illum tgħallimt...

it-2ni sett...

2012-01-24T14:05:00.002+01:00

08. X' qiegħed titfa fuq il-miżien ta' ħajtek?

09. Mixja sura mal-kelb... tajba għalih u tajba għalija!

10. Raqda tajba mportanti għall-moħħ u l-ġisem

11. Ttik ħafna sodisfazzjon li tħares lejn biċċa xogħol lesta

12. Meta x-xogħol ikun estenzjoni tal-valuri tiegħek, kollox jagħmel ħafna iktar sens

13. L-abjad għalija, kemm hu abjad daqs l-abjad tiegħek?

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending"

- Maria Robinson

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we percieve the world and use this understanding as a guide to our

2012-01-24T14:03:00.000+01:00

Meta b’ kelma waħda ssalva sitwazzjoni... Meta b’ nofs ta’ kelma tkisser dak kollu li hemm fil-madwar...

X’ saħħa għandna fil-lingwa tagħna? Kemm intuha piż? Kif taffetwana? Hemm studji kbar fuq dan is-suġġett... studji li jien ma qrajthomx u li probabli mhux se jirnexxieli nifhem. Iżda jekk ma nħarsux lejn dak l-aspett u nagħtu titwila lejn l-użu tal-lingwa tagħna minn ġurnata għall-oħra fl-iktar sitwazzjonijiet komuni ta’ ħajjitna... x’ naraw?

L-abjad għalija, kemm hu abjad daqs l-abjad għalik?

Ħafna drabi, meta nkun qiegħed nitkellem (inparla?) man-nies nirrealizza kemm qegħdin f’ livelli differenti. Nistaqsi miegħi innifsi kemm dak li qed ngħid qiegħed jagħmel sens għal dawk li qegħdin jisimugħ. U iktar minn hekk, għax probabli xi tip ta’ sens ikun qiegħed jagħeml, nistaqsi, u għal din nibża nirċievi risposta, kemm qiegħed jagħmel l-istess sens li jien ridt infisser fil-bidu?

“Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so that we can have some conversation”

Mark Twain

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life” – Confucius

2012-01-24T13:57:00.000+01:00

Inqum kmieni filgħodu...

Nasal qabel għax-xogħol...

Isir il-ħin u lanqas ikolli aptit nitlaq...

Fejn qatt?

Meta x-xogħol ikun estenzjoni tal-valuri tiegħek, kollox jagħmel ħafna iktar sens.

Il-kumdita’ li taħdem f’ ambjent li tifhmu, mhux biss għax għallmuk u urewk x’ għandek u x’ ma għandekx tagħmel iżda għax tidħol bħal ‘feles’ fih, kważi kważi tista ssejħila lussu.

Forsi għax għadni fil-perjodu tal-qamar il-għasel ta’ dan ix-xogħol jew għax din iċ-ċaqlieqa kienet pass naturali? Jekk l-ewwel waħda, nittama li dan idum għal ħafna snin! Jekk it-tieni waħda, għandi kurżita’; issa xi jmiss?

“Three rules of work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”

Albert Einstein

“A project is complete once it starts working for you, rather than you working for it” – Scott Allen

2012-01-24T13:55:00.000+01:00

Fraħt.

U l-kawża tal-ferħ?

Ċuċata;

ftit viti neqsin li ma ppermettewlix nara kamra tas-sodda lesta

M’ hemm xejn isbaħ milli tħares lejn biċċa xogħol lesta J

Ma ħdimtx għaliha jien, sempliċiment ħallast... u lanqas waħdi. Iżda l-fatt li tħares lejn xi ħaġa tant mistennija u tara li oġġett tant żgħir kapaċi jaffetwalek burdata ta’ ġurnata sħiħa, tistaqsi, x’ hemm iktar insinjifikanti li jikkontrolla kif inġib ruħi u x’ inħoss f’ sitwazzjonijiet partikolari?

“Doubt is uncomfortable, certainity is ridiculous.”

- Voltaire

“Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.” - Jules Renard

2012-01-12T22:01:00.003+01:00

fil-bidu tas-sena, b' ħafna determinazzjoni, bosta nies jagħmlu kollezzjoni ta' riżoluzzjonijiet. Ngħid kollezzjoni, għax bħal waħda minn dawn, dawn ir-riżoluzzjonijiet ma jkunu xejn għajr ħsieb tal-mument li jitpoġġa fuq l-ixkaffa wara ftit ħin. Jien ukoll nagħmel il-parti tiegħi. Nibda nivvinta l-affarijiet bl-addoċċ, qisni qed intella n-numri tal-lotterija; "hekk nagħmel inqas", "hekk nagħmel iktar", "dan ma nagħmlux"... sa l-għada, inkun insejt kważi kollox.

Waħda li ma nsejtx hi li pjanajt li din is-sena nitgħażżen inqas. Determinat li nqatta l-inqas ħin fis-sodda possibli, filwaqt li fil-bqija naqra iktar, nibda xi tip ta' eżerċizzju, bla bla bla... F' xogħli, waħda minn kull erbat ijiem ikolli naħdem ta' bil-lejl. "X' lussu!" ħsibt meta sirt naf. Mimli ċertezza, kont diġa qiegħed nippjana kif se nimla dawk il-ġranet li fihom ma nkunx xogħol. U rnexxieli għall-ftit tal-ġranet.

Sakemm irrealizzajt kemm hu veru meta jgħidu li...

raqda tajba mportanti għall-moħħ u l-ġisem.

Kemm tħossok tajjeb wara? Lest biex taħkem id-dinja! Sa dakinhar li terġa tiġi bżonn dik ir-raqda żul minn hawn! :-)

"Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night"

- William Blake (English visionary, mystic, poet, painter and engraver. 1757 - 1827)

“Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in” - Mark Twain

2012-01-11T20:37:00.002+01:00

Bħala bniedem komuni ħafna drabi nsib ruħi nirraġuna li jekk b' xi mod ma nkunx se nibbenefika minn xi ħaġa, nevita li nagħmilha (tiftakar; għidt li kapaċi nġib elf skuża valida biex naħrab minn responsabbilta'?)...

Hekk ġrali bil-kelb. Bejn għax indeċiż mill-futur tiegħu u ħafna affarijiet oħrajn, qatt ma kont konvint li kelli ninvesti l-ħin miegħu. Konna mmorru mixja, nagħmlu dik il-kwarta jew nofs siegħa, u nduru lura bil-kwiet. Hu kuntent li ħareġ u jien kuntent li għamilt id-dover tiegħi...

Iżda ġirja tajba ġol-ħaxix wara mument ta' frustrazzjoni u skoprejna li...

mixja sura mal-kelb tajba għalih u tajba għalija :-)

Apparti l-affarijiet ovvji ta' saħħa, kemm tiegħu u kemm tiegħi, ħeħ, interessanti ħafna kif il-mod li ġġib ruħek mal-kelb waqt mixja jaffetwa r-relazzjoni li jkollok miegħu d-dar. Tista ssejjaħlu eżerċizzju sħiħ minn x' ħin toħroġ il-bieb sa x' ħin terġa lura.

Ninkoraġġixxi lil kull min għandu ħabib b' 4 saqajn biex iqatta iktar ħin miegħu barra mill-ambjent komdu tad-dar. Kellmuh fit-triq, tiddejqux... in-nies għalkemm forsi jaħsbuha li m' inthomx 100% stabbli, m' hu se jgħidu xejn. U l-isbaħ ħaġa, m' hemmx distrazzjonijiet teknoloġiċi. Iċ-ċinga ġġebbed u dik il-ħarsa t' apprezzament f' għajnejn il-kelb li kuljum qisu ħareġ għall-ewwel darba, malajr inessuk l-affarijiet irrelevanti kollha :-)

"I used to look at my dog and think, 'If you were a little smarter you could tell me what you were thinking', and he'd look at me like he was saying, 'If you were a little smarter I wouldn't have to"

- Fred Jungclaus

“The word 'happiness' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.” - Carl Gustav Jung

2012-01-10T11:55:00.004+01:00

"Daqshekk!"

"Ma nagħmel xejn"

"Ħa nieqaf"

"Mhux worth it"

X' titfa fuq il-miżien?

Liem naħa se jgħeleb la darba tiżen dak li tista' tigwadanja minn xi ħaġa ma dak li trid tissagrifika. Agħraf x' verament qed jaqtalek qalbek, iwaqqfek milli tkompli għaddej. Ħares fil-passat tiegħek, probabilment dan l-iżbal diġa għamiltu darba oħra. U, prova stenna s' għada qabel ma tieħu deċiżjoni negattiva...

"Each player must accept the cards life deals hime or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game."

- Voltaire (French philosopher and writer. 1694 - 1778)

366 - 52 = 314

2012-01-09T00:16:00.002+01:00

Tlaqt b' ħafna entużjażmu, determinat li kuljum jirnexxieli nsib xi ħaġa pożittiva fil-ġurnata tiegħi. Xi ħaġa li ma kienx irnexxieli napprezza sal-ġurnata preżenti. Xi ħaġa li kienet se tgħini biex għada jkolli ġurnata aħjar...

Iżda kemm hu reali li nibqa niftakar ġimgħa sħiħa? U xahar? U xhur?

Illum sibt lili nnifsi nqalleb fil-ftit posts ta' qabel, mhux ċert jekk dak li kont se nikteb fuqu kontx diġa semmejtu jew le. Ħa nipprova nagħmel l-affarijiet bi ftit iktar sens... Fi tmiem il-ġimgħa nagħmel ġabra tat-'tagħlimiet' kollha li nkun ġbart fil-jiem ta' qabel:

01. Jekk tixtieq xi ħaġa, staqsi!

02. Kapaċi nġib elf skuża valida biex ma nagħmilx xi ħaġa

03. Kemm temmen dak li qed tgħid?

04. Żomm l-affarijiet reali

05. Ħadd m' hu kollu tajjeb. Ħadd m' hu ħażin kollu.

06. X' kont tagħmel li kieku ma kontx qed tibża?

07. Illum eżistejt jew għixt?

U inthom? X' ħadtu minn din l-ewwel ġimgħa tas-sena?

"There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons."

- Denis Waitley (American motivational speaker and author of self-help books)

"Active Evil is better than Passive Good" - William Blake

2012-01-08T18:21:00.003+01:00

Wisq drabi, speċjalment iktar ma jkollna ħin liberu, jasal tmiem il-ġurnata, tħares lura u tgħid, "X' għamilt illum?".

illum eżistejt jew għixt?

l-24 siegħa qegħdin hemm għal kulħadd... m' għandniex għażla... f' ċertu sitwazzjonijiet jafu jidhru twal, iżda meta nħarsu lura dejjem nistaqsu fejn mar il-ħin...

kemm-il darba għażilna li nkunu passivi f' ħajjitna?

kemm-il darba ntfajna niċċassaw naraw is-sekondiera ddur?

kemm inqattgħu ħin ma affarijiet inutli? (facebook xi ħadd?)

Kemm għandna kontroll fuq dak li ngħażlu u l-istil ta' ħajja li ngħixu? u kemm dan in-nuqqas ta' kontroll li aħna niċċaħdu minnu b' mod volontarju, jwassal għal mard u problemi fil-ħajja ta' kuljum tagħna?

"Peace has to be created, in order to be maintained. It is the product of Faith, Strength, Energy, Will, Sympathy, Justice, Imagination, and the triumph of principle. It will never be achieved by passivity and quietism"

- Dorothy Thompson (American freelance writer, author of children books, journalist and anthologist)

"X' kont tagħmel li kieku ma kontx qed tibża?" - Haw

2012-01-07T13:36:00.003+01:00

Bl-iskużi rampanti ta' madwarna faċli ħafna li persuna tevita li tagħmel kwalunkwe ħaġa.;

"M' għandix ħin", "M' għandix enerġija", "Mhux delettant", "Ma jinteressanix"...

Bla dubju li nevitaw numru ta' sitwazzjonijiet fejn dawn l-iskużi huma validi, iżda kemm hemm oħrajn li ma mmissux magħhom sempliċiment għax inkunu qegħdin nibżgħu?

Probabilment lanqas aħna stess ma nkunu konxji għala ma rridux nippruvaw xi ħaġa. Nivvintaw kull storja li teżisti. U ħafna drabi tant indumu nirrepetu din l-istorja li kważi kważi nibdew nemmnuha aħna stess.

X' kont tagħmel li kieku ma kontx qed tibża'?

Importanti ħafna li meta neħlu quddiem xi ħaġa nsibu ħin nirriflettu ftit fuq dak li għaddejjin minnu. Nistaqsu lilna nfusna għaliex weħilna, x' naħsbu li jistgħu ikunu r-riperkussjonijiet, u hawn nibqgħu nfittxu sal-qiegħ nett. Nimmaġinaw lilna nfusna nippruvaw dan li qegħdin nirrifjutaw li nagħmlu - kemm bi tmiem pożittiv u kemm negattiv... u nitfgħu dan fuq miżien.

Jien? Kieku kont niżfen...

"I hope I can bring the realization that everyone is controlled by fear. Whether it is imagined or actual, the fear is real to them and controls every aspect of their lives"

- Debby Shoun

"Dejjem għandna żewġ għażliet...

2012-01-06T03:11:00.002+01:00

...żewġ mogħdijiet minn fejn nagħżlu. Waħda dejjem eħfef mill-oħra. U l-unika premju ta' l-eħfef għażlu hu sempliċiment li kienet faċli."

Xi sitt xhur ilu iltqajt ma vacancy għal xogħol li kien ilu jħajjarni. Mhux b' titlu wisq differenti minn dak li kont nagħmel, iżda b' baħar jaqsam ta' esperjenzi. Kuljum immur ħerqan ix-xogħol biex nisma' xi ħaġa ġdida, nitgħallem xi ħaġa li qatt ma kont nimmaġinaha. U fil-kuntatt dirett li għandi man-nies, kuljum nitlaq mix-xogħol bl-istess mistoqsija, "Kif?"

Nies li s-soċjeta' tixtieq twarrab u tinsa. Nies li probabilment, f' sitwazzjoni differenti, anke jien kont nevita bħan-nar ta' l-infern... iżda pass fid-dinja tal-persuna, biż-żarbun tal-persuna, u kollox jinqaleb ta' taħt fuq.

M' ilux qrajt linja fi ktieb "Għaxar snin ħabs" tal-Missjunarju tal-Karita Karmenu Duca, li baqgħet ittambarli f' moħħi.

Ħadd m' hu kollu tajjeb. Iżda ħadd m' hu kollu ħażin.

X' jagħmilna tajbin? X' jagħmilna ħżiena? X' atitudni nieħdu f' dawn is-sitwazzjonijiet ta' ħajjitna? Iżda iktar minn hekk, x' esperjenzi għaddejna minnhom li jikkundizjunawlna il-mod ta' kif naħsbuha fuq ċerti kwistjonijiet?

"Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do."

Shaquille O'Neal (born 6th March 1972, former American professional basketball player)

fejn l-inkwiet idub bħal ħelu tal-lumi...

2012-01-05T00:46:00.003+01:00

kulħadd jiġġieled. Min jgħajjat, min iwerżaq, min jgħati... hemm xi ħaġa għall-gosti ta' kulħadd. Minn ġlieda żgħira bi ftit ħars ikrah, sa "kif spiċċajna bit-tanikijiet tal-gwerra waqt dan l-argument?" Li ma jagħmilx kulħadd...

Żomm l-affarijiet reali.

Jekk din hi kwistjoni ta' tgergir u għajjat, gerger u għajjat kemm tixtieq qalbek, imma toqgħodx tonfoħ, issabbat u tkisser ukoll... Jew għamel hekk jekk tixtieq... Imma ftakar li dan ħa jbiegħdek iktar mis-soluzzjoni. Għandu jkollna għatx kbir biex nifhmu n-naħa l-oħra, u l-goal finali tagħna għandu jmur lill' hinn milli sempliċiment nieħdu r-raġun.

L-iktar importanti, li waqt kwalunkwe argument, gravi kemm hu gravi, ma nieqfu qatt nimmaġinaw il-ħin li fih l-affarijiet ikunu kkalmaw u l-paċi reġa rrenja... u għandna nimbuttaw l-argument propju lejn dak il-mument!

"The colours of the rainbow so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people passing by

I see friends shaking hands

Saying, "How do you do?"

They're really saying, I... I love you

I hear babies cry and I watch them grow,

They'll learn much more

Than we'll know

And I think to myself

What a wonderful world"

Somewhere over the Rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo Ole' (Hawaiian Musician. May 20, 1959 to June 26, 1997)

bis-serjeta'?

2012-01-04T02:58:00.003+01:00

Impressjonanti kif ħafna drabi f' ħajjitna niġu f' sitwazzjonijiet li assolutament ma nkunu nafu xejn dwarhom, iżda n-nies xorta jistennew li nikkontribwixxu b' xi mod għad-diskussjoni / argument / eċċ. Probabilment, ftit ftit aħna nkunu ħadna dan it-tip ta' rwol. Iżda kemm ħa ddum tgħid "ma nafx"? Eventwalment ħa tiġik naturali li tipprova tfendi waħda...

kemm temmen dak li qed tgħid?

Nisimgħu u naqraw ħafna pariri fuq kif tgħid il-punt tiegħek, kif twassal opinjoni, kif titkellem quddiem in-nies, eċċ... hemm studji sħaħ. Li tgħix is-sitwazzjoni nnifisha, teduka ruħek fuq is-suġġett, tipprattika dak li se tgħid, tkun konxju tal-ġestikulazzjoni tiegħek waqt li qed tgħid xi ħaġa... kollha punti validi...

Iżda għalija personali, l-iktar importanti minn dawn kollha, u dak li għandu jiġri qabel kollox, hu li temmen f' dak li se tgħid. Minn gidba sa tagħlima, jekk ħa titlaq bid-dubji f' moħħok, qabel saħansitra ftaħt ħalqek, ħa taffetwa kull parti tal-proċess... saħansitra l-mod ta' kif jirċiviehu l-udjenza tiegħek.

Forsi għalhekk ħafna nies jippreferu jikkomunikaw b' mod virtwali?

"These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact."

William James (American Philosopher and Psychologist. 1842 - 1910)

fejn mar kollox?

2012-01-03T02:03:00.004+01:00

Impressjonanti kif x' ħin tħares lura kollox ikun għadda tant malajr. Dak mistenni jasal u jitlaq... sal-mument partikolari fejn tiċċekja l-aftertaste tal-ġrajja... Kemm kienet esperjenza ħelwa, morra, qarsa?

Għalija, l-iktar ħaġa li tgħaddi malajr, hu l-ħin fih innifsu. Iżda dan kont nafu diġa...

kapaċi nġib elf skuża valida biex ma nagħmilx xi ħaġa

imbgħad il-qrusa x' ħin inħares lura u ninduna li tar il-ħin. L-imrar x' ħin niddeċiedi li f' dak il-waqt inkun iddeċidejt li mmur mal-feeling ta' l-għażż minflok ma ngħati piż dak li jkun hemm bżonn isir. Minn fejn tixtri kwart ħeġġa? Nofs kilo entużjażmu?

Ma rridx ngħalaq ħsibijieti fuq il-ġurnata b' mod negattiv... għalija, t-tgħalima tal-llum hi li xi drabi, irrid infittex modi differenti kif inħares lejn dak li hemm bżonn isir biex nagħmlu... l-bżonn irid jibda jieħu prijorita fuq l-aptit... għax hekk qatt m' hu se naslu!

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday"

Don Marquis (American writer, Coloumnist, Novelist, Playwright and Poet. 1878 - 1937)

366 lezzjoni tal-ħajja...

2012-01-02T01:01:00.006+01:00

3 snin?

Possibli?

Qas nista nemmen li għadda daqshekk żmien mill-aħħar darba li ersaqt l’ hawn. Ma nafx kemm-il darba tektikli ma moħħi li nerġa nikteb xi ħaġa; kont nieħu gost, kien jgħini nesprimi ruħi, kelli lingwa żviluppata iżjed dak iż-żmien, eċċ...

Biss, dejjem weħilt ma l-istess mistoqsija: Iżda xiex? U għaliex?

Il-bieraħ, qabel tmiem is-sena 2011, filwaqt li kont miġbur ma sħabi, waħda mill-organizzaturi tal-lejla talbitna biex nieqfu ftit nirriflettu fuq is-sena li konna qegħdin inħallu warajna, naraw x’ kellna x’ napprezzaw mis-sena li għaddiet u għal xiex konna qegħdin inħarsu l’ quddiem...

Irrealizzajt li tul is-sena, kbirt, bħala persuna, kull meta għaddejt minn xi żmien ta’ prova, xi żmien ta’ diffikulta’. Ovvjament dan għamiltu grazzi għall-ħbieb u familjari... Ħassejtni tassew privileġġat li kelli daqstant spallejn fuq xiex nitwieżen...ill-organizzaturi tal-lejla talbitna biex nieqfu ftit nirriflettu fuq is-sena li konna qegħdin inħallu warajna, naraw x’ kellna x’ napprezzaw mis-sena li għaddiet u għal xiex konna qegħdin inħarsu l’ quddiem...

Ħassejtni ukoll dispjaċut, kważi diżappuntat. Kien hemm għalfejn jaslu l-aħħar minuti tas-sena biex nirrealizza dan? Possibli kont għaddej ħajti b’ tant għaġla biex qatt ma rnexxieli nieqaf għal ftit ħin naħseb fuq dak li għaddej minnu? Dak li qed nieħu mid-dinja ta’ madwari?

Hekk nibet dan il-kunċett... kważi kważi nista ngħid li din hi r-riżoluzzjoni tiegħi ta’ din is-sena. Nitlaq mill-bidu nett, irrid insib ħin fejn nieqaf naħseb fuq il-ġurnata tiegħi u nara f’ kienet l-ikbar tgħalima li kelli f’ dak il-jum partikolari. 366 tgħalima b’ kollox. Waħda kuljum... minn ta’ l-inqas!

Biex inkun għidt kollox, qatt ma kelli fama ta’ konsistenza fejn jidħlu blogs, iżda din id-darba determinat. Għall-għażż użajt l-istess blog antik li kelli qabel, kemm bdiltlu l-isem... Iżda bi ftit insistenza, nemmen li jieħu x-xejra li nixtieq jien... Wara kollox, ma jistax ikun, u nittama li anke inthom jirnexxielkom li ma tibqgħux, nħalli ħajti teħodni fejn trid hi mingħajr ma niftaħ għajnejja u nkun naf x’ inhu jiġri madwari...

----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Inħares lura, nista ngħid li l-ewwel ġurnata tas-sena lanqas biss rajtha għaddejja. Ġurnata xogħol, veru, imma ġurnata li qaltli ħafna... L-isbaħ ħaġa li qaltli, u dak li rrid inġorr miegħi b’ mod konxju:

Jekk tixtieq xi ħaġa; staqsi!

Sempliċi ux tassew? Imma kemm nagħmluha fil-verita? Kemm-il darba rrabjajna għax ma rċivejniex xi ħaġa, xi ħaġa tant ovvja, mingħand xi ħadd li sippost jafna ta’ taħt fuq?! Iżda għaliex pretendejna li dak il-persuna se jaqralna moħħna? X’ żammna milli nistaqsu?

"We find what we expect to find, and we recieve what we ask for."

Elbert Hubbard (American editor, publisher and writer. 1856 -1915)

Celebrate, Accelerate!

2009-01-01T10:49:00.000+01:00

...a short video shown to a group of world leaders at the Secretary General's reception. The film - Celebrate, Accelerate - marks the progress on the Millennium Development Goals to date and encourage further, faster commitment going forward.

...and we're back

2008-09-15T10:04:00.002+02:00

So, after that long break from God-knows-what, we're back to the blogging world... not.

Truth is, I suck at forcing myself to commit to something, especially if it doesn't involve beer and pizza. Blogging here was fun for a moment, until it became another one of those things that 'ugh, maybe I should do it'.

In these last six months a number of interesting things happened, and every time I thought that that was something to blog about... a couple of days go by and I'd just forget about it. This pattern (which to be honest was much more comfortable) kind of grew up on me, and I did my part to adapt :-)

But seeing how life keeps on throwing amusing experiences randomly at us, the urge to record it down somewhere surpassed that old good lazyness... so...

maybe...

maybe...

you'll be seeing more of moi around here.

"The good news is that Jesus is coming back. The bad news is that he's really pissed off"
- Bob Hope

A father and a disabled son who participates as a team in marathons...

2008-09-12T14:32:00.001+02:00

For all those of you who ever thought about quitting or said those dreadful words. "I can't do it"...

For all those of you who can't bring themselves to believe in the power of pure love...

For all those of you who are still looking for something inspiring...

(Read this story. Almost at the very end there are two video links worth viewing)

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars — all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much — except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life," Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. "Put him in an institution."

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. "No way," Dick says he was told. "There's nothing going on in his brain."

"Tell him a joke," Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? "Go Bruins!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, "Dad, I want to do that."

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described "porker" who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. "Then it was me who was handicapped," Dick says. "I was sore for two weeks."

That day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

"No way," Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, "Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?"

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 — only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago."

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once."

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDnrLv6z-mM

Another video: http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8cf08faca5dd9ea45513

Some additional information:

Interested readers can find a wealth of material about the Hoyts on the Team Hoyt web site (including a historyof the remarkable father-son team). Since the article referenced above was published, the Hoyts are no longer the lone non-individual team to participate in the Boston Marathon. During the 2006 running of that event — the 25th anniversary of the Hoyts' first Boston Marathon — Dick and Rick were joined by Mark and Amanda Collis, a father-daughter team from Canada.

As the Hoyts told the Boston Herald after that race, similar forms of participation with the disabled (at all levels) seem to be on the increase:

"I do all of the office work, and we get e-mails every day from people like this," said Kathy Boyer, Dick's girlfriend. "It's not just parents pushing their kids. It's someone pushing a friend who has Parkinson's disease, or another situation. Not many are doing it on this level, of course. This takes years and years of preparation."

"I think there's a lot of families getting into it like this now," said Dick. "I'm not just talking about the intensity of marathon running. I've heard from people who just want to even get into this as far as taking their children out for a walk goes. I think all different kinds of people look at this as a great opportunity. We're trying to prove to people with disabilities that they belong out there."

Music using ONLY sounds from Windows XP and 98!

2008-03-24T22:48:00.001+01:00

So *this* is why old billy gave as an OS full of errors... he was just waiting for some guy like this one here to come along... :-)

~ Enjoy ~

awareness test

2008-03-15T20:14:00.001+01:00

Listen carefully to what you're asked!

Housewifeology...

2008-03-04T13:04:00.004+01:00

Well, as some of you may know, may work is more or less similar to that of a housewife... this results in me browsing the net looking for tips and tricks that may facilitate my work.

Such searches often result in stupid links and information... but, by sheer luck, a recent stumble gave me exactly what I was looking for. And here I am sharing this information with you nice folks.

(for those of you wandering, yes, this list was so helpful as it was that I just copied it...)

Practicalities

1. Household Notebook - A step-by-step guide to putting together a housewife's personal planner.

2. organizedhome.com - This site features regular organisational projects for the home.

3. Sort It: Residential Organising - Taking you through each room in the house and organising everything. Then hit the car, get prepared for an emergency and get your recycling up to scratch.

4. FlyLady - The grande dame of getting organised. Full instructions on how to declutter, get into regular cleaning routines and you can sign up to get emails throughout the day reminding you of what you should be doing.

5. LifeOrganizers.com - Organise every aspect of your household, from the electronics to the home improvements. Lots of how-to articles.

6. How to Get Rid of Things - The DIY guide that shows you how to remove things from your life that you don't want. Clutter and mildew don't stand a chance.

Inspiration

7. The New Homemaker - Articles, recipes, blogs and more. By homemakers, for homemakers.

8. MarthaStewart.com - From America's favourite housewife, cooking tips, recipes, home decorating, crafts and plenty of other how-to articles on how to be the perfect housewife. Anthea Turner eat your heart out!

Frugality

9. Living on a Dime - From making your own laundry detergent to how to use up leftovers. Hundreds of money saving ideas.

Domestic science

10. Housewifeology - A study of housewives in their environments.

[why did I copy this instead of just pasting a link? well... most of you won't visit any random link... and besides, it's more handy for me just like this ;-) ]

Enjoy, and hope that this is at least a tiny bit helpful to someone out there.

Popstar (Nickleback - Rockstar spoof...)

2008-03-04T08:40:00.001+01:00

...I wanna be a popstar already! :-P

Life - as defined on the "Urban Dictionary"

2008-02-29T17:04:00.001+01:00

The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A death! What's that... a bonus?!? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you go live in an old age home. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little boy (girl), you go back, you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, then you finish off as an orgasm!

The Devil went down to Georgia

2008-02-24T11:56:00.001+01:00

...and then they people to stop fiddling around! Heh... I wish these guys were easily found as car accidents, overdoses or murders... anyway, enjoy the vid!

Ahmed The Terrorist

2008-02-21T12:25:00.001+01:00

haven't laughed like this for a long time...

Enjoy ;-)

2008-02-11T17:09:00.000+01:00

Free Rice!

2008-02-05T00:54:00.000+01:00

Hey

Have you ever felt that pang of guilt while wasting your time on the internet? Have you ever thought that maybe you could be using this time to do something better? Like educating yourself... or maybe helping the world become a better place...

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, let me recommend this site: Free Rice!

Now you can do all the things mentioned above and forget about that annoying guilt! FreeRice.com, a not for profit website, offers a word game (quite an addictive one actually), where you have to guess the meaning of a given word from a selection of four words. Every three correct guesses and your difficult level is increased. As a bonus, for every word guessed, FreeRice.com will donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

Go give the game a try. Maybe read the site's FAQ if you've got more questions. Then play some more, enjoy yourself, educate yourself, relieve someone from hunger... and don't forget to tell all of your friends about it! Let us all play for a better world!

Regards

p.s why are you still reading this? Go guess some words already... :-)

Iktar paġni nteressanti...

2008-02-04T11:44:00.001+01:00

http://rhyme.poetry.com/ - paġna utli għal dawk kollha delettanti tal-kitba. Ilkoll nafu li iktar minn darba ġejna dahrna mal-ħajt meta ma stajniex insibu dik il-kelma li għandna bżonn, għalkemm kienet propju hemm... iva hemm... fil-ponta ta' lsienek! Ħasra li ma teżistiex xi ħaġa hekk għall-lingwa Maltija.

(ħa nikser, speċi, waħda mir-regoli tiegħi stess u naqsam dan is-sit magħkom: http://www.visuwords.com/ ... l-użu tiegħu huwa simili għall-ewwel link, imma dan kemmxejn iktar 'cool'... jew jien it-tip li nentużjażma ruħi bix-xejn. Għażlu inthom)

http://www.wikisky.org/ - min qatt ma ħares lejn lejla mixgħula bl-istillel u hewden fuq dak li qed jara? Issa għandkom ftit għinuna.

http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html - Għati titwila lejn id-dinja mill-ispazju... dejjem interessanti tara dawn l-affarijiet. Ittik sens ta' kobor. Le?

Calvin & Hobbes Quotes (cont.)

2008-01-31T10:53:00.000+01:00

"In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks."-Calvin

"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?"-Calvin

"Leave it to a girl to take all the fun out of sex discrimination."-Calvin

"There's an inverse relationship between how good something is for you, and how much fun it is."-Calvin

"There's no problem so awful that you can't add some guilt to it and make it even worse!"-Calvin

"So the secret to good self-esteem is to lower your expectations to the point where they're already met?"-Calvin

"I don't know which is worse, ...that everyone has his price, or that the price is always so low."-Calvin

"When I grow up, I'm not going to read the newspaper and I'm not going to follow complex issues and I'm not going to vote. That way I can complain when the government doesn't represent me. Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I can say the system doesn't work and justify my further lack of participation."-Calvin

"The secret to happiness is short-term, stupid self-interest!"-Calvin

"The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity the tell the difference."-Calvin

"I hate it when I can't gird my loins with funny animals."-Calvin

"Everybody I know needs a complete personality overhaul!"-Calvin

"I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!"-Calvin

"You know how people are. They only recognize greatness when some authority confirms it."-Calvin

"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices."-Calvin

"It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end."-Calvin

"The best presents don't come in boxes."-Hobbes

"As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway."-Calvin

"Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend."-Calvin

"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."-Calvin

"It's only work if somebody makes you do it."-Calvin

"In my opinion, television validates existence."-Calvin

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success... ...Flat stretches of boring routine... ...And valleys of frustration and failure."-Calvin "Reading goes faster if you don't sweat comprehension."-Calvin

"What I like is when you're looking and thinking and looking and thinking... And suddenly you wake up."-Calvin

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."-Calvin

"The good thing about drawing a tiger is that it automatically makes your picture fine art."-Hobbes

"You know, there are times when it's a source of personal pride to not be human."-Hobbes

"I had resolved to be less offended by human nature, but I think I blew it already."-Hobbes

"You know how Einstein got bad grades as a kid? Well, mine are even worse!"-Calvin

"A day can really slip by when you're deliberately avoiding what you're supposed to do."-Calvin

"I'M SIGNIFICANT!...screamed the dust speck."-Calvin

"The worst part is that I don't even have the fun of doing the things I'm getting blamed for."-Calvin

"Being a parent is wanting to hug and strangle your kid at the same time."-Calvin's Dad

"I keep forgetting that rules are for little nice people."-Calvin

That's it. At least that's what I got. Some of them were great, weren't they? And some quite stupid, but nonetheless entertaining... hope you enjoyed every one!
Also, it goes without saying that I didn't go hunting for these quotes. I just happened to come across this site and I thought that it would be nice to share it with you. These comics are literally copied and pasted from: calvin and hobbes wonderland.

Take care

Calvin & Hobbes Quotes

2008-01-31T10:44:00.000+01:00

Some of you may already know this, others probably don't... but it doesn't matter ::I Love Quotes::

There's something about reading what other people said that makes my insides goes all warm. Ironically though, some of the best quotes I've ever read are these below, coming from Calvin and Hobbes comics. Go figure...

Anyway, enjoy:-

"There's more to this world than just people, you know."-Hobbes

"Why should I have to WORK for everything?! It's like saying I don't deserve it!"-Calvin

"I think animals are alway so cute."-Hobbes

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul."-Calvin

"I go to school, but I never learn what I want to know."-Calvin

"To make a bad day worse, spend it wishing for the impossible."-Calvin

"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help."-Calvin

"I'd hate to have a kid like me."-Calvin

"I understand my tests are popular reading in the teachers' lounge."-Calvin

"If you couldn't find any weirdness, maybe we'll just have to make some!"-Hobbes

"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless."-Calvin

"If mom and dad cared about me at all, they'd buy me some infra-red nighttime vision goggles."-Calvin

"If you do the job badly enough, sometimes you don't get asked to do it again."-Calvin

"Reality continues to ruin my life."-Calvin

"What assurance do I have that your parenting isn't screwing me up?"-Calvin

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."-Calvin

"I hate to think that all my current experiences will someday become stories with no point."-Calvin

"Girls are like slugs - they probably serve some purpose, but it's hard to imagine what."-Calvin

"Do you hate being a girl? What's it like? Is it like being a bug?I imagine bugs and girls have a dim perception that nature played a cruel trick on them, but they lack the intelligence to comrehend the magnitude of it."-Calvin

"Childhood is short, maturity is forever."-Calvin

"If people could put rainbows in zoos, they'd do it."-Hobbes

"I don't need to compromise my principles, because they don't have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway."-Calvin

"True friends are hard to come by...I need more money."-Calvin

"Susie, if you want to see your doll again, leave $100 in this envelope by the tree out front. Do not call the police. You cannot trace us. You cannot find us. Sincerely, Calvin."-Calvin

"Oh, great altar of passive entertainment... Bestow upon me thy discordant images at such speed as to render linear thought impossible!"-Calvin

"Van Gogh would've sold more than one painting if he'd put tigers in them."-Hobbes

(to be continued...)

Is-sit tal-gurnata

2008-01-28T11:08:00.000+01:00

Minn xi ftit tal-jiem ilu l' hawn, kif tafu, dħalt fid-dinja tal-iStumble... u nista ngħid li issa sirt nisker fuq l-ammont ta' siti differenti li toffri kull għafsa ta' buttuna.

Bejni u bejn ruħi ħsibt li tkun ħasra li tħalli siti cool jintilfu mal-għeluq tal-paġna, u l-lista tal-favourites tiegħi qed titwal wisq - ġifieri stennew li minn jum għal ieħor ssibu lista ma wiċċkom.

F' moħħi ħa nipprova nżomm dawn il-punti:

kull lista ma tkunx itwal minn 5 links
kull link trid tkun veru partikolari
kull link trid tkun utli
link ma tkunx tixbah lil xi waħda li nkun preżentajt diġa sakemm ma tkunx ħafna (ħ-a-f-n-a-!) aħjar.

Illum għandi dawn għalikom:

Interactive webRadio: kemm il-darba tqażżiżtu dduru l-playlist tagħkom tfittxu propju _dik_ id-diska u tispiċċaw ma tisimgħu xejn għax ma tkunx taqbel mal-burdata? Hawn għandkom opportunita li tgħażlu d-diski skond il-burdata tagħkom! Tistgħu tagħżlu ukoll il-perjodu u l-ġeneru... u ovvjament mingħajr ma taħlu ruxxmata spazju b' dawk l-mp3's kollha.
Religions' facts: ftit kultura qatt m' għamlet ħsara lil ħadd. Jien dejjem emmint li meta titgħallem fuq x' jinteressa lil ħaddieħor, għandek iktar ċans li tifhem x' inhu jiġri madwarek u tidher inqas trombu inti u titkellem... ma tafx kif, jista' jkun li għandi raġun :-þ

How blind do you have to be?

2008-01-27T18:59:00.001+01:00

...the video says it all.

Morena - Vodka (msfe 2008)

2008-01-27T02:51:00.001+01:00

heh... insejt nagħmlilkom il-vidjo fil-post ta' qabel din...

ħudu buzz eh :-P

Is-sejħa għall-Ewrovixin...

2008-01-27T01:47:00.000+01:00

Illum għandi mistoqsija li nixtieq naqsam magħkom…

Fettilli nsegwi ftit id-diski li qegħdin jikkompetu bit-tama li jaslu sal-punt li jirrapreżentaw lil Malta fl-Eurovision 2008. Naħseb kont ilni żmien twil ma nagħmel żball oħxon hekk.

Ftit statistiċi qabel inkompli:
Skond stima li ttieħdet f’ Lulju ’07*, f’ Malta hawn popolazzjoni ta’ 401, 880 persuna.
Minn dawn hemm 16.7% li huma taħt l’ 14-il sena u 13.8% li għandhom 65sena jew iktar.
Dan iħallina b’ 69.5% tal-popolazzjoni li għandhom bejn l’ 15-il sena u l-64 sena.

69.5% tal-popolazzjoni jiġu 279, 306.6 persuni. Ejja nneħħu dak in-nofs persuna minħabba li ma tantx jista jibdel id-dinja fis-sitwazzjoni tiegħu. U llum għaddejt ġurnata pjuttost kalma u qiegħed inħossni veru qalbi tajba...

Ħa nitkellem fuq 2, 000 persuna biss. Nimmaġinaw li f’ Malta hawn 2, 000 persuna _biss_ li jinteressahom (jipparteċipaw b’ mod attiv, jew joqgħodu sormom komdu fuq il-pultruna jikkritikaw) dan il-festival. Il-mistoqsija tiegħi hi:

Possibli, minn fost dawn l-2, 000 persuna, ma stajniex insibu diska aħjar?!

Jekk ngħatu ħarsa lejn pajjiżi oħra naraw li ħafna minnhom qegħdin kull sena jivvintaw xi ħaġa ġdida li tolqot l-għajn / l-widna. Kull sena naraw xi ritmu, libsa jew koreografija li tispikka.

Malta x’ nagħmlu? Malta nipprovaw nimitaw stil li jkun ġibed l-attenzjoni xi 4 snin qabel... u fl-aħħar dejjem bl-ilmenti li aħna ma jivvutawlniex għax bla ġirien...

Lil min hu konċernat, nistgħu, wara li tintgħażel id-diska li ħa tirrapreżenta l-pajjiż, il-pajjiż inġenerali jivvota jekk iridx li dik id-diska tmur tumiljah jew le?

(* stima meħudha minn fuq is-sit: CIA – The World Factbook -- Malta)

p.s. għal dawk delettanti, taraw xebh bejn dawn:
Klinsmann - Go
Busted - Air Hostess

Saħħiet

Lura?

2008-01-24T17:02:00.000+01:00

Ma nafx kemm il-darba poġġejt bilqiegħda kkargat biex nerġa nikteb xi ħaġa. Ħafna drabi kont nillogja, nasal sal-punt li nibda nikteb imbgħad malajr malajr insib skuża biex noħroġ mis-sit. L-iskuża lanqas kellha għalfejn tkun valida; xi ħaġa li teħodni l-bogħod u kuntent jien.

Illum ninsab ma niflaħx, ilni jumejn hekk u qabżitli ndur dejjem l-istess erbgħa postijiet. Bdejt billi ħadt parir ta’ sieħbi u nstallajt it-toolbar tal-Stumble Upon. Għaddejt siegħa żmien naqbeż minn sit għal ieħor. Għejjejt, irqadt u issa ġejt hawn determinat.

Għalissa m’ għandi xejn interessanti x’ ngħidilkom... kemm ninfurmakom li probabli (p-r-o-b-a-b-l-i) ħa nerġa nibda nħarbex xi ħaġa b’ mod regolari. Mhux wiegħda eh, għax kif probabli tafu, miniex persuna li kapaċi niddedika ruħi għal xi ħaġa b’ mod definit. Ħa nagħmel ħilti li nibda ndejjaqkom kull tant ġranet ta’.

Ħudu ħsieb.

Saħħiet

Some photos... as promised

2007-09-11T02:21:00.000+02:00

So, imposters and technology apart, what are you guys up to?

Me? I’m still trying to organize everything in my life. Got loads to do and enough time to do everything… apparently, what I’m lacking now is the will to do such things.

At the moment I’m using most of my energy to be angry with the shop owner from where I had bought my mobile phone. But ranting aside, here I choose some photos from Naples, I’m sure you’ll find these more interesting than hearing my stupid stories…

a prayer we used to say every night with the sisters:

me playing cards with the whole gang, relaxing after a day's work:

well, what more can I say? this was one of the clay figurines we found in Naples:

do I really need to comment here? ;-) ... :

yes, this here is Naples... ironically though, those skyscrapers surround a huge area known as the vegetable market, where they sell... vegetables of course. the contrast between these buildings and the small, garage-like buildings from where the sell the veggies and fruits is incredible... :

this... is... just... wonderful:

me and a friend of mine fooling around in the kitchen at the Sisters':

the whole gang ready for some lunch. starting from bottom left there's Luke, Graziella, Stephen, (Patrick & Joseph, two volunteers from Slovakia who we met there,) John and Amanda:

this guy's expression is quite freaky (found at Pompei):

also found at Pompei... apparently, they had something to brag about...:

also at Pompei... people planted their handprints on this wall as a sign towards something... I forgot what, but I did it, cause beside being 'cool', I was in favour of what was this wall representing... :

enjoy them! ;-) maybe some other time I'll post some more... till then, if you're interested in doing such an experience, start thinking about it cause soon we will be organizing our Naples '08 voluntary experience!

Take Care

“What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.”

Mother Theresa

High Speed Camera

2007-09-06T15:48:00.001+02:00

a few days ago i posted a video of a slow motion lighter. it was quite fascinating, wasn't it? well, a friend of mine told me that that video is shot with what's called a high speed camera. here's another video showing more stuff captured with this technology

AARRGGHH!!!

2007-09-05T15:07:00.000+02:00

Since when did spiderman (the real one and not this bogus cinema imposter...) become a hopeless romantic?

Am watching spiderman 3 at the moment... I'm halfway through the film and can barely continue without feeling sick. I've popped in this film cause I wanted some action... some old style *boom* *bang* *kaboom*... instead I got this!

If my plan was to watch some romantic film I would have gone for something like The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, City of Angels, etc... but NOT Spiderman. Spiderman is when I want to remember what it felt like when I was still a kid and kept jumping on my parents' bed as if I was flying through those skyscrapers!

Shame on you Spidey! Shame on you! You deserve this ->

Back?

2007-09-05T00:27:00.000+02:00

So… finally I’ve managed to sit down in front of this box and convince myself to stop by over here and say hello. Yes I’m still alive, but as you can imagine, busier and lazier than ever!

A lot has happened since my last update. If I had to list the events in order of importance, I’ll start with

- This 1st September was my third anniversary with Amanda. Well, we couldn’t celebrate it in any fashionable way since we were during a live-in, but it was enough to hold her and thank her for these last three years; while hoping for more years like this, or maybe even better, to come!

- Naples… Naples comes second only because the first event was really ‘something’. As I’ve already mentioned in this blog, I’ve already did a voluntary experience with the Missionaries of Charity. For those with short memory, this was in Ethiopia, about three years ago. And while that experience did change my life, Naples was ‘something’ like I’ve never expected. I’ll post some photos and let you know more about it in the next blog… (now that I’m back, I’ll try to keep in touch with you guys more often).

- Live-In’s. I had two of these. One was in Gozo were we went with the Kooperattiva Kummerc Gust to help with their mobile units (more on this, later on, it’s a promise), and the other was the Third World Group’s AGM at Buskett (more on this as well).

- Returning Back to Work. This felt quite strange. Even though I’ll be celebrating my first year of work with Agenzija Sapport shortly, returning to work after Naples felt really strange. It was as if I was starting from the very beginning. Didn’t take me long to get back in the routine, but it was… strange

- Third World Group. Well, with the live-in, and the children’s year starting shortly this returned back to mind. As usual, the group’s needs occupy a lot of my thoughts-o-sphere which doesn’t happen to be that big.

Now, there you have a rough list of what kept me away from here for such a long time. But fear not my friends, I’ll give you some more spicy details in the next posts, and hopefully I’ll return to normal blogging shortly. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed ;-)

Till then,

Take care, the whole lot of you.

“Never let go of hope. One day you will see that it all has finally come together. What you have always wished for has finally come to be. You will look back and laugh at what has passed and you will ask yourself... 'How did I get through all of that?”

Wow!

2007-07-16T12:29:00.000+02:00

Slow motion lighter

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Petition the government against child labour

2007-06-28T15:32:00.000+02:00

Petition the Maltese Prime Minister demanding that the government does not procure goods and services originating from sweatshops and are free from child labour.

GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE COULD BE BLIND TO CHILD LABOUR

Read the petition and sign it >> here << !

Regards

Some Tips contd.

2007-06-26T11:58:00.000+02:00

In the last post we tackled organisation, date, venue, sponsors and the flyer. In this post we are going to talk about equipment (collecting), transportation & handling, the bar, fees, prizes, fixtures, registration and setting up. Probably not in this order, but all of them equally important.

Equipment - collecting, transportation and handling

(collecting)
As mentioned in the previous post we planned this tournament to run with eight consoles. These were needed so that the participants won’t have to wait a long time between games. Anyway, this meant that we had to collect the equipment from a number of different outlets since no one was ready to provide us with all that was required. The problem was that the tournament was supposed to start at ten o’ clock in the morning and at about quarter past nine we were still going around to collect the televisions. When anyone offers anything make sure that you’ll be able to collect the stuff at least a day before.

(transportation)
I’m assuming that most of you will think about transportation, but for the few who won’t, remember that it’s really difficult to fit more than 3 television in any one car (we’re talking about enjoying-the-gaming-experience-on-one-of-these television)… hire a van or get a couple of friends who are willing to offer their vehicles and their time

(handling)
Yes, I’m pointing out the obvious here, but some tv-sets are extremly heavy… just get prepared to sweat ;-)

The bar
People rarely go to such an event with a packed lunch. So if you want to keep them happy, get some edible stuff for the day. Soft drinks, mineral water, juices, snacks, nuts and maybe some ‘ftajjar biz-zejt’. If you don’t want to get these, the players will probably just leave the venue to buy something from somewhere else; thus delaying your tournament. So beside being a good way to earn some extra money, this also helps to keep everyone around. Do a little extra effort when purchasing the drinks and food and try to go directly to the producing source. Middle men (shop owners) will usually double the price, which will result in a decreased profit for yourself. For e.g. a box of snack food like Twistees would cost about €5.82 if bought directly from the factory stores. If you buy it from some Food distributor you’ll get for nothing less than €10.48. Considering that a box would have about 48 packets and each one can be sold for something between €0.28 to €0.35…you do the math

Setting up
This depends mainly on the area available but try to space the consoles along the perimetre so that the biggest area possible is left free in the centre. Here the non playing contestants could place some chairs and watch the other players without disturbing them. It will also help you to monitor everything that’s going around. Remember to get a number of electrical extensions and adapters and someone who knows how to ‘assemble’ the consoles you’re using.

Fixtures
This will vary according to the number of participants you have and your time limit. Always keep in mind that people do like to get some value for their money and play as many games as possible.

Fees
Check other tournaments and talk to people who participated in previous tournaments and see what’s the average fee. Remember that you have to gain but to do so a good number of people must show up

Registration
Just a formality, but by registering each player you’ll have their contact information so that you can contact them again for future tournaments.

Prizes
Get as much cool stuff as possible. The more stuff you’ll have the more people will probably show up. Remember that a succesfully organized event means that those people will come again for your future events and they will bring their friends along!

That’s all for now. If any of you has any more tips to share with us please do so by leaving a comment. They are all appreciated as probably such comments would help me and my friends organize better events

Take care

Some Tips

2007-06-26T01:18:00.000+02:00

So, last Saturday we had our Playstation Tournament. To be honest, it went much better than what I had expected, but worse than what I had wished for. I had some time to think about the event, what worked for us and what didn’t and I’d like to share some of my ideas with you…

Organization
Such a tournament is quite easy to organize if you start preparing at least three months before. It is really important to set a definite date and find a venue before anything else. It is also important to give different specific roles to those helping in the organisation, unless you happen to be doing everything by yourself.

Date
Try to do some research. Do you know of any other tournament being organised close to your preferred date? Are there any parties? Exams? Football matches? Try to look out all the events that are set for a week before and a week after your date as these may interfere with your tournament, even though yours is probably just a low profile get together…

Venue
Now that you have your date, start looking for a nice place. A small hall would do; anything bigger and you’re just expanding your horizons. Try to find a place that’s easy accessible, centrally located, well lighted and ventilated, and preferably for free.

Sponsors
Unless you’re some kind of gaming freak, I’m assuming that you do not have eight consoles and eight televisions (That’s the amount we had), so most probably you’re going to need some help. Try to go round your local gaming shops. Most of them would be willing to lend you some stuff in exchange of promotion. Start with the big companies but do not forget the small shops. Remember that you will be needing the consoles ( + joypads, + cables), televisions and games. Yup, games! Ironically, we almost forgot about these… but anyway. Whenever asking for a sponsorship try to speak directly to some manager or shop owner. Otherwise, your request might take ages to reach the right guy. Also be prepared to answer a number of questions about your tournament. They might ask about the number of participants, the aim behind the tournament, how are you going to promote it, etc. My advice? Bluff. Especially with the number of participants. The higher this number, the more likely they’re going to help you. If they offer to help, ask them for a banner, buisness cards, and ask how would they like to be mentioned on the flyer.

The Flyer
Preferably get a flyer done even before you get any of the above. It is better to leave some blank areas and fill them as you go along then waiting to get all the details first. Remember that this flyer has to be a really catchy, not too flashy, intriguing piece of paper. Make sure that all the important details are quite visible. Also remember that a flyer can be distributed both on the web and as a hard copy. On the web, try to send a lot of e-mails, post it on some forums, maybe some mailing groups; there are infinite possibilities! But, beside this, print as many flyers as possible and distribute them to gaming shops, electronic shops, youth clubs, bars, etc… use your mind here and do not go round wasting flyers and time…

That’s all for today, but if you found this interesting, stick around as tomorrow (or the day after) I’m adding more tips here.

Hope this helps...

Take care

Impact your world!

2007-06-21T11:43:00.000+02:00

"Take Action! Go to Impact Your World to explore ways you can help".

KASTAMONU, Turkey (CNN) -- The phone calls were chilling. The voice on the end always delivering the same message: Don't work with the foreigners.

Gorges Toma, an Iraqi electrician who worked with Western contractors, did what he was told and stopped working. But it did little to help save his brother whose charred body was found in his car. "Right after I stopped [working], they killed my brother," Toma says

[ Read the whole story here! ]

After reading this article and maybe visiting the CNN Special Report 'Impact Your World' link, how can any sane human being just ignore all this and not feel inclined to help? From the previously mentioned link, one will end at the Charity Navigator site, whose mission is:

"Charity Navigator works to guide intelligent giving. We help charitable givers make intelligent giving decisions by providing information on over five thousand charities and by evaluating the financial health of each of these charities. We ensure our evaluations are widely used by making them easy to understand and available to the public free of charge. By guiding intelligent giving, we aim to advance a more efficient and responsive philanthropic marketplace, in which givers and the charities they support work in tandem to overcome our nation's most persistent challenges.

Charity Navigator is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization under the Internal Revenue Code and does not accept any contributions from any charities we evaluate."

Though I encourage people to donate to such organizations, please remember that every country is facing these problems to some degree. One can do a lot, beside donating money, in his very own hometown!

For the next updates I'll try to research some organizations that work in Malta, maybe some of you guys will get your asses out of that comfy chair ( :-þ ) and together we will change this world into a better one! ;-)

Till then, take care! and start by giving a helping hand at home...

Peace
<º)))><

WorldFest Fair Trade Festival

2007-06-20T00:21:00.000+02:00

WorldFest Fair Trade Festival at the Upper Barrakka
Sunday 24 June between 10.00am and 10.00pm

Live music, a short film, poetry, a public forum, quizzes, face painting, food and drinks, fair traded products from Africa, Latin America and Asia, and fresh organic fruit and veg from Malta will take centre stage in this year’s edition of the annual fair trade festival WorldFest on Sunday 24 June between 10.00am and 10.00pm at the Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta.

Entrance to the festival and all events, including the Made in Fair Trade concert starting at 8pm, is free. The theme this year, taken from international World Fair Trade Day, is Kids Need Fair Trade.

Concert – Made in Fair Trade
The concert, which is being dedicated to fair trade activist and KKĠ member, Christina Muscat, who recently passed away, will feature funk band Zizza Ensemble, singer songwriter Walter Micallef, who recently launched his second album, Ħamsin, and Simon Vella on violin. A chilling eight-minute film about children forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan which is then sold within the EU, White Gold - The True Cost of Cotton, will also be shown. Another first is the participation of poets Immanuel Mifsud, Simone Inguanez, Walid Nabhan and Mario Cardona, who will be reading two short pieces each related to the theme, while poet Adrian Grima will be presenting his work with Zizza Ensemble.

Other Important Events
This year’s events and activities also include a public forum at 6.00pm on “Children at Work;” face painting for children by Maltese and French volunteers (11.00am– 12.00, 5pm – 7pm); fair trade quizes throughout the day for children and adults with prizes drawn at 7.30pm; and the sale of fair trade ethnic food and drinks (including Maltese wine), and locally grown fresh organic fruit and vegetables from 7.00pm.

Different Stands
Hundreds of different uniquely crafted Fair Trade products will be on sale on six stands representing Africa, Asia, Latin America, food and drinks, musical instruments and CDs of world music, and, for the first time, fair traded crafts from Egypt. Gaia Foundation, El Diablo, and farmers and activists from the Committee for the Safeguarding of Rural Life in Għajn Tuffieħa will also be putting up stands.

Public Forum – Children at Work and Fair Trade
The main guest will be National Commissioner for Children, Ms. Carmen Zammit, who will be speaking at a public forum on “Children at Work” together with Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign activist Nina Zita, students Beverly Tonna and Nicole Chetcuti from Carlo Diacono Girls Junior Lyceum in Zejtun, John Axiak from the Maltese fair trade cooperative, and Julian Micallef from Forum Malta fl-Ewropa. Sociologist Angele Deguara will chair the event. The speakers will take questions from the audience present.

Background Information
This 6th edition of WorldFest will focus on Children at Work. Fair Trade helps low-income households earn a decent living, so they don’t have to send their children to work. By improving resources and empowering people at both family and community level, it helps ensure better access for children to clean water and sanitation, education and health care. By buying Fair Trade consumers can also be sure that children have not been exploited or trafficked in producing the food we eat, the beverages we drink, the clothes we wear.

In 2004, 246 million children aged between five and seventeen were child labourers, 73 million working children were less than 10 years old, 180 million worked in extremely dangerous conditions and 6.4 million children were trapped in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities. Programmes to "stop child labour" are all ineffective if the root cause of child labour, poverty, is not tackled.

The unfair terms of trade for raw materials, crippling import tariffs in industrial countries, heavily subsidised goods from industrial countries are all practices that exclude and marginalise millions of people in the rural South. Fair Trade makes a concrete contribution to the reduction of poverty and thus tackles one of the main causes of child labour.

Photo Caption
Fair Trade products from marginalised communities in the majority world, including a large selection of foodstuffs and drinks, clothes, jewellery, handicrafts, musical instruments, and cd’s of world music, will be on sale throughout the day during WorldFest 2007.

Supported by
This year’s fair trade festival is supported by the international Global Action Schools project co-financed by the European Commission. This project whose partner in Malta is Kopin, supports schools to integrate global issues into the classroom, link with schools around the world and find ways of contributing to sustainable development.

www.l-arka.org
Information about WorldFest 2007 and fair trade is available online at www.l-arka.org, the website of Koperattiva Kummerċ Ġust that runs the world shop L-Arka. KKĠ is a full member of IFAT, the global network of Fair Trade Organizations.

Adrian Grima

MaH... :-)

2007-06-17T20:15:00.000+02:00

Someone's surely going to get a kick out of this when they'll find this one here...

Enjoy (?)

Peace
<º)))><

"I'd rather kiss a mad cow on the muzzle than a smoker on the mouth."
~ Paul Carvel

Wheelchair backflip

2007-06-17T02:26:00.000+02:00

This is what I'd call having some guts with a hint of craziness...

...or, quoting from 'Eragon':

"one part brave, three parts fool"!

Anyway, really cool aye?

Peace
<º)))><

“Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”

- Mary Tyler Moore

New found ability

2007-06-15T11:36:00.000+02:00

(from Dictionary.com)

Slack

verb
1. avoid responsibilities and work, be idle
2. be inattentive to, or neglect; "He slacks his attention"

...just sharing with you my new found ability ;-)

Then I wonder why this blog takes so long to update!

Peace

(from: The Slack Webpage)

“Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility, and commitment.”

Ross Perot

Playstation 2 Tournament in aid of voluntary work

2007-06-12T14:24:00.000+02:00

The Fish in the Sea are Thirsty

2007-06-12T01:34:00.001+02:00

The Fish in the Sea are Thirsty

I laughed when they told me that the fish in the sea were thirsty. There is something about the sayings and the wisdom of the East that makes one stop and thinks – like the sound of a one-handed man clapping! That’s why I believe there are really few atheists on earth, even fewer in heaven and there are absolutely none in hell, for there everyone believes in God – regretfully!

Trees and Stars

My father was a philosopher of sorts, and though he would never have described himself as a religious man, he used to say he could never understand how anyone could look at a tree and not believe in God. Yet today we run the risk of being ‘practical atheists’, who are so caught up in the things of earth and our own ‘busyness’ that we have not time to stop and stare, or waste time looking at the stars or the trees.

‘Practical atheists’: it is a phrase which has appeared a few times in recent Church documents to describe those who may say they believe and yet live as if God did not exist. Many people today are living in the sea and yet remain thirsty.

Faith and Wonder

Thomas Aquinas, the great thirteenth century Dominican theologian and saint, wrote that faith and wonder are the same. Nearer to our own age, the mathematical genius, Einstein, said that a person is as good as dead if he loses his sense of wonder. “Look up in the sky and count the stars,” God says to Abraham (Gen. 15:5)

The Joy of Creation

St. Francis of Assisi used to say that the whole of creation is in a continual state of joy, as it makes its act of faith in the one who made it. Each part can do nothing else except what it was made for, and so gives praise to God. The howling wind, the waves crashing against the cliff face, the trees whistling in their naked autumn ness, the sun breaking on the baked pavement, all of creation, is saying in its own language, “Praise God”.

And man? The Psalmist too ponders the question. Is God’s greatest work of art sometimes out of step with the rest of creation? “What is man that you are mindful of him, mortal man that you keep him in mind?” he asks (Ps. 8:5)

This wise man had seen God’s glory all around and could praise Him: “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars set in their place… O Lord, our God, how great is your name through all the earth!” (8:3, 10). He was then no longer thirsty.

Fr. John Murray

Lateral Thinking

2007-06-08T14:22:00.000+02:00

As promised I'm not going to leave here for so long again... but (there's always a but, and you know it...) it's no easy task to get oneself down to write something that actually makes sense, especially when you're kind of forcing yourself...

So, what happens now, is that instead of just ignoring here, whenever I'm blocked, I'll go through all the "precious" stuff in my pc and share those with you.

For today, I'm sharing an e-mail I got not so long ago. It's about lateral thinking. There won't be any prizes for those of you who will manage to get the correct answers, but I promise a great deal of frustration for the others ;-)

Enjoy!

1) If I write:

man

------

board

what would you get out of that? The answer is 'man overboard'

Got it? Ok, let us see if you have got the hang of it and try another easy one

2)

under

------

What about now? Did you guess this one? The answer is 'I understand'

So, now that you are thinking like a wizard, let's rock and roll...

/r/e/a/d/i/n/g/

road

cycle

zero

-----

M.D.

Ph.D.

knee

-----

light

ground

-------

feet feet feet feet feet feet

he's X himself

10)

ecnalg

11)

death... life

12)

THINK

13)

aaabbbabababbab bab babba bbbabbabba babba bbba bbaaaabba ... c

Now that I've got you quite depressed and frustrated, let me share the 'easy' answers with you...

3) This was a really easy one, but I bet that you didn't get it, did you?

Answer - Reading between the lines

4) Actually easier than the previous one... so, what's the truth? Got it?

Answer - Cross road

5) Another easy one to redeem yourself...

Answer - Tricycle

6) This one required some thought... so I'm guessing that you didn't get it either...

Answer - Two degrees below zero

7) Probably this was the most difficult

Answer - Neon light (knee-on-light)

8) You can prove yourself smart by getting this easy one

Answer - Six feet underground

9) Oh no, not again... how could you mess this one?

Answer - He's by himself

10) Answer - Backward glance

(Were you even close?)

11) Answer - Life after death

(And you're allowed to vote?!)

12) An easy one... Get your ass up there and guess this one before checking the answer!

Answer - Think Big

13) This is your last chance. A real cherry on top of the cake...

Answer - Long time no see (no 'C')

So, honestly... how did you score? Can you leave your results as a comment so that we can all make fun of you? ...kidding, to be honest I didn't do so well either, got only four good ones... hope that's some kind of consolation ;-)

Take care

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.Watch your words, for they become actions.Watch your actions, for they become habits.Watch your habits, for they become character.Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

Wow, it's been a long time!

2007-06-01T16:51:00.000+02:00

It has really been a long time since my last update, hasn’t it? I’ve always dreamed that I’ll manage to keep this, at least this, under control. I had big plans for this little corner here, but then, who cares? Really?

At times, especially in the beginning, I thought that this here would be my big diary for the whole world out there. Five minutes later I laughed the thought off, drank some more beer and just started ranting away. This blog always helped me to sharpen my usage of the written word when I felt that I was going rusty.

Still I hate to leave it like this, as if abandoned. So, pretending that some of you actually cares, I’m going to let you know what I’ve been up to these last couple of months.

As a starter I’m now the proud owner of a full time job which drains most of my energy away. Probably I’ve mentioned this before, but anyway… I work as a support worker with less abled people. Some with physical abilities, other with mental and the unlucky few with both. In reality it’s the kind of employment that I’ve always dreamt; but dealing with such people is no bed of roses.

Beside work, I also do some voluntary work with the Third World Group. Which, anyone who’s been around here for the last posts, have heard about for sure…

Am planning to go on a voluntary experience to Naples with the above mentioned group. There we're going to stay with the Sister of Charity (Sisters of Mother Theresa) and help them along with their daily chores, and if we’re lucky enough, we’ll also do some home visiting with them! (Can you guess that I’m really hyped about this? No? Don’t worry, more to come about this experience in the next posts… that’s a promise!)

Finally, I’m also doing a ‘short’ course with Eden Foundation. Now it’s almost over, and it’s been really great all along… The only prob as I see it is that I have to hand in a short assignment (really short, just some 2000 words), but I don’t have any time for it…

Anyway, that’s all for now. Don’t want to scare you off :-þ … will keep on boring you through the next posts.

Take care

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

- Abraham Lincoln

Interesting... ...?

2007-03-28T13:34:00.000+02:00

CLEARWATER, Florida (AP) -- Lawrence Roach agreed to pay alimony to the woman he divorced, not the man she became after a sex change, his lawyers argued in a Florida court Tuesday in an effort to end the payments.

Read the whole article here.

Take care

Life without sex might be safer but it would be unbearably dull. It is the sex instinct which makes women seem beautiful, which they are once in a blue moon, and men seem wise and brave, which they never are at all. Throttle it, denaturalize it, take it away, and human existence would be reduced to the prosaic, laborious, boresome, imbecile level of life in an anthill.
- Henry Louis Mencken

Pizza!

2007-03-27T00:57:00.000+02:00

Targeted for children: 5 years to 10 years

Duration: between 15 to 25 minutes

Ingredients used:

Pizza dough
Vegetable Oil
Flour
Tomato sauce
Tuna flakes
Sliced olives
Capers
Sliced mushrooms
Grated mozzarella

Method:

- The first thing we did was to tell the children what is going to happen and how it is exactly going to happen.
- Then we gave a disposable plate to each child on which we poured a teaspoon of vegetable oil. This oil was smeared all over the plate.
- A ball of dough, just a little bit smaller than a tennis ball, was given to each child. They were shown how to stretch it and then they did it themselves, using the flour so as to avoid the dough sticking to their fingers.
- After every child was done from stretching his pizza on the given plate, the volunteers started going around with the toppings and the children choose what they wanted on their own pie.
- The pizzas were now ready to be baked.

Results:

Telling the children what to expect from the beginning was the key to a good session. Some children were faster than others with the preparation, but since they knew what was coming next, they accepted the fact that at times they had to wait till everyone was ready before moving to the next step.

As soon as they started with the oil, the children started enjoying themselves, especially those that were not (pretending to be) disgusted during this step. This is probably due to the pleasant feeling that the oil leaves on one’s hands. Recipe-wise the oil made it easier for the children to stretch their dough ball on the plates.

Children naturally love cooking and the messing around with ingredients that comes with it. Infact, our problems happened after they were done from their pies. As the preparation does not take a lot of time, we had to fill the rest of the time with games and songs.

Improvements:

- Check that we have enough ovens and gas available so as to cook as many pizzas in one go as possible
- Get more different ingredients. The children just love to “invent” new recipes.
- Make it clear from the beginning that the children are going to help with the cleaning afterwards. Children will do their best to not mess their area or at least they are prepared for this ‘activity’.
- Prepare games good enough to distract the children from the pizzas
- Remove the ‘waiting to be cooked’ pizza from its plate or at least sprinkle a generous amount of flour under each one to avoid it from sticking.

Additional information:

We used ready made dough for this craft since we did not have the time to prepare it ourselves, but for those of you who want to do so, here’s a good recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast
2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:

Combine the water, yeast, and 1 1/2 cups of the flour in a large bowl. Mix well. Add the oil, salt, and remaining flour. With large wooden spoon or your hands mix the ingredients together until the dough holds its shape. You may need a bit less flour, so add the last half gradually.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. If the dough becomes sticky, sprinkle a bit more flour over it.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled 2-quart bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel, and let the dough rest until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour.When the dough has risen, place it on a lightly floured surface, divide it into two or more parts and roll them into balls. Cover them with a towel and let rest for 15 minutes.

The dough is ready to be shaped, topped and cooked.

Study: Chocolate improves blood vessel function

2007-03-25T10:56:00.000+02:00

"New Orleans, Louisiana (Reuters) -- Chocoholics were given further reason to rejoice Saturday when a small clinical study showed that dark chocolate improves the function of blood vessels."

That's some good news for you chocoholics out there, especially now that fasting time is over!

Read the whole article here and start enjoying that daily dose of chocolate...

Take care

"In the beginning, the Lord created chocolate, and he saw that it was good. Then he separated the light from the dark, and it was better."

Just something to think about...

2007-03-25T03:29:00.000+02:00

"while private gun runners continue to thrive, the world's biggest arms suppliers are the U.S., U.K., Russia, France and China.

they are also the five permanent members of the u.n. security council."

[last lines from the film: Lord of War]

Our Deepest Fear

2007-03-23T17:12:00.000+01:00

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson

Eritrea: Voices of torture

2007-03-23T02:24:00.001+01:00

(no comment)

Jigsaw Puzzles

2007-03-15T16:54:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we thought that it would be cool to do the jigsaw puzzle craft once again since the last time we did it (a year ago) the kids really enjoyed themselves...

Materials needed:

To prepare the jigsaw - pencil, black marker, cardboard paper, cardboard (hard), glue, craft knife

With the children you will need - (the jigsaw puzzle), adhesive tape, colours (such as crayons)

Method:

To prepare the jigsaw puzzle - Since we wanted a big puzzle (as in size) and a colourless one, on which three or four children could work simultaneously, we had to prepare these ourselves. To do so -

1) Find a picture you like. Preferably it is just the outline of the picture, and one which is easy for you to copy on the cardboard paper and which won’t be too difficult for the children. (e.g. http://coloringbookfun.com/ )
2) Copy this picture on the cardboard paper using the pencil.
3) Trace over the pencil with the marker. Leave to dry for a couple of minutes and then you can erase any pencil lines that were not covered by the marker. (if the marker you’re using does not smudge, you do not have to wait)
4) Stick the cardboard paper on the hard cardboard. Cardboard glue would be the best to use here, but pva glue or even any other glue stick would do just fine. Leave to dry for some time, and if possible put some weight on the cardboard.
5) Then draw on the cardboard those typical squigly jigsaw puzzle lines. However it is recommended that the lines are kept as straight as possible, and pattern number two is used instead of the traditional semi-circular one (see figure)

This will make the next step much more easier
6) Now cut along the lines that you drew. Since cardboard might be a bit difficult to cut with a scissors, we suggest to use a craft knife*

While with the children:

The children were divided into groups of 3 or 4. Each group was given a jigsaw puzzle (which were prepared beforehand since preparation takes quite some time) and asked to solve it. The children had to work as a group, and to encourage sharing, a number of pieces of the puzzle were given to each child in the group. This forced the children to communicate between them and not just sit down hunting for pieces. When the puzzle was solved, adhesive tape was used on the backside so as to stick all the pieces together and then the children had to colour the picture.

Observations:

This is a craft that we had already did once so the children knew what to expect. The majority of them enjoyed the craft and really engaged themselves in the activity. Even when colouring the picture, those who were having fun, were discussing what to colours to use and who was going to colour where. On the other hand some children got bored with the activity.
The younger ones had some problems to find the matching pieces when they were left on their own and they got frustrated. Then once they got distracted from the craft, it was quite difficult to get their interest again

Improvements:

1) Children tend to form their own groups. This usually means that there is going to be a group of cast aways. We have to work on seperating the children from their clans.
2) The volunteers should start helping the children from the beginning to avoid any build up of frustration.
3) A picture of how the puzzle will look when finished should be made available to all groups, especially the younger ones.
4) The puzzles must be checked to see that they do stick correctly together. A particular group that did not enjoy this session had a couple of problems with pieces of the puzzle that did not stick together.The volunteers could try to create some kind of competition between the different groups

(pictures coming soon)

If you had one shot, one opportunity...

2007-03-09T00:29:00.000+01:00

I am out of tune, am not able to recognize between two notes and can never remember the lyrics of a song. But sometimes a song comes along that somehow implants itself, or at least part of that self, in my mind.

One such song is Eminem’s Lose Yourself. I know that this song was written for his the film 8-Mile and to be honest, I don’t know, nor care what the majority of the song talks about. There are seven lines in that song that got my attention from the very first time I heard it and I’d really like to share them with you folks… especially those who are not in this kind of music or/and did not watch the film.

(intro)
Look.. if you had.. one shot, or one opportunity

To seize everything you ever wanted.. in one moment
Would you capture it.. or just let it slip?

(chorus)
You better - lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go (go)
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow

This opportunity comes once in a lifetime

The beauty of these magic lines is that they are easily adapted to every situation in life if you just change the word “music” to what’s bothering you in that moment in time.

That being said, I admit that this came out of the blue for most of you folks but there’s a guy out there, who does visit this blog occasionally for whom, hopefully, this will mean something.

That’s all for now… more interesting posts coming soon

Take care

Com'è Straordinaria La Vita - Dolcenera

2007-03-08T01:07:00.001+01:00

Ci sono momenti che passano in fretta
e il tempo che vola sa di sigaretta.
Ci sono momenti che pensi alla vita
ed altri in cui credi che è proprio finita.

E ti viene da vivere, e ti viene da piangere
e ti viene da prendere un treno
andare affanculo, lasciare tutto com’è,
che qui non è facile, ti senti fragile,
qui, dove tutto quello che conta è quello che senti...
è sentire com’è... sentire com’è...

Com’è straordinaria la vita,
com’è, coi suoi segreti, i sorrisi, gli inganni.
Com’è straordinaria la vita,
che un giorno ti senti come in un sogno
e poi ti ritrovi all’inferno.
Com’è straordinaria la vita,
che non si ferma mai,si, non si ferma mai.

E ti viene da vivere, e ti viene da piangere,
e ti viene da provarci ancora,
provare a lottare e dare il meglio di te,
che qui non è facile, ti senti fragile,
qui, dove tutto quello che conta è quello che senti...
e sentire com’è...

Com’è straordinaria la vita,
com’è, che ti fa credere, amare, gridare
Com’è straordinaria la vita,
che un giorno ti senti come in un sogno
e poi ti ritrovi all’inferno.
Com’è straordinaria la vita,
che non si ferma mai,si, non si ferma mai.

Eh!

Com’è straordinaria la vita
che un giorno ti senti come in un sogno
e poi ti ritrovi all’inferno
Com’è straordinaria la vita
che non si ferma mai,si, non si ferma mai.

E mi viene da ridere
E mi viene da vivere

E...

The delights of public transport

2007-03-07T01:11:00.000+01:00

Two days ago I sent this to the Authority of Public Transport:

5th March, 2006

Dear Sir / Madam

I am not sure that this is the place where to send this e-mail, but I really hope that it is not sent in vain. I am writing this cause the disgust and shame I felt today were too much to just ignore.

I am a frequent public transport service user.

Toady I was waiting at Sliema for a bus that goes to Valletta. The one that came had all the seats occupied but there was no one standing. For some reason, after the bus stopped and the first waiting clients were going on, the driver decided to move just a little bit more, with the first guy almost twisting his ankle. But that's not the reason I am writing. After this small accident, two tourists came along with a Lm5 note.

I do understand that giving Lm4.60c may not be convenient for the driver, but telling them to get down from the bus was a bit excessive. With all the people on board (36 sitting and 8 standing) the driver surely had enough money to give the change (Lm4.60 would be just 23 tickets). Also, with the bus almost full up, he wouldn't really need the small coins for that trip.

The saddest part of this was that the tourists weren't really expecting this and you could see their confused look while they were going down from the bus and that other foreigners on the bus who did understand what had happened were all commenting on the bad way that tourists are treated in Malta.

As I wrote previously, I am a frequent service user. I had the opportunity to chat with a number of drivers and I while talking with them I realised how stressful their job must be. These small unexpected things, like someone coming with a Lm5 note, might be the last drop in a day full of tension. I respect the service they offer, and am impressed that they do have the strength to do their job, but someone should tell those, who like today's driver, forget that they are amongst the first services a tourist would use. We all know that (as advertised on some buses) "It-Turist huwa l-mistieden tagħna lkoll" and that Malta depends on tourism.

At this point, the details that you might be interested in are:
Bus no: 62
Plate no: EBY-537
Passed through Sliema at about 12:50, arriving at Valletta at about 13:15

Thanks and Best Regards

Miguel Buttiġieġ

...the least I would have expected was an aknowledgement, but apparently that's just wishful thinking. Although to be honest, this is amusing cause now I can bet on the situation... and I'm putting my loot on the "won't answer box"...

I'll let you know as soon as I get any replies (don't keep waiting online though, this might take longer than you'd believe).

Till then

Take care

“People understand me so poorly that they don't even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”

Soren Kierkegaard

Porn pop-ups may land teacher in prison

2007-03-06T01:16:00.000+01:00

My God! Just read this article. I know that it's a bit old, but it's so stupid I couldn't possible stop myself from sharing it.

Meh, same old stupid...

Take care

Happy Birthday

2007-03-05T02:32:00.000+01:00

to the best other half I could have ever wished for...

Happy Birthday from the deepest and darkest corners of my heart. The ones you've lit with your smile!

Thanks for always being yourself, no matter what.

I Love You -xxx-

Take care!

p.s. Think of GreyWorldwide as me mistyping my name)

Some 'explanation'

2007-03-04T09:24:00.000+01:00

I'm positive I told you guys something about my current employement. If not, in a nutshell, I work as a Support Worker with less abled people. Some with difficult or challenging behaviour, others who are quite friendly and easy going but need more phsycial support.

Now according to my contract, my duties are: To support the residents in activities of daily living, skills-teaching, and community inclusion as set out in the clients’ Person Centred Plans. Which seemed fairly easy in the beginning...

What they won't tell you during the interview, is that meeting these guys day after day, spending so much time with them and working with them at such an intimate level, will eventually get you hooked up. After only five months of work, I can't help it but think of them as my friends.

I told you that, to tell you this.

A couple of days ago some big guys from way up (those who pull all the strings) gave an order to transfer one of our clients. He wasn't just any other client. Probably he was the one that required more dedication, strength and attention. I want to remain objective here, and to be honest at time I really couldn't handle him.

Anyway, his condition didn't help him much and while on duty I did spend a lot of time with him, not by choice. At times I wished that all this ended... then it did, and I felt devastated. Word is that he's much better where he's residing now, and I'm really inclined to believe it, so I am happy for him. Thing is that I know that in Malta we're still not ready yet to cater for people with such needs, so most probably this won't end good... which, believe me, is really a pity cause in the end I'd rather deal with ten of this guy than with some of my acquiantances.

A day or two after I've started pondering the purpose of life; for them, for us, for me. The obvious question popped up. Why are we here? I couldn't answer it, I couldn't get rid of it, and I couldn't think of anything else.

That night I had a dream. One which, strangely enough, I remembered.

It was seventeen years in the future, and I had moved on. Had another good job, a nice family, a group of good friends... everything I could ever wish for. Somehow I ended back at the residence where I work in the present. (Now is a good time to know that yours truly does not deal well with change). There I found that the whole residence had changed. More rooms, furniture, decorations, new staff and clients... but worst of all, there were a couple of the 'old' ones that weren't there anymore!

When I enquired about them, the staff seemed reluctant to answer. Eventually I discovered that three of them had passed away. Probably some of you are already understanding why this wasn't such a good dream. The thing is that in reality all these three guys are over sixty, so I couldn't be that far from the truth in my dream.

Then I cried.

In my real life, someway along the path, I've kind of lost some of my ability to show my true emotions. But in this dream I couldn't just cover myself with the usual concrete armour. I couldn't stop my tears, I couldn't breath, I couldn't move. There I was surrounded by all these people and yet I couldn't stop crying.

Except for some adult rated dreams, I can't think of another dream I've had these last years that shook my soul with such force. And believe you me, this wasn't a happy one or one I'd gladly dream again.

So, my point for all this ranting... I want to apologise to all those nice people out there who thought that I was acting strange 'lately'. I didn't mean to, but I know that I was acting as a jerk. The way I woke up from that dream feeling depleated from my vital energy, left me with a bitter taste. I did act strange cause of my anger.

I was angry with the stupid clock that never stops ticking. I was angry with the stupid sun that sets on another day. I was angry with the stupid world that just won't stop turning...

But it's all in vain, ain't it? So, once again, my most sincere apologies to every nice one of you out there. In the end, it's your fat heart that makes my world goes by.

Take care

Paper Plate Bird Craft

2007-03-02T01:04:00.000+01:00

I know, I know! More than a week late...

Here is what we did on Wednesday 21st February:

(From Enchanted Learning: Duck Paper Plate Craft)

Title: Paper Plate Bird Craft

Targeted for children : Aged between 5 and 7

Duration : 35-45 minutes

Materials needed:

Disposable plate, glue, crayons, paper, cardboard, scissors, crepe paper.

Method:

1. Plate was coloured on the outside

2. The children drew the outline of their hands on a paper and coloured it in. These were then cut to be used later on as a tail

3. A bird’s head was then drawn on the piece of cardboard.

4. Two wings were cut out from the crepe paper. Small cuts were done all through the bottom of these wings to create the impression of feathers.

5. The paper plate was cut in the middle and the edges were glued together to form a semi-circular open container.

6. The hands, head and wings were all glued on.

7. The bird was then left to dry.

Results:

The children really enjoyed doing this craft. When they realised that the bird’s purpose was to serve as a container they all started using more and more colours on their birds.

They were left to draw the head as they liked, without emphasizing that this should be a bird. As such, some birds had really weird shaped heads. But this only helped to encourage the children to express themselves. Some even did more than two hand prints to stick as the tail and coloured all hands differently.

During the craft it was fairly easy to control the children, and the craft itself was quite simple to explain. Once they saw the one we had prepared and what the volunteers were doing next to them, they had almost no problems. The volunteers had to help some children with tracing the outline of their hands, and others while they were using the scissors.

Improvements:

1. Using a paper (cardboard) plate. It would have been easier to colour, cut and stick together.

2. Do some kind of feet for the bird to help it stay upright.

3. Use hard cardboard for the heads.

4. Prepare some stuff for fillings, such as sweets, stationary, etc.

--------------------------------

Ages 8 - 10 had a drama session... and last Wednesday I couldn't attend myself 'cause of the 'oh so fun! night at work'... more about this in my next post.

Till then...

Take care!

Yet, another qoute

2007-02-22T14:37:00.000+01:00

The promised photos

2007-02-22T14:23:00.000+01:00

The carnival masks

Yeah, we do lead by example...

... I kid you not! The volunteers enjoyed this session more than the children! (yep, even the one wrapped from head to toes...)

- take care

Speed Talking - Cool or Annoying?

2007-02-22T09:58:00.000+01:00

How much can one man say in (almost) two minutes? ...more than you may think!

Carnival Costumes

2007-02-16T15:06:00.000+01:00

This happened to be one of the best sessions ever! Since it was Carnival week and we had already planned the masks, we thought, “Why not the costumes as well?”. But how could we go around this was still a mystery in the beginning. We had three expectations in the planning stage.

The craft had to be easy enough for 5 year old children, yet interesting enough for 13 year old ones
We had to be able to finish the costumes in less than ninety minutes
We had to use cheap, easy to use materials that are easy to handle.

Then someone’s light bulb switched on… Newspaper costumes!

Materials needed for this craft (this is just what we used):

Newspapers. Lots of them.
Sellotape. Lots of this as well.

(optional materials)

Scissors. We preferred to cut our newspapers with our hands, since there was a lot of activity going on
Magazines. Strips of papers from these would add colours to your costumes, though whole pages aren’t that easy to use, especially the glossy ones since they do not crumble like a newspaper does.
Crepe paper. To add even more colours.
Anything else could be used here, but remember that this is just a temporary costume, so there’s no need to “waste” this much material.

The children couldn’t understand how on earth how were we going to do a costume with these materials since they were accustomed to their original, dazzling usual ones. We divided the children into small group of not more than three children and assigned two volunteers with each group.

First the children had to decide which volunteer they were going to dress up. Then we provided some rough paper on which they drew some rough ideas. Then they all got their materials and started tearing the newspapers and literally sticking them to the clothes of the volunteers with the sellotape.

In the end we had all the children sitting down so that they could enjoy their volunteers’ first ever canival costume parade. We had eight models in all. A spiderwoman, a bunny girl, an evil wizard, a fairy, cinderella, a Maltese television character, a medieval rich woman and a princess. One had to stretch a bit his imagination to see clearly these costumes as they were intended, but all in all, they were there and the children were the sole creators.

Now I think it’s best to stop here with the words, and let you “admire” these photos…

(pictures coming)

Take care

Iz-zunzana ddur iddur (Children's game)

2007-02-12T14:48:00.000+01:00

That’s it!

After I’ve mentioned for a second time the Maltese game “Iz-Zunzana ddur Iddur”, I thought that maybe I should browse for the complex ‘lyrics’ ( *whistles* ) so that I could share them with you. Apparently, no one cares much about our traditional children games, so just for you curios folks, here is what I was talking about…

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to thee:

-----
Iż-Żunżana ddur iddur
Fuq il-bejt tal-kaċċatur,

Meta tasal taħt il-mina
tagħmel...

Żinn, Żann, Żunn

U titfgħalek il-ballun!
-----

That’s all. And when I looked it up, all I managed to find where just short versions (two-liners) of this already short song. So that you could understand the game better, a rough translation of this song would go something like:

-----
The bee goes round and round
On the poor hunter’s roof,

As it flies under the tunnel
It goes...

Żinn, Żann, Żunn (the Maltese description of bee buzzing)

and it throws it ball at you!
-----

This game can be played with any number of children. The more, the merrier! The children must sit on the floor in a big round circle facing each other, except one. This one (the bee) starts running round and round the circle while the others are singing. In his hand he must hold a soft ball, a piece of cloth, or anything that’s handy at the moment that will not hurt a child if thrown. At the end of the song the bee must drop the ball behind someone else and keep running. He who has the ball nearest to him must collect it and run after the bee. This guy is now the hunter whose purpose is to catch the bee. The bee must reach the vacant space left by the hunter before it is caught. If the bee is caught, the hunter returns to his place and the game continues. If the bee manages to sit down before it is caught, the hunter now becomes the bee and the games starts all over again.

By now you should have understood why this game is more fun with a bigger number of children (and adults, mind you!). Anyway, even though it might get boring for some alduts (shame on them) after they play it for the fifteen hundreth time, the children never seem to get annoyed playing this game. We found it to be the ideal ice breaker, especially when the children seem really energetic. Sometimes we change the way we sing it, deep or high voices, slow or fast tempo, just clapping or mime it... it simply works, (especially with the young children). This may be due to the fact that in this game no one really looses, and everyone gets a chance to play.

Hope this works for you if any of you ever get the chance to try it out...

Take care, and enjoy yourselves!

Carnival Masks

2007-02-12T14:19:00.000+01:00

Yay! I am going do this before another week goes by!

*evil laugh*

For those of you still tuned in here:

Here I present to you our carnival treat for the children - Animal Masks!

As I may have already told you before, we work with children from Valletta. My Maltese friends surely knows what the carnival means for the city people. And what’s this feast without a mask and a costume? Well, we know that these children are already prepared for their mad weekend, but their’s nothing like watching the children wrecking their brains to come up with the best mask possible.

Taking in consideration the different groups, we printed some animal faces for those children aged 5 to 7, and gave a blank piece of A4 cardboard to the children aged 8 to 10. The young ones had to fill in their faces with as much colour as possible. Afterwards we helped them to cut out the template, stuck it on a piece of cardboard and gave it to the child to wear after we fixed them with a piece of elastic ribbon. Each child had enough time to do at least two masks and then to pose for some photos.

The other group was encouraged to draw his own mask. The children had several different ideas, and the masks varied from zombies to dog faces. These were given the blank piece of cardboard and some rough papers on which the could scribble any rough ideas before finally drawing their preferred face and filling it in with as much colours as possible.

Before the crafts, the group of the eagles (children from 8 to 10) spent some time playing ‘fruit salad’, while the dragons played a couple of ‘iz-zunzana ddur iddur’ and sang the Maltese version of the noah’s ark song.

To be honest, I think that there was some time were the volunteers were enjoying their time more than the children, but all in all it was a really good session! Next Wednesday we will be doing the costumes. For these we’re only using newspaper and sellotape. The children will be fixing a costume on their group leader who, in the end, has the honor to model it around in front of the judges (the children themselves, obviously).

See you after the next session with more information, and hopefully some photos of both the masks and the costumes!

Take care.

Just your daily dose of cool...

2007-02-12T13:38:00.000+01:00

T-shirt designs

...ok, make that "design". Still, I thought it was quite worth it to share, even on it's own.

Wednesday 31st January...

2007-02-07T15:43:00.000+01:00

Alas, another week had to go by before I managed to sit myself down and convince this hard headed guy that it’s about time that he posted his article.

Anyway, last week was quite a quiet one with the children. Only 9 of them showed up. 3 of these were in the older boys group. These 3, together with the volunteer assigned with the group, prepared some traditional Maltese “Hobz biz-zejt”. A cheap ‘ftira’ full of oily goodness like olives, capers, tomato spread, lettuce, tuna chunks, onions and some salt and pepper. Cheap and easy to prepare, yet the children enjoyed the mess that comes along. Afterwards went for a walk along the sea coast where they sat down to enjoy their snack and chatted on various “important” subjects. The other 6 children, 5 of which are aged 7yrs and less, and the other one is 10yrs old, spent their time playing and goofing around. Since we didn’t want to ‘waste’ craft ideas and materials for such a small group, an indoor sports day was organized. Among the games we played, there was “Iz-Zunzana ddur iddur” (the lyrics of which I still have to understand), Simon Says, Fruit Salad and one-legged skipping rally.

The ten year old girl, who felt that she’s too old to participate, got a bunch of newspapers out of which she created a carnival costume on a volunteer.

The children really enjoyed their time. It was a break from instructions and offered them a chance to move around, shout and waste their energy. Ironically, it was the volunteers that had some problem with the “session”. Most of the volunteers helping with this small group, thought that the games were ‘stupid’ and got bored after a couple of minutes. We had to change the game every so often because their participation diminished and their attitude was influencing the children’s behaviour.

That’s all regarding last Wednesday’s session. Hopefully I won’t take another week to post something about today.

Take care

For the amusement of the crowd...

2007-02-07T14:02:00.000+01:00

FARTING DOT!

Handprint Peacock

2007-01-30T17:41:00.000+01:00

It’s getting more and more impossible for me to find the time to write a proper update. Or better yet, it’s getting more and more difficult for me to find the will to write a proper update in my free time. The problem is that my free time is vanishing bit by bit…

Anyway, I’m sure that you didn’t come all the way to this blog to read my rantings. Somewhere in this years’ first update I made the mistake to promise you guys that I’ll be updating at least once a week. The plan was to update after every Wednesday and give you nice people out there some feedback about the activities we did with the children.

To be honest I’m not exactly happy how this thing is turning out. I’m not too eager to change this blog in a children’s activities webpage, but at least for now this will help me to keep updating. Otherwise I’m sure that I’ll never write anything in here ever again…

…moving forward to the interesting part (even though it’s almost a week late)…

Our first activity day was on Wednesday 24th. Every year, during these first months, we have to face a recurrent problem. A number of our volunteers will stop attending due to exams. Keeping this in mind, we had to prepare our first sessions carefully. Thus for the first session we planned a craft that didn’t have an “ending”.

We got the idea for the craft from here, but since one of our main goals is to promote teamwork, we had to adapt the peacock to our needs. The children were asked to form four groups and to each group we gave a bowling skittle-like piece of cardboard. This served as the body of the peacock. Then the craft was explained to the children and we started distributing 15cmx15cm pieces of white cardboard on which the children had to draw their hands and fill it in with as many colours as possible.

As you may have guessed, the difference between our craft and the one listed here, is that our peacocks ended with more colourful tails. Preparation time was less then fifteen minutes, and the materials needed are all easily available from any stationery.

The children (age groups from 5 to 10) enjoyed the craft, especially when we started gluing the handprints to form the tail. Each child was doing his best to use as many colours as possible on his print. The only problem we had was that a few children got annoyed with drawing their hands after the third print and they started disturbing the rest of the group.

We considered to try some games with those who were annoyed while the others were still drawing, but probably this would have resulted in more children quitting their craft to join the games. My suggestion is to prepare some other drawings to offer to any such children in a group. This would offer an alternative to those refusing to work, but won’t distract the rest of the children since in the end it’s still crayons and papers…

Hope this helps ;-)

Take care.

L-Edukazzjoni u l-Kultura ta’ l-Imbarazz

2007-01-28T19:02:00.000+01:00

Ghal dawk il-qarrejja Maltin li dejjem iduru fl-irkejjen ta' din id-dinja elettronika jfittxu xi artiklu nteressanti bil-lingwa taghna, nissuggerilkom li zzuru s-sit tal-Grupp ghat-Tielet Dinja u taht is-sezzjoni ta' l-Artikli taqraw "L-Edukazzjoni u l-Kultura ta' l-Imbarazz miktub minn Dr. Adrian Grima.

Minn Wikipedia:

Adrian Grima twieled fl-1968 u huwa attivist, kittieb, poeta kif ukoll għalliem tal-letteratura Maltija fl-Università ta' Malta. Speċjalizza fil-metafora u l-preżenza tal-Mediterran fil-letteratura Maltija, żewġ suġġetti li jgħallem fil-Fakultà ta' l-Arti. Kiseb id-Dottorat, taħt is-superviżjoni tal-Professur Joseph A. Buttigieg u l-Professur Oliver Friggieri, b'teżi dwar ħames metafori li sawru l-immaġinarju nazzjonali fil-letteratura Maltija.

(Aqra l-artiklu komplut hawn)

Sahhiet

Contagious...

2007-01-26T18:24:00.000+01:00

Which Super Villian are you?

2007-01-13T13:36:00.000+01:00

This is what happens when I've got enough time to browse the net but not enough time to do a proper update...

Your results:
You are The Joker

The Joker		54%
Riddler		48%
Lex Luthor		44%
Mr. Freeze		44%
Magneto		43%
Apocalypse		41%
Dr. Doom		41%
Mystique		41%
Venom		40%
Catwoman		38%
Green Goblin		37%
Dark Phoenix		35%
Poison Ivy		34%
Juggernaut		33%
Two-Face		33%
Kingpin		33%

The Clown Prince of Crime. You are a brilliant mastermind but are criminally insane. You love to joke around while accomplishing the task at hand.

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test

Happy New Year

2007-01-10T15:36:00.000+01:00

Happy new year! (to you and your loved ones). Hope you had the best festive season ever, with loads of wrapped presents under your Christmas tree and yummy food in your bellies.

Finally a long overdue update. But hey, it’s not my fault. This was one of the busiest holiday seasons ever, and as a cherry on the top of the cream, my modem stopped being a modem something like two months ago. Now it’s just a black box with blinking lights, still entertaining to look at, but not really useful. (Actually it wasn’t the modem’s fault… it was the network card, but since that doesn’t blink or anything, it’s not fun mentioning it)

After the last update I started to get more hours at work, had to prepare for a performance with the children, try to sell as many logs as possible, attend to an infinite amount of parties, eat till I felt like barfing and looking at the blinking lights waiting for the headaches and hangovers to pass.

Now pretending that someone out there is interested in any of this…

At work it’s going really great. I am learning the ins and outs of the job, and after two months I still haven’t complained about going to work. Can you believe that? Not even once! It’s like what I wanted to do for all my life… let’s just hope that I’ll manage to hold tight to this attitude.

The Christmas log thing… I didn’t do well, selling only twenty logs against last years’ thirty-three. All the same, the rest of the group did impressingly well. We managed to sell about six hundred logs in just two weeks. Quite an achievement, don’t you think?

Anyway, moving on… What I enjoy most about this holiday season is the party food and drinks. It’s not even the parties that I’m enthusiastic about, but the food, *drool*… I know that one can prepare it any time of the year, but due to the fact that it comes with all the celebration of the festivities, it has that special something that makes it taste even better! I’ve earned a reputation with my ladyfriend’s family as a vacuum cleaner… hope they’ll still invite me to any future jamborees!

For those of you who scrolled back to the second paragraph to check the list again, I know that I’ve skipped the performance… done it for a reason. Starting with a little something about the performance, it was the final gig of our integrated percussion orchestra. I’m not hundred percent sure, but I think that I’ve already mentioned eku-tanbur here. The performance at Valletta’s primary school, which was a success I might add, was the final boss fight of our joint project with Eden Foundation’s eku-tanbur.

To be honest, I’m not excluding the possibility that someday in the future we might team up again with them and do a couple of sessions more, but since we had to select for the orchestra, we couldn’t go on forever with the selected few and never prepare anything for those who weren’t chosen or weren’t interested in the project. Anyway, till now we don’t have any plans for side projects like this one, we might be doing some clay workshops during the months of February and March, but it’s nothing definite.

Why did I leave this for last? Well, this year I was planning to organise things around here. One such thing would be an update every Thursday in which I’ll give you details about the session with the children on the day before. I believe that working with children is like popping a Christmas cracker. You know that there’s going to be a smell, definitely a sound and maybe a surprise. If one Googles “crafts for kids” he’ll get hundreds of hits, but I never found anyone who talked about the children’s reactions to the crafts. Since most of what we do during our sessions is taken from the holy land of the internet, I’ll start linking you to our idea, tell you about any modifications, but mostly I’m going to focus on the reactions and on the good things and bad things of the craft…

Beside this I have some other small plans to make this small corner more interesting, but you’ll get to know these later on. For now I’m just happy that I’m back. I really hope that those nice people that used to come in here to read what’s going on will start checking here again, and that this blog thing won’t ever become one of those “wow-what-a-wonderful-idea” I place on top of some dusty shelf and leave there to rot.

See you soon with another post.

Till then…

Take care

Christmas Logs

2006-11-12T08:20:00.000+01:00

Christmas Logs

LOGS għall-bejgħ maħdumin mill-Grupp għat-Tielet Dinja. Il-grupp huwa għaqda volontarja li taħdem favur persuni emarġinati mis-soċjeta.

Prezz: Lm2.95

Użin: 750g

Ingredjenti

Taħlita: Gallettini, Brandy, Ġellewż, Ċirasa, Ħalib tal-Bott, Ċikkulata

Dekorazzjoni: Buttuni taċ-Ċikkulata, Trab taz-Zokkor

Biex tordna tista' tibgħat e-mail lil Miguel jew tibgħat SMS fuq 79591894 b' isem, indirizz u ammont ta' logs mixtieqa.

Dawn il-Christmas Logs tista' ssibhom għall-bejgħ ukoll mill-ħanut L-Arka f' Triq San Pawl, il-Belt Valletta.

Grazzi

Another quote

2006-11-10T17:22:00.000+01:00

"Christ is the head of this family. The silent listener of every conversation, the unseen guest of every meal."

Another quote I got from the Sisters of Charity...

This is what I would call creativity...

2006-11-10T12:22:00.000+01:00

Maxi-Pad Slippers

This is a fun gag gift! Follow these free instructions and you can make slippers using maxi-pads.

Materials Needed:

4 Maxi-Pads
Tape or Glue
Items to Embellish

Instructions:

You need four maxi pads to make a pair of slippers. Two of them get laid out flat in front of you, for the sole of the foot. The other two wrap around the toe area to form the top of the slipper. Tape or glue each side of the top pieces to the bottom of the foot part.

Now you have a pair of slippers you can embellish. Decorate the tops with whatever you desire, charms, beads, silk flowers, etc.

You can attach a gift card to your slippers with these descriptions:

- Slippers for the descrete woman.
- Soft and hygenic.
- Non-slip grip strips on the soles.
- Built in deodorant feature to keep feet smelling fresh.
- No more bending over to mop up spills.
- Disposable, biodegradable, and environmentally safe.
- Comes in 3 convenient sizes: Regular, Light day, and SUPER Absorbant.

Thanks to -

A quicky

2006-11-07T15:57:00.000+01:00

...just a short post for those who wished me the best of luck; I might have found work... still have to go through some training period, etc, etc, but hopefully I'll be doing something else beside sleeping during the morning.

Thanks to whoever stuck around and helped lifting my spirits...

I'll give you more details on this once I'm actually working ;-)

Take care.

Eku-Tanbur

2006-11-07T03:08:00.000+01:00

Eku-Tanbur
(as described by the Eden Foundation on the Eden Fest ’06 leaflet)

Eku-Tanbur (the integrated percussion orchestra) is an initiative of the Department of Creative Arts and Psychotherapy of The Eden Foundation. This Department works with the arts (visual arts, music, dance and drama) in order to promote physical, social, emotional and cognitive development and integration.

The percussion orchestra has three primary aims:

• To use music and rhythm at the service of personal and social development of our clients. (Participants in the orchestra develop skills such as discipline, perseverance, flexibility, team-work, the ability to work with large groups of people, and most important they get the message that they deserve to be seen and heard). These are skills which then help to cope better with school, work settings, in their social life etc.

• As a forum for integration. The orchestra embraces in it children and adults with developmental disability, as well as an increasing number of people from the community. Our challenge is to bring together people who differ in terms of age, social background, professional orientation etc.

• To teach all participants to play the drums well, so that the orchestra in itself reaches high performance levels.

Eku-Tanbur and the Third World Group
(our experience)

After several meetings with the staff at the Eden Foundation and experiencing the thrill of playing a percussion instrument together with their orchestra, we realized that we just had to encourage our children to participate in this program. At that moment in time we couldn’t even imagine the end result, but we had to give it a try.

Some years ago the group had participated in another musical project, where together with the international percussionist Renzo Spiteri, we had several drum circles to help the children to express their emotions through music. It was a success and the children never stopped talking about the feelings that were born inside them while they were playing along.

The children we cater for today were too young to participate then. They kept asking questions for which we had no answers since none of us really knew what to expect. Whereas during the drum circles everyone was free to express himself, as he deemed best, this time we were joining an already mature orchestra where we had to abide by their rules and to learn specific beats.

About 30 children started this experience with the group, but after the first few months there were less than 15 for the training session and in the end only ten made it to the performance. Usually we never screen children, and each child is encouraged to express his individuality. This time they were dragged into a totally different world, where being different was not accepted.

What we feared most in the beginning was the children’s reaction towards the disabled members of this orchestra. This turned out to be the least of our problems. The children eventually made friends with all the other members and after a couple of sessions they were all joking around.

Our biggest challenge was to help the children understand the idea behind the orchestra. They had to stay in a pre-determined fixed point without neither moving nor shuffling their feet. They had to remain silent until the maestro said that it was ok to play. They couldn’t look backwards, giggle or sit down. They had to learn five different beats and two different steps.

We were also required to participate in the orchestra ourselves. Our philosophy is that there is nothing better than leading by example. The problem was that none of us had ever played any instruments before.

Obviously, with the volunteers going off-beat and the children doing just the opposite of what was asked, it was turning into a sour experience. This is where we were forced to choose among them. Those that showed most interest stayed. Choosing the best would have been much easier, but it would have resulted in more disturbed sessions.

In the end, during the month of July, after eight months of practice, the children together with the volunteers and the original members performed twice and on both nights were applauded. The magic was done. The end result was by far better than what we had expected. Coming from one of the most disturbed environments in Malta, it was definitely not easy for these children to integrate themselves in such a project, but against all odds they had managed to.

Where to?

2006-11-06T12:21:00.000+01:00

As on my skin
the wind bites sharp,

an angel flutters by,
another plays his harp.

I cling to my cloud,
afraid to let go.

Looking at the devil
smiling down below...

surrounded by flames
souls burnin' with no fuss,

where's the destination
of my one way pass?

Working with emarginated children

2006-11-05T11:32:00.000+01:00

A smile, a thankful look and a hug.

Among other reactions, these are what any human being would grow to expect every time he meets the children he’s been working with for the last months. This is what we recieve almost every time we walk down the same road asking children to join us for the day’s session.

When you’re lucky enough to work with children on a weekly basis, and dedicated enough to appreciate every failed session, the relations sprouting between the concerned parties, will pave the road for long years of voluntary work and longer years of friendship. On the other hand, the hardest time for any volunteer would be when he detaches himself from the situation and is neither able nor willing to bask in the warmth that these children emit when they are around another loving person.

Believing that we are here dealing with emotionally weak children and acting accordingly, would not help either. The fact that these young urchins are still full of energy even after all they have to go through, is proof enough that they are much stronger than what we are led to believe.

Growing up in an environment where only the fittest would survive, since a very tender age they have to prove that they are not going to be someone else’s punching bag. Every child fights to be the coolest, the strongest and the wittiest among his peers. Instead of just playing for keeps when throwing marbles, the winner would be forcing his authority. To lose is not a verb they accept in their daily lives.

Neither age nor sex matters, and though it is unusual that the boys pick on the girls, this is usually because the other boys would make fun of them and not out of respect. The same thing cannot be said for the young ladies, exhibiting some of the worst tempers, an angry girl can easily humiliate any male pretending to be the alpha guy.

This does not mean that we are dealing with tough gangsters. Their fragility becomes easily evident after the smallest mishap. Just tearing a drawing or spilling a drink is sometimes enough to bring tears to the eyes of the youngest children. The same children that moments before were franatically throwing fists in the air while trying to hit some other kid twice their size.

A new volunteer’s first reaction would be to walk backwards slowly and then run away as fast as possible. Working with such emotionally disturbed children is not easy at all, but if we try to understand their lifestyle, patterns could easily be traced in their behaviour.

Most of these children come from broken families with parents who had a disturbed childhood themselves. Some would grow to never meet their siblings, others have to visit their parents in correctional facilities every week. Others turn out on our doorstep from poor families who could never provide the child with the same opportunities that other children have, some suffer from ADD (attention deficit disorder) or/and hyperactivity, while the rest just act their age.

Unanimously we do not tolerate anything that goes against social morals. Neither outward violence nor subtle racist comments are condoned, but we believe that there is some twisted reasoning, resulting from a child’s upbringing, behind their actions and always try our best to tackle these situations as such. While making sure that the children understand that we do not justify their actions, we know that these children’s basic needs are unsatisfied.

As Abraham Maslow theorised in his 1943 psychological paper, A Theory of Human Motivation, humans need to meet their ‘basic needs’, before they seek to satisfy their higher needs. Following the pyramid that depicts Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, how can we assume that these children know how to cultivate a good friendship if they lack the needed security of body or the much required nutrition?

Any other professional working in the field of social work, counselling or psychology would be able to handle these children in a better way. Especially if the children are dealt within a special room and on a one to one basis. Ours however is not a social work organisation, and we gather in our arms some fifty children, for whom we can offer just four rooms, trusthworthy friends and a bundle of unconditional love.

In our infrastructure we know that we cannot replace any professional help that these children might be recieving, nor can we spend as much time as we would like to, to balance out all the negative aspects of their infancy. Our aim is to satisfy as much of their basic needs as it is humanly possible.

We try to provide a safe haven, a place where even the cast outs from this emarginated sector of our society are welcomed. In these four rooms the volunteers discard any authoritarian thoughts and wear a protective friendship cloak under which the children are treated as we would treat our best friends. We give these children what they crave most, a sense of belonging.

Under our cloak, the weakest are usually those most encouraged to shout their voices, while the known bullies are led to the realization that it is not socially acceptable to control other humans through sheer dominance. Asking them to work in groups, where every child is required to muscle as much as the others, new friendships would start to bud as it dawns on them that they all have different abilities.

With our weekly sessions of games, crafts and drama, our hope is that we are somewhat rebuilding their childhood one game at a time. And while getting to know each child’s limits and difficulties, throughout the cheers, we do our best to provide positive comments on all outcomes, praising their efforts and rekindling what is left of their faith in their potentiality.

This here, a description in a nutshell of the philosophy that maneuvers the group’s major project in harmony, should get you interested enough to consider joining forces with us. Should any such need arise, do not hesitate to contact us, but remember that none of this has anything to do with being charitable. We feel that we all have a lot to give and to learn from each volunteer and each child that spends time with us.

The previous post...

2006-11-02T23:50:00.000+01:00

The article before this post was copied entirely from “The Times of Malta”. Written by Herman Grech and titled “Experiences of a ‘nigger’ in Malta” it tells the story of Ebrima Camara.

With his words Mr. Grech stuffs this horrendous reality we live in down our throats. I copied and pasted the whole article as it is for two reasons. The first one being that some of my friends who read this blog are too lazy to actually click on a link provided. The second and most important reason is that I think that this article is one of the best I’ve read in a very, very long time and I did not want to alter it in any way. I wanted to be sure that this shitty truth here is delivered to your brains just the way I received it, and I really hope that you’re left with the same feelings after you’re done…

I’m feeling hopeless, guilty and ashamed that my I.D. card says that I am a Maltese citizen.

Isn’t it about time that we grow up and realize that we’re just one race? That in the end we’re all children of the same earth? Especially us Maltese, with nothing to really call our own, shouldn’t we be more tolerant, understanding and helpful with these people?

Shame on every racist out there! Do yourself and us a favour and bang your head really hard against some sharp edge till you realize that that is still hurting, no matter how elite you feel…

Experiences of a 'nigger' in Malta

2006-11-02T23:42:00.000+01:00

When Ebrima Camara was walking through Customs at Malta International Airport in March 2001 he felt his body freeze as he recalled his chilling ordeal two years earlier. However, he put on a brave face, as he knew that the freedom he had been fighting for was just a flight away.

After being mistaken for an illegal immigrant, allegedly beaten up by police officers and nightclub bouncers, put in prison for two months and left in limbo in Malta for two years, Mr Camara heaved a huge sigh of relief as he boarded the Aeroflot aircraft for Lagos, en route to his home in Gambia.

"I felt like a bird inside a cage that was about to be released. But, like a bird which has been incarcerated, I was psychologically affected," the 31-year old man tells The Times.

Mr Camara was in Malta last week to bury his demons and to carry out research for a book to be released next year which he plans to call A Nigger in Malta.

At his five-star hotel in St Julians, he offers a stiff handshake and says it took him a long time reflecting whether he should speak to a newspaper about his experience. His German wife remains in the hotel room as she disapproves of the interview, fearing repercussions.

But the impeccably dressed Mr Camara, who now works as an economist for Boeing in Munich, is determined to tell the story he hopes will serve as a reminder of the ugly side of racism.

As a student, Mr Camara was on an excursion to Libya and was running out of money. He contacted his family to send him money at a time when the UN sanctions on Libya were still in force.

"I went to the Maltese Embassy in Tripoli which told me that the money may be transferred to Bank of Valletta and I may come here to collect it. The embassy also told me I did not need a visa and I had no intention to stay in Malta," he recalls.

Mr Camara left Tripoli on December 21, 1998, on the Garnata ferry and arrived in Malta on Christmas eve at 11 p.m. because of bad weather. There were different nationalities on board the ship but he was the only black African. Little did he know about the impending "welcome".

"I filled in the immigration form and submitted it with my passport, but when my turn came I was told I could not enter Malta. If I were an illegal immigrant, do you think I would have bothered filling in a form and presenting my passport?

Mr Camara questioned the decision, and at one point a policewoman allegedly charged at him: "Do you think we want a nigger in Malta?"

"I asked her why she was calling me a nigger and why they didn't want to let me in. At this point the policewoman pinned me and tightened the tie to my neck and three police officers who were with her started beating me up. I couldn't even attempt to fight back four people. The policewoman pushed her leg into my chest. That's the last thing I remember."

Mr Camara was apparently taken back on the ship in a wheelchair but the captain refused to take him on board.

"I woke up in hospital and spent over a week there. I couldn't walk and my leg was swollen. When I felt better I asked the police to let me go, so that I could collect my money and leave the country."

After eight days, Mr Camara left the hospital without the knowledge of the police who, he says, kept threatening him with prison and deportation.

He ended up at the Mosta health centre but he was rounded up by the police soon after. He was arraigned in court charged with being in Malta without a permit and of trying to escape and subsequently sent to prison for two months.

The police denied the Gambian student's claims of assault. A hospital doctor told the court that Mr Camara was examined by doctors, X-rayed and CT scanned but no signs of external violence were found even though she confirmed he was not walking properly. However, the Gambian's lawyer, Joe Brincat, says the hospital failed to take into consideration the fact that the bruises were masked by the man's dark skin.

Mr Camara is still seething with anger: "Even if I was an illegal immigrant I should have been sent to a detention centre and not to prison. Until this day I think about it, and it's not easy. My family was very surprised that I had ended up in this state but I didn't want to alarm them."

Traumatised and disturbed, Mr Camara walked out of prison but, with his passport still held by the courts, he was stuck in limbo. He was unable to work and he lived off the money sent by his family.

His nightmare was not over. One time in Paola, a car driver spat at him but even though he filed charges, the police did not find enough grounds to charge the suspect.

One evening he tried to enter a nightclub in Paceville with three foreign friends. The two white people were allowed in and the blacks were not. After asking for an explanation, Mr Camara was dragged out of the bar, beaten and poked in the eye by three men. The bouncers were eventually charged in court.

"Before I turned up in Malta I had never been beaten up in my life. I can't believe a human being can be treated like this," he muses, nodding his head incredulously.

Mr Camara's case against the police was discontinued after the court eventually established the African man had entered the country legally and the passport was released. He left Malta within a week.

"I once heard that the Home Affairs Ministry would order an official inquiry into my case but so far nobody has contacted me.

"I lost two years of my life. Malta has nearly ruined my life and I came here to close the chapter completely. I will never come back. I will also send a copy of my book to the National Library in Valletta - free of charge."

Malta has treated him differently this time round, though Mr Camara believes that this is somewhat connected to the fact that he now wears better clothing, is residing in a top hotel and is accompanied by a woman.

"On Saturday I went to Paceville and my wife stayed at the hotel. But I felt I had to go to the club where I was beaten up... and this time I was let in."

Though he admits that racism is rife in many countries, he says that offenders overseas are instantly brought to justice, something which, he says, did not happen in Malta. He is however relieved to learn that earlier this year the government toughened the penalties against racially motivated crimes.

Mr Camara says he will always remain eternally grateful to the people who assisted him during his ordeal: the late Fr Leopold Tabone, Imam Mohammed Elsadi, Rita Law, John and Anna Gauci, Terry Gosden and, especially his lawyer, Dr Brincat, who assisted him for free.

When contacted, Dr Brincat confirmed Mr Camara's version of events, adding the man was simply a victim of racial discrimination.

"He just wanted to leave Malta and that's why his case was never followed up. His success in both his professional and personal life are testament to his competency and to his true character," Dr Brincat says.

Ebrima Camara: "I lost two years of my life"

Thank You

2006-10-27T14:02:00.000+02:00

These are some verses I had written as a Thank You to the Sisters after my stay in Ethiopia:

-------------------------------------------

Years pass by
and much is forgotten;
But living with you
gave a meaning
to my life
I shall always treasure!

-------------------------------------------

Rain soaked my clothes
Mud stopped my walk
Wounds blinded my vision.
But what I shall remember
when years pass by,
Is the love with which
I was recieved
in this family of God

-------------------------------------------

For every tear I shed,
For every frown I had,
For every dull moment;
I found shelter in your smile,
I found support in your dedication,
I found life in your love.
For this and much more

I thank you.

-------------------------------------------

All those who had the opportunity to experience the love with which the Sisters greet you in their community, will understand what I was feeling when I wrote these verses... The others, you just have to live through something like this at least once in your lifetime!

Take Care

"Accept whatever is given. Give whatever is taken away, with a smile."

(Written on the walls in the Sisters headquarters)

Some food for thought

2006-10-27T10:39:00.000+02:00

Hey there... Been some time since my last post, but nothing happened that was worth mentioning. Nothing was that good to get me out of my apathy. Anyway, yesterday I found this. Thought some of you might enjoy the read...
______________________________________

The Fish in the Sea are Thirsty

I laughed when they told me that the fish in the sea were thirsty. There is something about the sayings and the wisdom of the East that makes one stop and thinks – like the sound of a one-handed man clapping! That’s why I believe there are really few atheists on earth, even fewer in heaven and there are absolutely none in hell, for there everyone believes in God – regretfully!

Trees and Stars

My father was a philosopher of sorts, and though he would never have described himself as a religious man, he used to say he could never understand how anyone could look at a tree and not believe in God. Yet today we run the risk of being ‘practical atheists’, who are so caught up in the things of earth and our own ‘busyness’ that we have not time to stop and stare, or waste time looking at the stars or the trees.

‘Practical atheists’: it is a phrase which has appeared a few times in recent Church documents to describe those who may say they believe and yet live as if God did not exist. Many people today are living in the sea and yet remain thirsty.

Faith and Wonder

Thomas Aquinas, the great thirteenth century Dominican theologian and saint, wrote that faith and wonder are the same. Nearer to our own age, the mathematical genius, Einstein, said that a person is as good as dead if he loses his sense of wonder. “Look up in the sky and count the stars,” God says to Abraham (Gen. 15:5)

The Joy of Creation

St. Francis of Assisi used to say that the whole of creation is in a continual state of joy, as it makes its act of faith in the one who made it. Each part can do nothing else except what it was made for, and so gives praise to God. The howling wind, the waves crashing against the cliff face, the trees whistling in their naked autumn ness, the sun breaking on the baked pavement, all of creation, is saying in its own language, “Praise God”.

And man? The Psalmist too ponders the question. Is God’s greatest work of art sometimes out of step with the rest of creation? “What is man that you are mindful of him, mortal man that you keep him in mind?” he asks (Ps. 8:5)

This wise man had seen God’s glory all around and could praise Him: “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars set in their place… O Lord, our God, how great is your name through all the earth!” (8:3, 10). He was then no longer thirsty.

______________________________________

Take care all of you

Miguel

Amor

2006-10-24T10:52:00.000+02:00

Amor (x4)
Hermanos Mios
Dios es Amor
Ama todos
Como Hermanos
Dios es Amor (x2)

...probably the spelling is far from being right, but that's how the song got to me and that's how I'm able to present it (too lazy to check if the actual spelling is ok). Pity that I can't give you the tune over here

...it's what I call inspiring!

The Night Listener

2006-10-24T03:06:00.000+02:00

Yeah there’s been some change over here, hope that you’ll like the selected template. I think the colours are easier on the eyes, especially for those who spend long hours in front of the pc. Though to be honest, I just did it because I was having some troubles with the previous template. I hate it when some things I say give the impression that I’m some good hearted guy, so I just had to clear that point…

Anyway, yesterday I was tagged along with some friends to watch “The Night Listener”. Probably here I should tell you that my theory is that at the cinema one should only watch comedy films as other genres should be given much more attention than one could spare there.

With that in mind, after I read the synopsis, watched the trailer and discovered that Robin Williams is the main actor, I just couldn’t resist not watching it. Now I’m not going to say that this was a mistake, but I still have mixed feelings about it.

If, after you watch the trailer, you expect some action-filled, screaming-scary movie; do not go to view this film. As written in the first line, this movie is a psychological thriller, and that it surely is. Till the end, the film will keep you on the edge of your seat, biting your nails, just waiting for the next scene and then the one after.

The problem is that at the very end, you’re left just like that; still waiting for that other scene. At first I was getting bored because it starts moving at a very slow pace, but it starts rolling at a pleasant trot just after sometime after the first quarter of the film. Then, as suddenly as it started, it ended. I was left with like a hundred questions unanswered.

Without ruining anything (and I actually think that you should know this before watching the film), one such question is; Why was Robin’s character, Gabriel Noone (“This is Noone at Midnight” - he said this during his radio shows… hehe), a homosexual? Don’t get me wrong here, it’s not that I’m homophobic or something… and I know that this film is based on a book which in its turn was based on true events… but still, why?

The thing is that throughout the film you’re not invited into the characters private life, so instead of being gay he could be single, divorced, etc. On the other hand I realize that this could have been done on purpose so that the audience will stop expecting something more when there’s a gay character. If this is what the director had in mind, then I applaud him.

Beside Noone’s sexual preferences, there are a couple of things that you should know if you’re planning to watch this film.

- In the beginning, as William’s is caught in the camera, ignore the lower voice that starts talking while there’s the other voice going and concentrate on the first one. The lower voice is still William’s, but while the one that starts first is introducing the character to you, the other is just reading something for a radio programme. Nothing that is of any importance later on in the film.
- Pay special attention to what is being said during the telephone conversations.
- Know that Noone’s father is not proud with his son being gay
- Armistead Maupin wrote the book the Night Listener six years ago. He describes this novel as “a thriller of the heart” and admitted that it was partially auto-biographical.
- And the film, running less than ninety minutes, is a relatively short one. Do not go there playing Sherlock Holmes. Just watch it and wait for the story to unfold. Then after check out this wikipedia link about Munchausen Syndrome. Do not check this link before you watch the film because you’ll spoil it.

Still, all in all, it was quite a good film to watch once I realised the point of the film. And I do recommend it, even if not for the movie, Robin Williams and Toni Colette’s acting is enough to turn this into a pleasurable experience.

That’s it for now…

Take care

Here I always include a quote on a related subject, but this time I didn’t find, nor can I remember any quotes from the film. Instead I’ve looked up some quotes by Robin Williams and chosen these as my favourites:

“The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, "Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses." She's got a baseball bat and yelling, "You want a piece of me?"”

“If women ran the world we wouldn’t have wars, just intense negotiations every 28 days”

“Never pick a fight with an ugly person, they’ve got nothing to lose.”

“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”

After that, here are some more quotes from the same guy, regarding the ‘big’ people:

“Having George W. Bush giving a lecture on business ethics is like having a leper give you a facial, it just doesn't work!”

You'll notice that Bush never speaks when Cheiney is drinking water, check that shit out.”

“When you look at Prince Charles, don't you think that someone in the Royal family knew someone in the Royal family?”

“We have a president for whom English is a second language. He's like 'We have to get rid of dictators,' but he's pretty much one himself.”

“Mickey Mouse to a three-year-old is a six-foot-tall RAT!”

Karma... or whatever

2006-10-22T10:42:00.000+02:00

I knew it!

Too much good things were coming my way lately… and it was becoming really scary.

Now I thought that it could be any of these two options: either some of the good stuff I did onto others was making its way back to me (would you consider this at least for one second?) or the big bully holding the lens up there was preparing some nasty surprises.

As I said in a previous post, I was born a pessimist, used to believe that this world is actually our hell. Later on in life, through twisted circumstances and with the help of weird friends, I was re-born as an eternal optimist. Whatever happened around me I was sure that it was going to end on a positive note.

So what was I complaining about? The thing is…

*drum roll*

Two days ago I had another interview.

I know that this might sound simply stupid, especially to those who are already employed. Even those who are still studying might look at me, shrug their heads and just walk away. But those who experienced unemployment… those are the guys who would totally understand what this would feel like.

To help you a little bit here, imagine that you’re drowning slowly in quicksand, and the only guy who can help you is a blind cripple who’s crawling away from the pit. That’s the best I could come up with to describe unemployment. To make matters worse, besides being unemployed, I’ve got like a month’s wage to pay in debts. Believe me, money problems do not help with moods at all.

Anyway, back to the interview.

The morning was one of those were closing your eyes and praying for the ability to double yourself would seem the only practical thing to do. First step, Valletta, to meet with a water metre reader who said that he’d be there sometime between nine and ten. Obviously I had to be there before nine because when I phoned for an appointment they told me that a separate reading is against Lm2 fee and if no one presents himself they would charge Lm10 on the next bill. He came at nine thirty. By that time I had already checked the mail, moved a small unit to close a door that had a broken lock and settled down to read this wonderful book (I’ll tell you guys more about the book in another post).

In and out in less than five minutes, that guy surely was dedicated to his work. As he climbed back on his motorcycle I asked him if it was possible to do us a big favour and check the metres at another place. At first he hesitated but after I explained our situation he told me that he would meet me there in fifteen minutes time. Later I learned that fifteen is another word for forty-five.

Bored to hell waiting for him, I found a lap top there and thought of a practical joke I read some time before … I still have to check what were the results of that, and apologize.

That fast, not so punctual guy came once again, did his thing, refused the money and went on his way and I was walking towards the terminus thinking that the day had started on a good foot. Almost there and the mobile started screaming. Usually I do not answer phone calls when I am not at home because the battery rarely withstands a two minute conversation. But I had a strange feeling about this one (…it was from a private number and I was curious.)

And there was Toni. He fixed me an interrogation for two thirty. It was 10:45 by then and I had to visit Amanda’s, go home and reach Naxxar by 14:30… and all this had to be done using Malta’s super efficient buses.

I made it there, barely, but I did. In I went for the strangest interview of my life. We were there chatting for almost an hour and our conversation went from what he does in the company to fair traded coffee. Slightly we touched the subject of what would my job with them be, but it was as if I went there to speak to an old friend… got me confused.

Now I told you that story to tell you why I hate it when good stuff happens.

Yesterday I woke up with one of the worst neck pains I ever had and as a gift for being such a stupid guy, I had a slight fever and a sore throat. I tried to take care of these with some panadols extra and headed to Valletta where I was carrying stuff to and fro in the sun.

*Nods* … I’ve got to admit that sometimes I am really dumb… Anyway, this post has already exceeded my planned limit so I am not going to bore you with how was yesterday as well.

In the end, all I really wanted was to thank those who wished Amanda a quick recovery, and ask you to keep your fingers crossed just a little bit more for me… we’re heading somewhere.

Oh, and before I forget, a belated Happy Birthday goes to Hacho who just celebrated his 22yrs two days ago.

Till the next post…

Take care

"How people treat you is their Karma; how you react is yours."

Wayne Dyer

Nostalgia

2006-10-20T01:47:00.000+02:00

Today I was helping my lady friend (I’m not going to disclose any details here since I might ruin a potential update of hers, but if you’re that curios, you can check her blog and see for yourself) and somehow I started to drift back through the years… back to the first untainted memory of childhood.

Now before I say anything else I just have to tell you that at this moment in my life I think I’ve got everything I’ve ever wished for. But somehow while I was happily skimming through the years, nostalgia hitched a ride and to be honest, with her clinging to my back, it wasn’t the good drive back home that I expected.

I don’t think I’ve ever felt that sad. I was missing my old friends, those I had back at the primary school. I missed the school, and everything related. I missed my family as they were back then. I missed my cousins and their parents, my pets, my toys, my books, my old home… I missed my life.

Usually I do not dwell in the past. Constantly I remind myself that that’s gone now and must do my best to enjoy the present, this gift. So you can easily imagine how strange I was feeling while I was walking slowly through the days long gone. The funny thing is that most of what is mentioned is still around me. Yet I just can’t run away from this sadness. My guess is that I’m loathing the change that happens to everything as years roll by.

The worst part was when I realised how much of my past is gone forever. By nature I’m a keeper, an awful one… and when I throw away something I feel as if I am dumping a part of my body. It really hurts that much, and sensing that I’ve lost more than I’ve kept, didn’t help at all. Anyway, you can easily imagine the amount of stuff I’ve got lying around. Pieces of paper, rocks, cards, small toys, magazines and photos would be just the tip of an iceberg. And each one of these brings back a memory.

My oldest memories would go back to when I was four years old. I can remember my mum walking me to the kindergarten. Then there was that time that I was sitting in the classroom (still at kindergarten) with my legs crossed next to this girl I had befriended who lived just across the street. Then there was the time I used to take these small cars with me at school to race them against other children’s cars in the corridors during the breaks. The time I went into the loo and it was full of shit as if someone had literally exploded. The time our teacher dressed as Santa Claus. Grinning and stealing playing dough from other children to have a bigger chunk. The ‘big’ round orange (or were they red?) tables. The big concrete block we had in the yard. The time my teacher was going to keep me after school because I failed to produce enough letters “h” (stupid story)… and so on and so forth.

Yes, I think about all this and feel like stopping time. I want to enjoy each moment just a little bit more. I am not sorry the way my life turned to be. Probably it could have been better, but who cares? Today I find myself thanking God that I lived the way I lived… there’s nothing I regret. Still I want to go back.

Mind you, if I had the possibility, I wouldn’t change anything. I just want five minutes with my older me. I’ll tell him to appreciate each breath. To breathe in as soon as he walks out of the door early in the morning, when the flowers are starting to blossom. To enjoy the sun’s warm caress and to savour each bite from his boring sandwich for just an extra second.

But most of all, I would tell him to appreciate each friend and each enemy, to remember each bruise and each laugh and to hug each friend for just a little longer. These are what I miss most; all those people that walked into my life and then walked out again. Even those that brought only pain with them, because every action, word, caress, punch, etc helped to curve me into what I am today.

To these I shout a big thank you, especially those who helped me to enjoy at least one second of the time spent with them and whose face or name I’ve forgotten. All the others, you know who you are… to you I’m also eternally grateful. You’ll never understand how important you are to me.

Enough nostalgia now… I’d better head off to bed.

Once again thank you for everything you did… no matter where you are or what you’re doing, do realise that it wouldn’t have been the same without you.

Take care

“Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?”

Jack London

Kingsway Gate Valletta

Some happenings...

2006-10-18T00:30:00.000+02:00

Winter sickness is what would make me almost hate this weather. In reality, I don’t care when I am sneezing my nose off, but it’s really sad to see others dragging their bodies around, shoulders down, watery eyes and a red nose. This time it was my girlfriends’ turn… hope she gets better soon.

Anyway, you know what?

Your wishes were granted people. Yes sir… you wished me good luck and today I had my second interview (so how about you wish my other half a fast recovery eh?). This time I applied for a support worker with the Foundation for Social Welfare Services.

Copying directly from what they wrote on their ad, the role would consist of:
The Support Worker shall form part of a team that assists service users in all their day-to-day needs. The Support Worker may be assigned to work inside the residences as well as in the community, and the support may be based on shift work. Support Workers shall mainly be involved in front line duties.

Sounds cool, doesn’t it?

Funnily enough even my sister applied for that same position and she was interviewed last Friday. My first thought was to give her some sleeping pills to reduce the competition, but after she came from the interview she told me what to expect. I think it’s a good thing that I rarely accomplish my evil plans…

I went there all hyped up, dressed cool, shaved and prepared my throat so that it won’t fail me while I’m giving my heart breaking answers. It was a bit stressful because there were three interviewers, and all of them wrote down everything I was saying. It was like being interrogated. (Ok, I know that an interview is an interrogation but you know what I mean, don’t try to smartass me!)

Good thing though, I really felt at ease during this interrogation. For every question asked all I had to do was think back a couple of days and fish an answer from a memory. Here I really want to thank the Third World Group for the opportunity they gave me, because I never believed that voluntary work would help me so much in my personal life.

After I finished I was going to shake their hands, but the first one just sat back, crossed his hands and bye-ed me off. Later I learned that he did that even to sis so I’m just assuming that he’s an obnoxious prick. At least the interview ended with a smile.

Now, I’m sure that you neither prayed nor crossed your fingers for me last time. So this time I’m going to ask for a ritual which is a whole lot less demanding. All you have to do is to sacrifice your younger sibling in a moon less night while chanting in a low voice. Preferably build some kind of bonfire and dance around it. You can keep your clothes on, but you have to dance barefoot. And it is very important that all the while you film this, and when the ritual is done (i.e. when you fall down, preferably not on the fire, from exhaustion) just send me the video.

This way I either get a job or else get rich blackmailing you guys.

Though, on second thoughts, for our friendship sake, let us just forget about these last lines and pretend that they were never read. It will be enough if you just cross your fingers this time…

One last thing before I close this post.

I was forced down in front of a computer by my sick other half, and had to choose between the ultimate horrors of torture or to read my last entries on this blog. I was inclined to choose torture, but since there were not any weapons visible, it did not feel like a hostage situation and to read the blog came naturally.

Apparently my captor just wanted me to realize that writing a blog at two in the morning was not the best idea on earth. Like a fourth grader I had to read through my works finding my own spelling mistakes, and like such a youngster I did find a number of stupid grammatical mistakes.

For which I do apologize (it’s easier like this than going back and correcting all my previous entries). I promise that from today I am going to start spell-checking my publishing, so that you might sleep through the whole night without the fear of a grammar Nazi disturbing your dreams.

The trick is to ignore me at times. Though, it’s really nice of you to keep coming in here to read this stuff. I am really trying to write proper posts, but for now these will have to do.

Till that glorious day,

Take care.

"The evils of an action are directly proportional to the tolerance of people."

Fair Trade

2006-10-17T01:42:00.000+02:00

The problem with blog writing is that with every word one jots down a new follower is attracted and an old one is kicked away. Most bloggers try to document easy going and pleasant stuff. We all know that it is easier to lure visitors to one’s site if the articles will not shake the readers’ beliefs.

And though I do try to keep my articles as light-toned as possibles, sometimes one just has to vent out the anger accumulated within.

Two weeks ago I’ve attended a meeting about a Clean Clothes Campaign. This was about the abused workers in clothes factories. There inspiration hit me square on the head and I came home full of energy to write something about this horror, but eventually I realised that I wasn’t ready to present something of such importance, and just closed the site.

A week ago the meeting was about Fair Trade and what’s being done in Malta. Again I just ignored the call to write something about this and instead I gave you Chuck Norris.

But just like that balloon that burst cause of an excess of air, I have to let this reality flow towards all of you.

Once again I was convinced to present this article after I read what one my friends wrote.

Please, take a seat, and enjoy the pleasures of what Unfair Trade brings to our world.

Each one of us is a consumer in his own way. We all rattled the coins in our pockets and then counted the money on our hands while pondering over which item to buy. During this process everything goes through a small mental test before we commit ourselves to it’s grasp.
a) Do we need it?
b) Do we afford it?
c) Is there anything that will serve the same purpose at a better price?

With today’s advertisements the first two questions are easily erased from our minds. We are led to believe that we can afford stuff which is way out of our reach and for which we have no use. Marketing geniuses use their advertising powers as a hypnotist would use his golden pendant.

As for the third question, well that requires the presence of something material, so they are not able to present us with an illusion which we believe it is our own. Instead they do give us something which will serve the same purpose at a better deal. Usually the price tag is enough to cloud our vision so that we won’t see the reality behind that item. This is why we are hurt when someone crushes our curtain and shovels reality down our throat.

When I learned about Fair Trade some years ago I smiled and praised God that at least some people are conscious about this situation and are doing their best to help. But when I was presented with the idea of Unfair Trade, I felt betrayed… Never before had I realized that we needed the ‘Fair Trade’ phrase simply because the normal trade was unfair.

Trade rules helped the rich to get richer. They were thought around the needs of the dominating buisnesses. Thus granting power to the already established companies. This resulted in a closed market where only the choosen few could participate.

To be honest, here I wanted to copy some information about Fair Trade so that you’ll understand better… but that meant that I would be leaving out loads of useful information. So instead I looked up this wikipedia link about Fair Trade and urge you to read the whole article. It’s really worth it, and probably much more interesting than anything you’ve read here till now.

After you’ve done from that, check out L-Arka’s homepage. Probably I’ve already mentioned this site, and what’s more, it’s in my links on your right… but this time you just can’t keep on reading without checking that! This is the only Fair Trade shop in Malta and situated in St. Paul’s Street Valletta as it is, it is not one of those big shops whose name is on everyone’s lips.

In the end you might ask what was all this about. I am not sure, but I know that I wanted you to know that someone cares, someone already had the balls to walk the first steps and do something. Moaning and bitching won’t help much, help is needed. There’s a big need for volunteers to help in this cause. If there’s anyone interested, do not hesitate to contact me or send an e-mail to L-Arka’s address directly.

Remember, while the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, you’re just left there in the middle, clutching at two extremes that are always moving away from each other trying to stitch together this once not so fucked up world. Then it may be too late, but if we start working together now…

Take care

“For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself”

Walter Raleigh, Sr.

Now Presenting...

2006-10-16T11:41:00.000+02:00

I saw this artist blooming, watched him experimenting new styles and trying new techniques. I can remember some fifteen years ago when his creations were simple, dull and a bit cold (and I have got one of these at home to prove it! *evil laugh*).

Anyway, even then, he was one of the best emerging artists…

Then, being bolder, he started introducing more bright colors, more definite shapes and he kept going till his abstract art reached out, grabbed the audience by its throat and yelled “Look at me!”.

I am one of the privileged that has his blessing to go round his workshop nosing in secret corners looking at unfinished hidden work. Maybe he knows that I am not able to reproduce what I am seeing, or simply because as family I am never going to steal or sell his ideas.

Yep, I proudly present to you my uncle… *drum roll*

George Muscat.

Probably some of you heard his name, but for those uncultured few, who never did, go on, click on the link and check out his site. And do not hesitate to drop him an e-mail if you like his work. He would really appreciate that, especially if you are a young female specimen. (My aunt is going to kill me if she ever reads this…)

Anyway, I am not going to bother you with me analyzing his works since there are other paid art critiques to do that… I just want to thank him for shaking my foundations some years back and kicking me on (what the hell, let’s exaggerate!) the right track.

Thank you.

For you others, take care till we meet again.

"I am quite easily inspired by things I see but deep down I have to admit that the greatest inspirations come from the turmoil inside me. As regards colours and forms, nature inspires me the most, but the aggressiveness or smoothness I incorporate in my works is mostly due to the things I go through. Whilst I work, I also enjoy a glass of good red wine and listening to music that ranges from Vangelis to Walter Micallef, so basically those are my biggest inspirations for they accompany me as I develop my clay into improvised forms."

George Muscat

Crypt Raider

2006-10-16T00:09:00.000+02:00

Enjoy:

Crypt Raider

Move the mystical blue balls into the portal to escape the level!

Play this free game now!!

It may be confused for a child's game, but go on, do not hesitate and give it a try. After just a couple of levels it will get harder and you'll love it when the only way out is to bang your head against the desk and pretend that that's helping :-)

Really though, spend some minutes with this game and it will get you hooked... oh! and do not forget to save your level codes cause it is really frustrating to have to start the game all over again after you have reached a certain level if anything occurs... especially for those using Internet Explorer, we know that stuff happens.

Take Care

Not just your everyday hero

2006-10-14T11:07:00.000+02:00

An action movie star, television star, martial arts champion, martial arts teacher, world champion, 8th degree Black Belt Grand Master, founder and president of United Fighting Arts Federation, offshore powerboat racer, world record breaker, author and humanitarian.

It’s amazing when you realize that you can find all of this in just one sixty year old person.

Born March 10, 1940 to a half Irish and half Cherokee mother and alcoholic father, he says that during his early years he was a nonathletic, shy and scholastically mediocre child. Other children taunted him and all the time he was daydreaming about beating up his tormentors. Add with this the problems that a parent’s divorce at an age of ten and a relocation to California would bring to the life of a youngster, and you would understand why this great man described his childhood as downbeat.

Considering all this, I think that only a few would guess that this here is the beginning of Carlos Ray Norris’ life or as he is better known among us, “Chuck Norris”.

I do not plan to document his life here since others beat me to it, but I hope that at least I’ve piqued your interest enough to check the sites which already did…

- Chuck Norris Official Site
- Chuck Norris on Wikipedia
- Chuck Norris fictional facts as thought by his fans

Take Care

“When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.”