a penny for your thoughts
words float around and around till there is no more place in my headArchive for January, 2009
loving life
My findings of the week – all comes down to the food and the place 
Meadowlark is just amazing Her rainbow cake (see below) has been in almost all blogs for a couple of weeks, but now she caught me off-guard with her chai (and I don’t mean my self-loving, amazing, gigner friend). As soon as I will clean up my room, I shall invite friends for some tea and rainbows Could be even better than brownies!
Apartment therapy is a e-box full of surprises! I wish someone would make my bedroom’s ceiling look like that (see below). Oh, Valentine’s day..
Few years ago, my friend covered her bedroom’s floor with black&white paper cuts. It looked interesting, but, well, not practical, so to say. Now, looking at this photo of bathroom, I have the feeling that b&w magazines are ment for being placed on the bathroom’s walls.
Just love the air of 60’s the colors, shapes give to the room. 60’s, for sure, yet there is something completely new in it.
When I moved to my current room, I wanted to put different pillows in niche and to cover it with curtains in indian colors (gold, red, orange…). Of course, I didn’t do it (mom then argued that it would be difficult to clean all the pillows and it would be cold sleeping on the floor), but these angular beauties below makes me want to carry out my childhood dream.
The saddest stopper I have ever seen. Makes me think about global warming and people’s terrible lifestyle.
As much as we claim to be planet friendly thinking creatures, once in a while we like to feel the texture of wood. Without going outdoors.
The headboard.. the colors… the sweet dreams they seem to be promising… argh.
P.S. I love when people come to see me during my stricktly fixed lunch time. That just proves that they want to see me and therefore are ready to re- schedule their day so I could make it
P.P.S. Have a wonderful, colorful and what-else-not weekend! Live for each other, as Yogi says
happy new year!
Yesterday during the lunch we decided to go to that very warm and cozy place I was introduced to in saturday during ex-class mates meeting, and somehow I missed the fact that it is New Year! So, we got our fortune cookies and… Well, I guess you need a little information to understand why I am happy. My work collegue is married for God knows how long and she wants to have a child, so, when she got her cookie, she desperately wanted to find dates in it (that in chinese belief means that the person will have baby boy in 9 months). Guess what she got? Yes, her pate was full with so many dates I believe she will have twins or something I guess you want to know what was in my jiaozi … well, no dates, fortunately, but there was also no sugar (means that next year will be sweet) and no mints (fortune)… I got ground-nuts, which means that I will live a very long life. It is not that I believe these things or something, but seriously… how long is long? And why there were no jiaozies filled with something that would ensure love and happiness?
Never mind. As long as I am happy (and I am determined to be happy for the rest of my life) I can live for a long time, if jiozi wants me to 
trocadero
However, today I feel as hippiish as ever (i know there is no such word, but I want it to be). All morning listening to Almost Famous OST I now surf through parisienne photos. I don’t know why.
so far so good
another bunch of finally developed pics
+ something surreal i found on the web
“I’m dancing without my shoes…”*
Couldn’t fight the desire to share this beautiful day with you… I have passed all my exams. And not just passed, there are only two kinds of numbers in my results table… 8 & 9. As mom said: “You not only managed to study and work, but even travel! You should think about additional university.”
Sure.
I want to sing in some medieval folk band.
P.S. I wanted to give myself a treat and therefore went to Coffee Nation. Mistake. They should rename Tuna-fish salad for Mayonnaise salad with Tuna-Fish.
* song by Guano Apes
thought of the times
“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”
- V is for Vendetta -
Here is the first part of our trip videos. Enjoy
damn blues
after 24 hours my good mood from the exchange collapsed and i am having the blues. anyway, to somehow distract myself (and you), i decided i could write something instead of watching pictures from poland over and over again and making short movie.
first of all, not everything was as good as you might think. first of all, latvian ngo deceived us pretty hard. not only about film developing stuff, but also some other things, for example, the leader asked us to pay money to her because she had invested her time to write the project and bla bla bla. later it turned out that poland was the only one who participated in writing the project. well, but that would not be so bad, if we hadn’t found out that there was more money involved. stupid latvian blood, it is all over corrupted.
anyway, we called our painting lessons “kindergarten”, because most of the time we used pastels for drawing. all teachers talked only polish, so, of course, it was a great opportunity for me to polish my polish knowledge (believe me, i didn’t mean to talk in rhymes, it was unconsciously done), but sometimes it was a bit annoying. slovakians didn’t talk english at all, so we communicated using simplified english, slovakian, russian and german. and when i say simplified i really mean simplified.
however, the people (!), the people were great. in our latvian team we had two fashionistas (they changed their clothes 4 times a day), girl from rozental’s art school (she was amazing. we called her homer simpson, because most of the evenings she spent on the couch with a beer in her hand), professional photographer (i could spend hours talking with him about photography), girl with mandala around her neck, girl who participated in dakar rally (yup, she participated two years in a row and her natural hair color is blond. could listen to her stories forever) and a geography teacher (!).
for a better look into their personalities (especially in the Homer’s), let me introduce you some dialogues and lines from the project.
K: “Why are you sleeping?”
Me: ”Because I’m tired.”
K: ”Tired of what?”
Me: ”Of being awake.”
Homer: ”Fishes are conceited, they don’t speak.”
Homer: “White chocolate is like monkey’s fat with sugar.”Homer: “Drink some more, then you will understand.”
?: “Only in Latvia poeple have warm fishnet tights.”
Homer: “I didn’t make it up, I think so.” (“Es neizdomāju, es tā domāju”)
Homer: “Cherry freeq [Polish beer] is like cologne with bubbles.”
Me: “Why are you taking those pills?”
MKEI: “Mom gave them for me to take, because they will expire soon.” [I know, I know, MKEI will comment that they were not pills but supplement. Whatever you say, M.]
A: “Where is the problem?! [sees a bottle of vodka in K's hands] Aa, here is the problem!”
K [obviously drunk]: “I see no problem.” [hides bottle behind his back]
MKEI: “Trees are good only in parks. I hate woods.”
Hope you enjoyed them and I will go and try to be rational, get myself into the right mood for tomorrow’s working day and maybe try to learn something for tomorrow’s exam.
Just got a mail from Piotr (the leader of the project). This doesn’t help my getting back to the real life at all.
P.S. I cannot upload all photos so fast (stupid flickr has limits (and, no, i don’t want to upgrade)) and holga’s & zenit’s films are still to be developed), so … be patient, k?
wonderful life
Just got back from Poland, Czarna, which is in the mountains near the Ukrainian border, and I will try to tell most of what I did there in a coherent and logical manner, although it will be a bit hard not to caps lock “loved it” everywhere throughout this post.
So, what I did there. Well, I managed to start painting my very first acceptable painting, but I got tired of it and gave it to Piotr (our leader from Poland) with words: “Tell them that the artist wanted this painting to look unfinished. You can put your name under this crap if you like.” I shot hundreds and hundreds of films, but I didn’t learn how to develop them. Turns out that we got a little bit different information about the project than which was provided to Latvian NGO. Go figure. Most probably our organization just wanted to get more people into it and therefore more money or smth.
However, it all was nothing compared to the fact that I met the first lomographer in Poland! He was our teacher during this project and he has been doing lomography for 8 years now. And he made the first LOMOwall in Poland as well. When he saw me coming in the auditorium (which happened to be also our dining room, disco room and studio) with Holga in one hand and Zenit in other, he asked: “And from which country is Holga?” From that time he remembered me, showed his analogue photos and, in the last meeting, he gave me professional 6×6 film as a present for my Holga. Oooh, I have met a celebrity! Later it turned out that he had finished that very famous Polish Movie university (don’t expect me to remember the names, please) and basically he is a director. When he will send me an email with critics about my pictures, I will post his name here, but for now I can’t remember it. Oh, just remembered. Mariush, I guess, but the spelling could be wrong.
What else? Well, these days were like a total holidays to us. Most of the people there were like me, escaped from work and studies, so every evening we exterminated alcohol like it would be New Year’s Eve or something. Bohemian paradise. Oh, I just can’t tell even half of what happened there, so I will post bits from the trip during the week or something like that.
Yeah, and i fell for the most adorable Polish guy I have ever met.
Life doesn’t suck. Wait till I post all the videos and pictures to see what I mean with “Bohemian Paradise” and “Life doesn’t suck”. Love you people.
“Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead.” – The Pierces
Yesterday I once again went through all materials from the University of Northampton. This is what caught my eye:
”I am always doing that which I can not do in order that I may learn how to do it”
- Pablo Picasso –
I have no idea where this sentence leaves me, but I certainly will do something with it. Nothing grasps our minds just for the pure sake of getting our attention.
Anyway, there is a secret I have been holding from you for past few months (although some of you managed to get the truth out). Tonight I am going away to shoot photos, learn how to develop films and just spend some time with interesting people in Poland. Remember what I once wrote about the word fallen to pieces when it is spoken? Well, I tried another tactic and it worked. Nothing is fucked up. Yet.
Just so you know, I had to tell my family about this trip and my beloved course mates as well (so they could stand up for me when making exam timetable and try to squeeze everything in few days), but I did not and will not tell a word about it to my work colleagues. So I beg you, do not mention my absence aloud or, heaven forbid, write me a public message on draugiem.lv. Believe me when I say that it will be the last message you write. Oh, and don’t waste your time and money texting or calling me. My phone will be switched off.
People, enjoy my and MKEI’s being away (yup, you got that right. We are in it together) and will see you after a week or so.
from my vantage point
P.S. In case anyone was wondering. My mp4 was silent for 2 days and on the third he spoke to me. I had never felt so happy before seeing “Battery Low” sign HE IS ALIVE!
