The night

We could say, the night is dark and quiet but more things hiding inside. The night is an invisible place, where you can hiding away from quards of real world. A place where you can take off weights from your shoulder for a while.

The time when you can be yourself finally. But it can not make happiness for everybody. The biggest challenge is sometimes in the silent to meet with yourself. Because we fight own fights in the day time, we are on the move ever, we react for pulses, sometimes we wear mask, for the best what we could do. But in contrast the night takes off these about us and after wraps with its darkness. In that moment when we meet with it, even if we defy, we give ourselves to him and our soul can rest in his solid arms. From then we don’t afraid. Warm of known feeling infuses our body. Finally we have arrived again there, where we can find our calm. It is what helps to prepare for our new day and for therein hidden fights imperceptibly. Until we sleep, it silently smugglers power into our body and soul, and then we could pass ourselves for new challenge of life. Mystery of life is that, we can live two lifes in same time. Until your body takes a rest under stars in the warm bed, your mind can make a magic trip in the life of dreams. Where anything could happen, you could be anybody, you could do anything. But when the day knocks on your door, in a jiffy you fly back to your bed. When you wake up, the night has started to go his way already, to give his place for his loyal partner, the day. For the day, who shows with his light your way, to reach your dreams, what the night smuggled into your soul.

Star Wars On Location – Planet Hoth (Finse, Norway)

One topic two opinions, Round 3 – Limits and boundaries

The first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of the concept of limitation is the opposite of it: freedom. Freedom is a default state of things or at least it should be. Instead we usually end up bumping into walls everywhere we go.

First there are physical boundaries. It is a sad state of things that for example we cannot freely go where we want to, live wherever we want because many countries will not let you in or they would only if you purchase a visa. Even if you just want to travel. Is it fair in a free world?
It sounds very absurd that theoretically if a country decides to put a restriction on who can enter it is possible that one could not visit a certain geographical wonder for example. For such a free spirited person like myself this can be very heartbreaking. Don’t get me wrong, I do understand why certain limitations were put in place but I can’t help but wonder if it was possible for things to be different, if there was a system that could also work that would allow the desired freedom for all. Well it’s quite obvious that I’m an idealist, I do admit that and whatever I think about the ways how the world could be a better place presupposes that every person has good intentions and no one would want to abuse that system. And that is not something that I think is the case right now. But one can dream…

Then there are mental limitations. Shackles that people impose on themselves knowingly or not. Many of us come to believe that certain things are impossible in life, things that are well within the achievable range. Still, due to a lack of self confidence and/or trust we say the opposite.
But in fact these limitations are illusory. I firmly believe that if we really want something, and I am talking about pure untainted will, we can achieve any reasonable thing we want (by reasonable I mean anything that’s within true possibilities – I can wish to walk on a planet in a different solar system but it is quite impossible that I ever will in this lifetime).
The key is being truly committed to whatever you want to get and it will come to you. You have to be pure in your intentions without any sign of doubt. The moment you start having doubts is the moment you fail.

Limits

What does this word mean? Why need it in the life? This concept is too artifical for me. Just think a little bit of the sky. First thing what you can see with your eyes is endlessness. Nature doesn’t have limits. But we people adopt them. But why? In my opinion if we impose limits on ourselves then we can hide behind them. That moment everything will be easy. Ego doesn’t like losing. If it can’t do anything or reaches something we immediately say: it has a limit. Of course…
Another opinion. We live according to rules. There are social and moral rules too. From when we were young we have learned what is good or bad. We know by that where the limits were. I was thinking. If we never hear any teachings about the rules of life, will we ever know if we are wrong? Are my limits the same as others’? When we speak about social rules, we have to follow them, and limits are clear. But when it comes to moral norm, that one depends on my mind. In every situation we build a moral limit and with it we decide how we want to live in society.
In life we use limits. But most of the people like ignoring them. I think because of the feeling of it. In that moment, when we break the rules, we get freedom. We have a normal life. To wake up, to work, or study, at home  make usual things. This is the life. This one is determined. Something needs to change the grey weekdays. In my opinion if we get over the limits but we keep moral and social rules in normal, then it gives us a good experience. What will increase quality of our life. So limits aren’t the end of something, only they show us what is normal for most of people. But we have to know where are our own ones.
I think this one just a signal. It shows how much is my knowledge and experience. With this I can develop anything. If I know where is my limit in this moment, then I have a chance to push up. In that way we can reach a better life. Most of the people live with fixed limits. It depends on family, culture or religion. But most important, what do you think. Are those fixed or flexible? Are you ready to change your life or will you stay within limits?

Sky

On this raining day he came to my home. I saw him. Ok,I know just a soft toys. But maybe is not important. He hasn’t eyes, but can see the world. People throw everything and everyone what is doesn’t need.Is this right? He is just symbol but we have to understand the meaning. I’m thinking. Outside is cold and dark. Be happy if you don’t feel. This bear looks like satisfied. I saved him. But what happening in the world?That is going on wrong way, and day after day more and more soft bear going to be on the street alone. Try  to be strong bear and help for other one if need. Sky already is saved. But he is just only one.

Internet tax

Funny title, isn’t it. The thing is that it is dead serious. As of the current standing of affairs in Hungary the newly elected government plans to impose a tax on every gigabyte of data people begin to download. The rate is set at 150 HUF (roughly £0.50) which might not seem a lot but one has to know that in Hungary even the minimum wage is taxed (well, pretty much everything is) and there is a vast layer of society who lives close to that level and now it seems that even the occasional joy of Papa Pear Saga will be somewhat restricted.

We who live in an economy where internet is pretty much unlimited don’t even think of how much data we are using but if you think of the fact that just by watching YouTube or Skypeing regularly might put the figure in the tens of gigabytes we quickly realize that in many cases the amount of the internet tax will outweigh the price of the internet subscription itself.

First of all I want to ask by what right (apart from them being the government capable of doing anything) and on what basis would any government put a tax on people’s internet usage. The broadband and the data allowance is provided by the ISP that also maintain servers and infrastructure and pay taxes to the government already. So by what right would anyone sane enough tax data traffic? I can understand road tax since roads need to be maintained. But internet cables? Do we seriously need to pay for that? Do we seriously need to pay for that? The ISPs provide a service that you buy. It is in their interest to have a good infrastructure so I assume whatever income they generate some of that will be used for maintenance. The government so far has nothing to do with this. And now it is said that there will be an internet tax that theoretically the ISP will have to pay but nothing will stop them to charge the end users instead. So no matter if you have unlimited internet at home it will practically function as a pay as you go system, the subscription fee being only a base fee plus what you use.

On the 26th of October there was a demonstration against internet tax on the streets of Budapest, tens of thousands were reported to participate, the more radical even assaulted the HQ of the leading political party.
What will this achieve? In Hungary at the moment anything can happen unpunished from the government’s side. This is the second term they’ve been voted to lead the country with a overwhelming majority of the mandates (for reasons that are beyond my understanding) so in effect they feel they have the right and the public support to do as they please, even making such steps that upset a lot of people which is not even risking to lose their popularity (reasons for that are also beyond me).
I think it is a good time for the Hungarian public to show their power and turn around the plans for this new tax and finally have a real say in the creation of a better and more livable society.
I had the chance to see from close up how it works in France for example. During my five months in Paris I have seen two huge strikes/demonstrations that worked out well. The public transport workers for example have managed to protect their pension with great success and did not let the government to cut down on them as they please.
Many of us forget the meaning of minister (servant of the people) and tend to behave as if we were serving the government.

(Photo: Reuters)

Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?

I’m not sure I get the part about the fats…

Illatok és emlékek

Rohanunk,éljük a megszokott életünket, átélünk dolgokat. Majd mintha meg se történt volna, sok minden a feledésbe merül. De akkor az a pillanat talán meghatározta az életünket. Majd egyszer,néha sok sok idö után újra szembetalálkozunk vele. Megérzünk egy illatot, s rögtön visszarepülünk az idöben. Mintha az a molekula magába raktározta volna az emlékünket. Újra ott vagyunk. Látjuk, halljuk a körülöttünk lévöket.Pár nappal ezelött egy régi ismerös illat került elém. Termálvízhez hasonló volt, pedig nem is volt a közelembe. Ebben a pillanatban megjelent elöttem a gyerekkorom. Termálfürdö, úszásoktatás, nevetés és gyerekek. Akkor én is újra azzá váltam. Hihetetlen, hogy közel 20 év elteltével is egy apró kis észlelés által képesek vagyunk bármit átélni. Sétálsz a forgalmas utcán. Idegen emberek sodródnak el melletted. Röpke arctalan és névtelen találkozások, nagy eséllyel soha nem fogjuk már látni. Haladunk az árral, éljük a jelent.Majd feltünik egy jellegzetes parfümillat. Nem tudod ki az, de nem is ez számít. A felismerés momentuma. Annak a személynek érzed illatát, ki egykoron mindennél többet jelentett. Újra átéled a szerelem érzését. Nemcsak visszatérsz a vele átélt élményekhez, hanem újra találkozol a bizsergetö, hol gyönyörü, hol fájdalmas érzéssel. Talán néha azért szeretünk vagy éppenséggel nem kedvelünk illatokat, mert emlékeket ébreszt bennünk. Ezeket nemcsak képek, hangok tárolhatnak, hanem  az örzök lehetnek láthatatlanok, megfoghatatlanok is ugyanúgy, mint ahogy élményeink is azzá válnak. Sokszor tudattalanul is kutatunk illatok után, vagyis ezáltal a megélt pillanatainkat hozhatjuk vissza. Sajátos, egyedi és csak mi tudjuk miért is ragaszkodunk hozzájuk. De bárhogyis, szükségünk van rájuk. Az átélt események alakítják a jövönket, formálnak bennünket.Nélkülük  talán nem gondolkoznánk honnan jöttünk és ezáltal hova tartunk. Általuk emlékezünk jó és rossz tapasztalásokra, s ily módon tanulva  jobb irányba alakíthatjuk életünket.

One topic two opinions, Round 2 – Odours and memories

There are times when you come across an odour and you are immediately reminded of something. That something can even be from your early childhood. I love these moments of remembering…

In general I love the smell of the freshly cut grass. It always brings me back to the summer school holidays. It used to be pretty hot in the summer and people employed by the city council would go around with lawnmowers and cut the grass in the parks and by the pavements. And I just used to stand on the balcony and wish they stop those loud machines because it was 8 in the morning and I still wanted to sleep.

Another thing I like to smell is also connected to summer. If you remember, and of course you do because I just said it in the previous paragraph, summers used to be very hot where I grew up so every time when it rained I enjoyed it a lot. I used to love going out and riding my bicycle in the rain. But what it also brought was an unmistakable odour.
The sun heated up the dust on the roads and the way it mixed with the summer rain created a smell so unique that I haven’t experienced it anywhere else but home.

And then there are smells that only exist in one place. Such is the smell of my grandma’s room. Indescribable, I never got to analyze what made it up but it is something that I would recognize immediately .

Perfumes. Not very fond of them. For some time we used to have a neighbour  whose daughter’s room was right below mine. The girl used a fragrance that I liked a lot and could smell it quite often in the summer when our windows were usually open. It was a very pleasant flowery scent and one day in the not too distant past I think I came across it somewhere again which of course reminded me of those times.

Strange thing that your own perfume can remind you of places and memories too. I just had such an experience the other day when I was going out and used my body spray and the smell of it suddenly transported my mind back to the days I spent in Vietnam. Which is interesting because I had that perfume for a long time. Probably that was such a unique place that my brain made the connection with that instead of my room in London.
Ah, the human mind…

Zen Dog: Vietnam, Part 2

“Get down” I whispered as I heard it approaching. We hid in a nest-like hole under a bush. But she kept on peaking as if it wasn’t about survival. “Don’t worry, it’s just a squirrel” she said as she finally got up and climbed up to the surface.
The forest was vast and we were lost. We were in the middle of the jungle without any equipment. All we had were our senses and instincts to rely upon. The hot humid air weighed heavily on us and it was around midday. We’ve been on the run for at least five minutes but it felt like seven.
Oh she and her squirrels. She loved squirrels.
“Come, kitty kitty” she called what she thought was a squirrel. You could see the foliage resonating from something below it. I climbed out and sneaked after her. “Stop it” I whispered. Then faster then lightening the giant anaconda jumped up from the ground and was now towering over her with it’s mouth open. “Now I got you” it hissed. “Sarah, no” I cried as I ran towards her, fueled by rage born out of fear. As the anaconda closed up on her she was still standing there petrified, I could barely pushed her out of its way. We both fell. I knew we didn’t have much time so I pulled Sarah up, grabbed her hand and started running. It was an all out race for life between us and the monster. It was running close behind us but not close enough to have a bite.
One moment I decided to end it once and for all as I knew our energy was running out. I pushed Sarah aside suddenly then came to a sudden stop and crouched so that the snake would fell over me. As it was getting up I pulled out the katana on my back from its sheath. I knew it would be useful one day. And this was the day. It was me and the anaconda. Facing each other in a battle of life and death…

Yeah so probably my visit to the Vietnamese jungle did not happen exactly this way but it could have, right?

It was a rainy day (or was it simply liquid air? you know this vapor like rain you get in England only this was 40 degrees hot) when I went to see the famous tunnel complex the Vietnamese soldiers used during the war. They’re called the Cu Chi tunnels. The whole experience was like being transported back to the eighties minimum. The entrance had this special feel about it as if we were entering a top secret Soviet military base or something. After we went through this underpass we emerged in what looked like a camp with these semi-underground wooden houses in which we were told to watch an educational documentary about the war with the Americans. Well I don’t know when was it recorded but it was made out to sound like some documentary from the 50s. The kind female voice was eager to point out (sometimes three or four times in a sentence) how the brave Vietnamese soldiers were shooting the evil Americans like dogs. In the beginning it was kind of funny but the message was so forcefully and repeatedly… well repeated that it started to become disturbing. For me. And I’m not even American.
So here’s the dilemma. Is it right to speak of the killing of people like a happy pastime? I understand what injustices and horrible act by the Americans were suffered and I do support that every nation deserves to be free of any oppressors and/or occupiers but… still I felt it was a bit too much. Maybe I’m wrong and just don’t fully understand the depth of things probably because I never had to live through a war.

Halfway through the documentary we were told to get going so I never knew what happened in the end…

Then we were shown very clever traps to kill more Americans, bomb craters and a real shooting range. As we were approaching the shooting range you could hear the gunfire from quite a distance but obviously you could not see it so it felt like there was a fight going on somewhere in the jungle. It was creepy, I kinda felt like I traveled back in time.

Then I saw an “aconda”…

And then, the star of the show, the tunnels themselves!!!
So these people dug out and lived in these tunnels for years! Unbelievable! If you have seen me you know that I’m not a big guy but still I felt very uncomfortable to crawl through that short distance we were allowed to do.
I can’t imagine what it must have been like during the war. Just imagine two guys bump into each other, one must reverse crawl all the way back to the nearest junction to let the other pass. Then what if while reverse crawling he reverses into another guy? It must have been a nightmare. Oh yes and the Americans were bombing as well.

Okay listen I dragged this out longer than I planned so I have to make a part three.
In that I will tell you more about life in Vietnam including cuisine and architecture. I promise it will be way more interesting and funny than what it sounds, okay?

So love me please, just a little bit longer.