers They used to say that knowledge brings virtue and the virtuous man is a happy one, although it has to be the whole package, one has to be courageous and sage, it is also a question of moderation, because virtue is in the middle and vices are ion either side, you are not brave, if you take the motorcycle and go with 300 miles per hour on ice https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... Among their observations there was ‘People think the lot of their neighbor is better’ says Imlak…Happiness is surely somewhere to be found says Prince Rasselas and that brings us to Sonja Lyubomirsky and ‘Happiness Activity No 3: Avoid Over thinking and Social Comparison- using strategies such as distraction to cut down on how often you dwell on your problems and compare yourself with others’ Sonja Lyubomirsky wrote this and another eleven rules of happiness, which you can understand by reading her fantastic magnum opus, we could also refer to H.L. Mencken and his hilarious and so accurate assessment — ‘Wealth - any income that is at least $100 more a year than the income of one's wife's sister's husband.’ The hermit passage in Rasselas made me think of the chef d’oeuvre, one of my favorite novels, The Glass Beads Game aka Glasperlenspiel https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/... and the ascetic figures we find in there, from the Magister Musicae, who is moving away from words… Towards music, distancing himself from people, into solitude, the ascetic who is looking at the world and sees illusion, maya, but the isolated man in Rasselas is there only to further the idea that finding happiness is so hard, if not impossible, because he is in fact a man of the world, in his cave he has…chambers He did not choose this life of contemplation, but he was forced to escape, anyway, Rasselas also made me think of Siddhartha, in that they experience the same disillusionment, they want to go from home, where they have luxury, to find truth, or Nirvana Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Oct 07, 2024
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Oct 07, 2024
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Oct 07, 2024
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Paperback
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| 0743265238
| 9780743265232
| 0743265238
| 3.98
| 21,279
| Sep 13, 1984
| Jan 01, 1985
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really liked it
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Empire of The Sun by JG Ballard, author of Crash – my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/07/... with a few thousand more reviews 9 o Empire of The Sun by JG Ballard, author of Crash – my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/07/... with a few thousand more reviews 9 out of 10 While the encounter with Crash was a disaster for this reader, Empire of The Sun was a delightful read, which gives me (some) courage to try the other two books by JG Ballard that are included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, along with the aforementioned, Millenium People and The Drowned World Three out of four are Science Fiction, and that could be the root of the problem with Crash, and maybe the others, since I am not a big fan of this genre, Empire of the Sun may have worked because it is a War and Travel Book, that is we find it in that section, and it deals with the war experiences of Jamie aka Jim Graham The name of the hero is in fact borrowed from the author, JG stands for James Graham, indeed, the narrative is inspired from what the novelist has been through, during World War II – this inspired a movie, and I remembered seeing Christian Bale, a great thespian, and some scenes where he is in a camp, but not much more At the start of the book, we find Jamie enjoying life in Shanghai – he would be called at some point Shanghai Jim – with his family, well off, though they are not exorbitantly rich, and anyway, his father is, if not parsimonious, disinclined to spend too much, privileged white people, in a city supposed to be larger than London The capital of the British Empire, which covered about one third of the world, was the center of the world in some ways, and the Grahams are English, they take part in the high life, own a pool, have servants, one young woman is a refugee from Europe, she escaped the march and mass killings of the Nazis However, she lives in a room, with her parents, and when Jim asks about the size – ‘is it as large as this room’ – she answers that it is in fact as big as a cupboard, ‘not everyone is as lucky as you are’, which was an accurate depiction before Pearl Harbor, what with the chauffer, the Packard, amenities, all they wanted This is changing dramatically, in the eve of the Japanese attack on the American fleet stationed (actually the term must be anchored) in Hawaii, what there is of it, I think luckily there were big ships missing, and thus saved from the onslaught, the subjects of The Empire of the Sun (the name refers to that country) get the power It is a surprise in Shanghai, just as it was at Pearl Harbor, in the clash, Jamie ends up in the hospital, and he eventually escapes to return home, he does not find his parents, there are no servants, the hero has to stay alone for days, then it dawns on him that they are not coming back, he contemplates the idea of surrendering Though not from the start, he tries to find his friend, but nobody is left there, at Shell, there is a keeper, but the white people have been taken prisoners, or worse, those that are from the enemy camp, the Germans are free, albeit the relationship is tense, between the Japanese and their allies, the Nazis, they are made to obey orders When the soldiers of the Empire of the Sun stop the Germans, they are made to return, as they were bent on attacking those who lived in a Jewish area, they are searched…when he is at his friend’s house, one of the former employees kicks the protagonist so bad, he has an injury, he had never been hit that bad He is roaming through the city on his bicycle, for as long as he has it, he tries to surrender, but he is ignored, sent away, the problem is that the food stocked in his home and elsewhere is running out, indeed, this would be a huge problem, during the years that the traumatized super hero has to live in camps That is right, I call him a super hero, because he has a fabulous determination, what a courage, resilience, generosity (sometimes he has to be selfish, but otherwise there is no chance for him), emotional intelligence, humility, leadership qualities, creativity, curiosity, judgment, open mindedness and more What happens to Jamie Graham reminded me of the psychology classic Man’s Search for Meaning https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/... by Victor Frankl, who has had to survive in a Nazi death camp, and we understand some of the essence ‘where there is a will, there is a way’ The boy meets with some Americans, and the connection is flawed, they try to use him, just as we could say that there are some advantages for him in having this (quite small) support from the adults, one of them thinks of selling the child, only he does not have an offer, eventually, they are caught by the Japanese In the camp, life is very hard, especially as the provisions run low, and the guards would rather not have to feed those prisoners, the hero becomes a man under the circumstances, making this a bildungsroman, he has a crash on a woman that is also interned, with her son and ailing husband, at Lungha... With the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the war ends, in a way, only for Jamie the ordeal is not over, actually, he is very near starvation, he lives among the dead, the horrors he has witnessed will mark him for life, trying stupid joke, this explains why Ballard would write Crash, one of my least enjoyable reads…the saga of this teenager is overwhelming loved it, and made me change some of my rituals, kudos! Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r... Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works ‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’ ‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’ “From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more |
Notes are private!
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Sep 20, 2024
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Sep 29, 2024
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Sep 29, 2024
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my rating |
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| 4.04
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it was amazing
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Nov 13, 2024
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Nov 13, 2024
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| 5.00
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it was amazing
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Nov 05, 2024
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Nov 05, 2024
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| 3.92
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it was amazing
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Nov 02, 2024
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Nov 02, 2024
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| 3.59
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it was amazing
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Nov 2024
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Nov 01, 2024
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| 4.60
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it was amazing
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Oct 27, 2024
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Oct 27, 2024
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| 3.95
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really liked it
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Oct 26, 2024
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Oct 26, 2024
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| 4.11
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really liked it
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Oct 24, 2024
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Oct 24, 2024
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| 4.51
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it was amazing
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Oct 22, 2024
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Oct 22, 2024
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| 3.46
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really liked it
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Oct 17, 2024
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Oct 17, 2024
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| 4.50
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really liked it
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Oct 16, 2024
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Oct 16, 2024
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| 3.55
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really liked it
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Oct 15, 2024
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Oct 15, 2024
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| 4.08
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it was amazing
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Oct 13, 2024
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Oct 13, 2024
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| 3.56
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really liked it
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Oct 12, 2024
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Oct 12, 2024
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| 3.62
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it was amazing
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Oct 11, 2024
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Oct 11, 2024
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| 4.00
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really liked it
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Oct 10, 2024
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Oct 10, 2024
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| 4.50
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it was amazing
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Oct 09, 2024
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Oct 09, 2024
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| 5.00
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it was amazing
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not set
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Oct 09, 2024
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| 4.19
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it was amazing
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Oct 08, 2024
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Oct 08, 2024
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| 3.46
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really liked it
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Oct 07, 2024
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Oct 07, 2024
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| 3.98
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really liked it
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Sep 29, 2024
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Sep 29, 2024
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