Múlt vasárnap szüreteltünk egy kicsit. Az alábbi másfél perce videó a három és fél óra cselekményeit foglalja össze, kissé felpörgetve.

Múlt vasárnap szüreteltünk egy kicsit. Az alábbi másfél perce videó a három és fél óra cselekményeit foglalja össze, kissé felpörgetve.
Yesterday when I was going through airport security in San Francisco I noticed that in the privileged, aka the fast lane an interesting set of people were coming through. What grabbed my attention was men with pink rectangular pillows on their heads that they were holding with one or two hands. These objects were clearly ceremonial. Some of the men were wearing regular semi-elegant western clothes, others semi-elegant clothing from India. Based on their skin color they all seemed to be from India. There was more than a dozen of them. I also noticed 2 or 3 people around them , who seemed to be ritually fanning the top of these pillows. Eventually I also saw one or two elderly gentleman in turbans and more traditional Indian clothing, with big white beards. For my untrained eyes they looked like gurus. I would appreciate if someone could identify them for me and for the people who asked me on Facebook or Instagram about them; i.e. do they belong to a new (age?) religious movement or were adherents of a more traditional religion. I was too shy to shoot too many pictures, so here is the best of the ones I took:
I am holding multiple perspectives of my trip to Berlin last month that I want to share with my future self along with a quick summary of the trip. I went with my Mother for three days. She was there last time in 1987 and never ventured to West Berlin. I did managed to cross the magical “West” around the same time for a few hours and I also passed through Berlin a week before the Wall came down in 1989. So we both wanted to check out the new/changed city. Hence the first perspective: comparison with itself from almost 30 years ago. I think the most memorable difference is the contrast between the vast empty spaces back then around the Wall–along with the general dreary grayness–versus the bustling constructions and new buildings everywhere. Yes, the changes on the streets could not be more tangible. We didn’t venture out too much to the East and West part of the city, so couldn’t fully compare the success of the unification. However we got the sense that it is mixed success. There are parts where it was hard to decide/remember whether which side we were on. Other spots were clearly belonged to one or the other too in their former selves.
We met an old friend from Hungary who has been living in Berlin for decades. He wasn’t the only one who described the city as “livable”. I cannot imagine a highest praise for a city. After all that’s what city folks want to do there live. This is where the second perspective comes in. We came directly from Budapest. Which is a great place to visit. It can also be made quite comfortable if one puts the effort in it and ha the resources to do so. However in Berlin I felt that the leaders of the city do a lot, including legislation and the way they must make decisions (involving the populace and experts) to ensue that the city serves its inhabitants and visitors. This concerted effort seems to be lacking in Budapest. So from the second perspective, comparing contemporary Berlin to Budapest the former comes out as a winner. It was most obvious when we were looking at the people on the streets, buses or S-Bahns. And I am not just talking about the multitude of skin colors and styles/types of people who coexist cheerfully. (After we returned to Hungary and watched the people on the public transportation they seemed so monotone, way less vibrant.) No, the its the general outlook and the mode of the people that I found more interested/interesting in Berlin. Yes, a lot of people look at their smartphone at both places, which seems alienating. However Berliners also looked up and were engaged with their surroundings and people lot more. And their face was more vivid, alive. Hungarians just keep looking stressed and sad. (Of course it is a gross generalization, there are lots of counterexamples in both cities, but I am just sharing trends I noticed.)
My third and final perspective came form the fact that I have been living in the US for 21 years and somewhat internalized its culture and frame of reference. Looking at Berlin as an American tourist was also refreshing. “We, Americans” are used to convenience, we like when things are arranged in a way that is easy to access, digest, consume. Berlin is a vary tourist friendly city. The signs are clear and unambiguous, everyone speaks at least some English, the spectacles are numerous, well maintained and vary enough to keep the visit interesting. One can find any kind of cuisine at any price range, although didn’t see “traditional American” food; not that I was looking hard. So my American self was fully satisfied with the visit.
So what did we do and see? Here are some highlights along with links to the images I took
P.s. From the hundreds of pictures I took on this trip I chose the one you see above, because it represent my biggest experience. I had a strong epiphany that I do love my life, which is how the German text translates.
The camera of the person who was supposed to video the flagpole dedication today ran out of space so I whipped out my cellphone and did it. It has sound, just everyone was quiet in the first half minute
Last time, when I uploaded videos to my YouTube channel I noticed that it was the 500th. It is kind a milestone so I decided to take stock. Last time I did it was about 23 months ago, when my videos reach 1 million views. On the inverted screenshot of my analytics you can see, that my videos had
It still amazes me, the kind of impact a person with a camera can have. And I know that I am far from maximizing my potential.
The ninth Sebastopol Ignite event was worth going to. I only went to Ignite once, four years ago in Budapest, so I was looking forward to another fun evening filled with presentations “using 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds for a total of just five minute.” It was in the Hopmonk Tavern, so we had a drink and some bar food too. Here are the 10 presentations, not exactly in the order of appearance.
“How Armenia led to my meeting Julie Numar”, Cat Cvengros – This was the first presentation, and my favorite. She was funny, had a point the story(telling) was engaging. Worth watching
“Using Your 5 Senses: Future Tech and How it Will Touch You”, Kerry Rego – I was already familiar with almost all the technologies mentioned in this, but the presenter pulled it together nicely.
“Silliness: Your (New) Tool for Corporate Success”, Ann Hamilton – I picked up a few useful tips from this on how humor can help in corporate settings or at any meetings.
“Paradise Lost”, Josh Simmons – Support your local industry by hiring local talents and that may help to counter the harmful mono-vitriculture of the county. As I participated an event organized by him/WIMP I also appear with the other people at 2.52.
“Luther Who?”, Erin Sheffield – Basic biographical information about Luther Burbank, presented by a sweet lady who volunteers at Luther Burbank’s Experiment Farm.
“Relaxation and Love are the Same Thing”, Lee Brewster – This wasn’t a traditional presentation, more like a guided meditation for the whole audience.
“Hacking the Phrase “They Did the Best They Could””, Amy Jollymore – I was having a hard time to follow this, but I think it was about how to grow up and raise yourself if you had a chaotic childhood environment. The title is about the alcoholic parent and not about their deprived children. More about it on her site.
“Your Brain on Language”, Matthew Bronson – This was a bit over my head with all the linguistic lingo, but still enjoyed singing row-row-your-boat…
“A Labor of Love: How Domestic Workers and Day Laborers are Changing the World”, Maureen Purtill – This was the only piece that had a political agenda, but it was also social and I agreed with it, so I didn’t mind.
“Do Your Actions Have Meaning?”, Sky Nelson – The point was to act with the knowledge that your choices have consequences, even if you cannot control them.
Here is what I remember of the fun I had this week, admittedly written much later.
Monday afternoon I enjoyed watching Stella taking another climbing lesson at the gym. It was cut short, because she only climbed once and was not interested doing it again. So only 2 minute of the 45 minute class was utilized, but she was happy. After the gym I went to the JCC, where I watched another film with the film festival committee.
Tuesday evening we all ended up at the gym, before and around Anya’s belly dancing class. It ended so late, that instead of cooking dinner we went out for a simple Vietnamese dinner. It felt good for all of us, relaxing there.
For Valentine’s Day we got lucky and found that one of Stella’s grandma could be with her. This way we had a chance to dine out, which we did at Sobbit Goa. The company and the food was excellent. I remembered taking Lactaid with me, so really enjoyed Mano Lassi again. Also papadum, naan and two main dish. To round of the evening we also had frozen yogurt. We were thinking what else we could do in the time we had, but didn’t come up with much more. Still this was the high point of the week.
There was also a little party at my workplace for V-day. Before the Subway sandwiches, sodas and chocolate the company got for our lunch we played a little game. We all got a sheet, that had bingo written on it. However we had to fill out all the 5×5 squares, where each contained a statement, that was true for one or more of our colleagues. We had to find to whom it applied and got her/his signature in the box. I was very slow, but the first one was another SEO person. Her prize was a box of fancy chocolate, that she was kind enough to share, so I had a piece to. It was a good, day, but I ate too much.
The third V-day related event was that Criterion movies were available to watch throughout the weekend free on Hulu. I watched three with commercial, when I realized that we actually paying members of Hulu Plus, so I could have watched them any time without commercial. This was a great discovery as Criterion published a lot of the art and foreign movies I was interested in watching. Looking forward doing so from now on.
I also read a book. Sort of. Someone donated to the Jewish Library where I work a book titled “Exit Wounds” by Rutu Modan. So I took it home, before incorporating into the library’s collection. (This is an advantage i feel I can take as the librarian there.) It was an interesting story of a young man searching (and more often not) for his father who may have been a victim of a suicide bombing. I only count it as “sot of” reading, because it is a graphic novel. I believe this is only the second or third such work I ever read, after Spiegelman’s Maus. It was fun to get immersed into this media and I may try other books too in the future. But looking at panels of drawings is definitely a different experience then reading text only.
I still enjoy taking a unique picture a day and posting it with a short message. This week I shot a table, an eucalpytus tree, rolling fog, a tree for sale, a screw, chair legs, and a sunset.
Here are the movies I watched this week:
Here is the not so fun part of the week. Stella got sick no Thursday. we kept her home on Friday and Anya even toko her to the doctor, who prescribed some antibiotics. We struggled with Stella whole afternoon so she woudl take the liquid. We eventually gave up, as we knew that we can go back and get her a shot. That’s exactly what we did next day and she recoveed fast after that.r
Not exactly fun, but I started of the week still sick. Nevertheless we had to take one of our cars to the mechanics, because it was way overdue for a tuneup. So we went there with both cars, dropped off one of them and Anya drove me home with the other one. On the fun side though I spent the rest of the day of watching movies and finishing another book, Marina Lewycka’s A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. In the evening, when we picked up the car, which is fine by the way, thank you, we went out to Crepevine and had a nice dinner. Which ended up not sitting me perfectly well, even though I tried a light fare.
A highlight of the week was when one evening a spammer, I mean telemarketer called and Stella picked up the phone. All three of us was in the living room to experience the conversation which went liek this:
– Good evening, may I speak with…?
– Hi.
– Uh, may I speak to your father?
– What’s your name?
– Is your Mommy or Daddy there?
– What’s your name?
– Can you give the phone to your Mommy or Daddy?
– Yes, but what is your name?
We let it go for a while, while literally rolling in laughter. Eventually we took over the phone but we had so much fun at the expense of the poor caller.
Wednesday we went over to have a last supper with my sister-in-law, before she went off to Israel for three months. It was a nice dinner and we had fun. I tried to give a few last advice and ideas, but I doubt any of them were heard or stick in all the excitement.
Sunday I worked in the garden for an hour clearing up weeds. I filled our big bin of yard waste, to be taken Wednesday. I also worked a bit in the basement. I have been keeping cardboard boxes for the eventuality that I need them for something. But after three years off sitting there they are i such condition that they would not hold anything safely. So I started to break them down and filled the recycle bin with them. I have enough boxes to fill it 3-4 more times. Then the basement will start to look better, but there is a lot more that could be done to tidy it up.
I watched these TV shows this week:
I watched these movies this week:
The week started of with Monday night’s meeting/filmviewing for the JCC film festival’s committee. This was the first this year and we viewed A Bottle in Gaza Sea. Most of us liked the movie that connected a naive, truth seeking Jewish teenager girl, with a sweet Palestinian boy, even if only via remote communication channels.
The rest of the week wasn’t very exiting, As usual, I worked a lot and watched a lot of TV. The latter included finishing the second season of Lost Girl. This took longer than the first season as the second had 22 episodes, while the first nly 13. I also watched this week’s Arrow and Person of Interest. In addition the fifth season of the original (not the US remake) of Being Human started. None of the original characters are in it, so it took me a few minutes to recall how they all got exchanged one by one to the new crew. I still have to get used to them.
When it came to my websites this week I was hoping to finish adding all the festivals and movies that were shown in January to my Jewish Film Festival site. I made a pretty good dent, but didn’t finish the process. I added 52 movies and 21 festivals and listed the movies played at 6 festivals.
Friday several of my colleagues sounded and were getting sick. Then after work at the gym I couldn’t finish my workout and had to go home and lay down. We were supposed to go to a party, but when I woke up a few hours later I called Anya, who was already at the party and told her, that I didn’t feel well and am not gonna make it there. The short version: I got the flu and spent the whole weekend in bed. Anya made chicken soup twice and that helped me and kept me afloat. I still lost 4 pounds, which was welcome, even if the method was not the most desirable. I couldn’t really work, even with a laptop in bed, so I ended up watching a lot of movies and I finished reading two books too. The first book I finished this year was Jim and the Flims by Rudy Rucker. I feel pathetic that it too a month to read a single book this year and even that was a light sci-fi, instead of something more substantial. But it was a lot of fun. Half of it was set in Santa Cruz, my old stomping ground. The other half in a widely imagined underground underworld. I loved the fantasy elements, that were actually based on weird science, well-known by the author who is a university professor.
Here are the movies I watched
Eating out
We ventured out one weekday evening to have pizza out. We used to order a large pizza and stuffed ourselves silly. Last few times I ordered medium and even that was too much. So this time we ordered a small one, which still filled us plenty. And on Saturday we went to Sushi Hana‘s “Dollar sushi”. There is no longer any sushi on their menu that would cost a dollar, but it is still much more affordable than other places or other nights and the sushi is still really good too.
Eating in, Friday night
We know a really nice Jewish family, consisting of a little girl a year younger than Stella, her mother and grandmother, who we’ve been trying to invite for dinner for a long time, and not just because we had diner at their house last time. Finally this Friday was good for everyone. So they came, Anya made great chicken and we all had a good time. Even the conversation was more relaxed and flowing than last time. It was as a Shabbat night should be.
My online life
Movies watched
This post is part of the series answering how I did this week with my new year resolution of having more fun, working on my body, and being more spiritual?