Behind the scenes

We have been furiously laborious, devoted, industrious and productive. Experiencing the new academic year, schools, routines, bus schedules, commuting arrangements, courses to lecture, and a baby cat has occupied all of our efforts lately. Nothing of it is visible. No photos this time.
Our pledge: as much as this family might grow to love the new pet, the cat will NEVER be the focus of this blog and her pictures shall not turn into the bore of all friends and relatives. A promise easy to keep while our camera batteries continue to be empty! But really, do not animal owners realize that every pet is the cutest only to them, and probably none is so innovative and smart because in fact most do the very same tricks time and time and again?
Why to patronize pet clothes manufacturers?
Why to purchase pet insurances?
Why to designate pet heirs?
Why to bother and spend on pet beauty salons?
Why to waste time arranging for pet psychiatrists?
Why on earth to sponsor charlatans such as pet psychics?
This is not a popular post, is it? But somebody has to dissent from the massive charade that sometimes turns life into absurdity. In a world afflicted with poverty, social injustice, marginalization, security problems and environmental abuse, every unjustified allocation of resources such as purchasing a diamond necklace to a dog or for what it matters any piece of clothing, just as much as taking a trip to outerspace "just for fun" is an insult to the human kind. Are not 20 million dollars too much to pay for a spacecraft ride? Has the person who spends on it already done everything else possible with the cash? I can come up INSTANTLY with innumerable great ideas. Part of it could be put into very good use, for example, improving the inadequate satination situation in countries where children die massively in need of water and other basic resources, helping few families to pay their morgages, sponsoring medical treatment to those who cannot afford it, etc...
It seems difficult to enjoy the pet craze and compulsive attention to animals that some display. Excessive self indulgence defies good taste as well. I tend to prefer people who are good and generous to other people(and other beings) than those animal lovers ill suited to relate to anybody else...
Restatement: Pets need vaccination, care and affection. That is all. No less, no more. less is neglect; more is foolishness.

El proyecto del verano esta casi listo

Blogging does?/does not? ruin friendships

Like this article affirms about FACEBOOK (How the title concerns the content of the text with precision? I have no idea but it is a good pitch for Facebook users to "dig" on it). As an occasional user of both channels I must admit discomfort and regret when I post too specific account of our activities or clearly irrelevant facts about life-our life. Who should care? Those who do would get to know it anyway...I understand the posture of the author very well. Sometimes I am compelled to feel the same (very, very bored, specially about the silly quizzes people compulsively take and even sillier results that strangely enough they volunteer to disclose!!!!). One should also appreciate the possibilities that this social networking offers. Mixed feelings: One can be creative, save time (no mass-emailing-impolite- but publishing-impersonal yet acceptable-), inform and get informed, have the option of a contact, etc. Anyone can also become annoying, silly, boring repetitive, a nuisance of www proportions! My limit: Never harass others to the point of urging to Twitter. MySpace is too much for certain ages and lifestyle. Who has the time to "secondlife" and "firstlife" efficiently?

By Elizabeth Bernstein in the Wall Street Journal Online:

" Notice to my friends: I love you all dearly. But I don't give a hoot that you are "having a busy Monday," your child "took 30 minutes to brush his teeth," your dog "just ate an ant trap" or you want to "save the piglets." And I really, really don't care which Addams Family member you most resemble. (I could have told you the answer before you took the quiz on Facebook.)..."

I keep this cartoon in mind

We can´t blog so often

I am knitting 2 new projects, reading a dummie´s book on crocheting, finishing "Asta´s book," preparing the house, the wardrobes and supplies for the children to begin school in one week, catering for the family of 5 full-time, and supervising the construction of our new sauna.
J. is all about the building of our back deck (terrace); back to work on Monday.
E, J.A. and J.J. are too busy enjoying their last days of Summer holidays. Tomorrow E. has a get together with the Reaalkool group that will form for newcomers to 7th grade.
I would love to visit Yvonne before the end of the season.
We missed to contact so many people this Summer, but next year we can already organize terrace parties.
Sara should come and stay few days. How nice it would be to see her after 10 years.
Not hearing anything from Josefina disconcerts me. Are you around? Last thing I heard you were moving from UAE to Algeria...I think of you and your life with 3 toddlers...I miss our life in Washington. We were so young, so happy. We are still happy, are not we?

Returning soon! Documenting also.

Why J. takes this sort of pictures????

J. used to surprise me with them long ago, now I get deeply confused when out of 300 photos taken during our family outings 275 are moved, blurry -in the digital age- or simply like the few below: weird. Maybe the interest on the images resides in their very senselessness?

1. Anytown anywhere?
2. !!!???!!!
3. Whose head is this? Who was supposed to be the main character on the picture?
4. The wrong family. Unidentifiable people that we have never-ever seen in our lives, not even during the capture!

A more constructive annotation, from TED(www.ted.com):

Friends are leaving

This time to Brussels. Foreign service. Some friends are also returning from Kiev, after 7 years abroad. This is why I am not that sad, and in any case we have the plan to visit them before next Summer. It is very hard to move around the world with children and forget about home, projects, routines and expectations. It is specially difficult to neglect one´s career. The life of a diplomat´s family is no paradise as it might seem.

My grandmother left her hometown Ovejas, Colombia (below, left) in 1941(?), for entirely different reasons. They made their home in Medellin, Colombia (below, right. The house in the city and a country house they visited sometimes). I think she never overcame loosing her sense of belonging despite the many gains. I can very well relate to that!

Ex-libris, again

I love al of these, in no particular order. Mine should include blue, a monogram of some sort, sea life connotations, and silluetes no matter how complicated combining all of it might seem.

Mas ocupada que nunca

Por las vacaciones de la familia entera y la cantidad de cosas por hacer de este verano. Ha hecho sol por semanas y hemos aprovechado cada momento posible afuera de la casa, cocinamos afuera, comemos afuera, hasta dormimos afuera o con las puertas y ventanas de par en par. En una semana y media cuando volvamos a las rutinas nos ponemos al dia en forma. Como no estoy por el computador con tanta frecuencia, son pocas las paginas que he visitado, pero entre esas vi lo siguiente:

-De poco impacto grafico pero idiomaticamente atractivo, convincente. Nada de que "la margarina para la mesa y para la cocina a todos nos gusta mas..."Algo parecido podrian pensar los que se encargan de los anuncios de jabones y detergentes:

-Una idea simple, una solucion perfecta para un problema de todos los que leemos paperbacks de 500 paginas y apenas logramos mantenerlos abiertos sin despedazarlos:

imagen: "ya no quedan blogs"

-Claro. Lo visual no deja ninguna duda. La web que comercializa esta tiene muchas mas por el estilo o en todo caso originales:

www.threadless.com

- Un capricho de siempre: Un cameo griego. Azulado. Broche.

Revisiting Naantali

Naantali is located in the Southwest of Finland:

This coming week. Just 3 days, Moominworld, Salo, and the Summer markets of Helsinki in the way back home. We look very much forward to it, specially Emil who will stay on his very own for the most part, for the first time. Now, the days before that trip it is the time to collect the blackcurrants and the cherries of our garden.

A movie to watch one more time

The Piano and its great theme song. Among our favourites of both genres. This is a good sample of its photography:

Books by my bedside (no night stand):

-White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Funny, entertaining and very good to improve my rusty English. I have read up to page 77 so far.
-The Pirates of the Digital Millennium by John Gantz and Jack B. Rochester: An avalanche or arguments to support mine, yes, or argument against. Anyway, convincing. Second review, page 46.
-Jerusalem by Selma Lagerlof: Essential guide to the understanding of silent, ceremonial, Nordic cultures. I loved it, it has been compared by my closest friend -J- with Tammsaare, just on the lighter side. Finished my solo and in page 30th of our shared reading experience.
-Elizabeth by Anne Somerset. As much as biographies can be enjoyed if too sympathetic they can`t persuade the reader. I am in page 620, very near its end.
-Del Amor y Otros Demonios "Of Love and Other Demons" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Found by chance while unpacking the remaining boxes from Madrid yesterday morning and only 10 pages are left for me to enjoy tonight. Fantastic, literally.

Mao, la historia desconocida by Jung Chang awaits still, "next in line" from Summer2008!

El graffiti aveces es arte. AVECES

"Tras las Huellas de banski"

Como estos entre muchos otros que el enigmatico Banski deja por ahí. Sobre el se puede leer esto, o ver estas imagenes.

Osmusaar

Con antojo de esparragos verdes

Pero incapaz de comprarlos en Tallinn por 9 EUR la media libra! En ocasiones como esta se me antoja estar en Espana...La paleta de crema sinembargo cuesta 10 centavos de EUR... Compramos una caja de 36 para los ninos, claro esta.

The Lost Tribes of New York City from Carolyn London on Vimeo.
Al mejor estilo de Aardman; Creature Comforts

Wishlist, an update.

I look forward to unfamiliar/original/genuine lines of reassurance and confort, inspiration, enlightment, the upcoming short vacation we will have in Finland, the begining of a sucessful academic year, healthy, kind and loving adolescents (compatible if they really try hard!), the wooden terrace J. has been planning to build, visits from family, relatives and friends, and spare cash to visit home asap. I know I can´t ever own a katsushita Hokusai painting but can get an iMac if I just wait a while longer. I have given up the idea of living in a huge hacienda or a Medieval castle (for practical reasons, mainly but not only) but still ponder over the possibilities to find a suitable manor house, better yet if with a patio in the middle.

Katsushita Hokusai

Donegal castle. Ireland.

Palmse Manor House, Estonia

Ahhh, and I would love to find Persepolis, the movie in Spanish!

VERY HAPPY

I just received a call from someone I was looking forward to contact for a long time! I have not seen Laura Cordoba in 17 or 18 years approximately and still talking to this old friend made my day. She is in Norway, well, satisfied with her life and very successful. I will put my energy now that we are in touch in convincing her to come and visit me in Estonia! I hope I do not have to wait that long this time!

Whatever happens this weekend

Raining or shining, the Estonian song festival will take place, and this family will attend.

Picture taken by OLIW: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliver1/685995331/

This is a picture of the choir that performed in 2007. This year, the general festival is held and during two consecutive days thousands of Estonians sing and dance in traditional dresses. It is difficult to calculate how many people are singing in here at the time, 30.000, maybe?

Mas de lo mismo

Afiches de propaganda política sovietica y fotos de contraste
(Free copyright)

Solo hace falta que la imagen tenga otra cara. La egolatría, el populismo, la tiranía, la paranoia, lo rojo y las masas que ignorantes o hipócritas celebran a esta personalidad parecen las mismas...También la pose de amigarse con lideres del mismo tipo o en todo caso que estén "en contra".

Restatement

What to do with an old laptop? How to reuse it or recycle it in a crafty way? I still keep it somewhere handy just in case a good idea comes by.
I wish I could revive it at all for the kids to be resourceful with it, actually the best scenario would be that Emil figured something like this, or this and turn the device into a running equipment.

These pictures are the remainings of the legacy of a socialist, popular, devastating revolution, followed by the occupation by the Soviets to Eastern European countries. Most are still trying to rebuild and repair the damages after 50 years of "everything belonging to everybody," or rather to NONE, so why to care? The heroes of many Latin American current leaders (or so they say) turned a dozen of countries into trash receptacles (just to mention the most visible, almost trivial part of the tragedy of a totalitarian socialist regime). Is that what the population of Latin America is really looking forward to experience? We would be much better with the Socialist propaganda off these outdated politicians´ repertoire for good.

Below: A typical Soviet poster and few images of an apartment building in the Easternmost part of Estonia, very near to the Russian border, occupied mainly by labourers living just as they have been used to even before coming into this country (Soviet colonization policies). The building is not abandoned and it is in the very centre of the a town. Mostly Russian families/ordinary people live in!