The Swiss Book Lobby

http://www.buchlobby.ch/bldat/buchlobby_i.pdf


I love the Italo Calvino quote: "Scrivere e' sempre nascondere qualcosa in modo che venga poi scoperto." -- Writing is always to hide something in such a way that it is then discovered.

Karuna

Karuna is one of the most beautiful words I have ever heard.

karuna (KUH-roo-na) noun
Loving compassion.
[From Sanskrit karuna (compassion).]

"Once we experience and feel this inter-dependence of all living beings, we will cease to hurt, humiliate, exploit and kill another. We will want to free all sentient beings from suffering. This is karuna, compassion, which in turn gives rise to the responsibility to create happiness and its causes for all." Suresh Jindal; Interdependence of All Living Beings; The Times of India (New Delhi); Nov 13, 2003.

Cocktail "Katy Zei"

Being the slightly egotistical person I am, I decided to name (patent?) a cocktail after myself. It's one of the few ways of becoming immortal in this world. Therefore, with no further ado, I present the cocktail "Katy Zei", with the alternative (Italian) spelling "Chettizzei":

1/3 Campari (quello bitter in bottiglia, non l'aperitivo nella bottiglietta triangolare)
1/3 Prosecco (o spumante secco/dry spumante/prosecco or brut champagne, quello che hanno al bar, insomma)
1/3 Orange juice/Succo d'arancia (preferibilmente spremuta, cioe' "freshly squeezed" OJ)

Buonissimo! I did a quick and dirty search on Google and didn't find a name for this drink, therefore I have baptized it myself.

Campari--prosecco--succo d'arancia
Campari--prosecco--orange juice

Translation hell

The past few days have been entirely dedicated to the biggest translation job I've ever taken on. More than 50,000 words in about 10 days. It's not usually humanly possible, but fortunately I have lots of reference items and stuff. Two more days to go and I'm well on top of things. Starting to get carpal tunnel tho... must do something about that.

I'm also going to try to upload a little banner on this site, though nobody ever looks at it. Maybe I can start doing something serious with this space, who knows.

ciao ciao,
k

Hardcore historians

Ummm... really like to upload my essays so that people can copy and cite from them, but don't quite know how. I thought I could add attachments to posts. Guess not. Guess I have to copy and past the entire things in a single post....

This quiz makes me seem like a very zen person

You scored as Mystic. You are a Mystic. Practical magic isn't really your thing; you much prefer to take the inner roads to self-development and spiritual evolution. You find ecstasy in meditative silence and commune with the divine without aid of any church or religious leader to guide you. You will seek the light of heaven in your own way, even if that way is not apparent to the casual observer. Mystic 100% True Alternative 90% Otherkin 65% Spiritualist 60% Magician 45% White Lighter 40% Aimless Eclectic 25% Discordian 20% What Subversive Alternative Paradigm Are You? created with QuizFarm.com

Ray's inspiration song

Is the Man getting you down? Feel trodden-on? Depressed? Somebody pissin' you off?

Then watch This:

http://blip.tv/file/150265

You cannot fail to feel better after you watch it. Impossibile!!!

You're welcome,
KZ

ZeFrank re-discovery, my letter to Beppe

http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2007/02/021607.html

I have recently rediscovered renown web arteest Ze Frank, and I found the web publication of the letter that I wrote to Beppe Severgnini, renown Italian journalist.

Therefore, I would like to spread the lurve, even tho NOBODY reads this page.

You're welcome.

Happy Birthday Max!!!!

I have to do this so I know what kind of a pirate I am

Rum and Monkey is a website that I used to waste time on when I was working in a very boring job in Mariano Comense, Italy. I don't know why, but today I saw it again.. I had completely forgotten about it. They have these silly scripts that do silly things. Here is a silly:

La Primavera aka Spring hath Sprung... watch out for flying springs

Since I just subscribed to the Irish Blogs listing, to comme- morate this I'd like to post a pic that I took at last year's Ireland-Italy world cup soccer qualifying game. I call it "la curva cattolica", the Catholic Corner. Check out the Italian and Irish flags. They're so similar. I wonder which one came first? It's funny that I'm practically an atheist, and I end up living in two of the most Catholic countries in the world. Go figure.

A few beautiful, moderately sunny days here in Dublin, and hormones are flying high. It's funny how many lobster faces you see around the city; a little sun can cause a lot of damage to delicate Irish complextions.

At the college all the kids are hooking up and getting distracted enough from their studies just enough to risk failing exams. Beware the secret studiers! I don't know why non of the students here will admit to studying. I know they do it, because otherwise there wouldn't be any graduates, and every fall at convocation there are plenty joyous faces framed in funny flat hats with tassels milling about in the front square, making all us still-undergrads very, very jealous.

I guess though that if you study it means (to Irish students) you're not brilliant enough just to know huge amounts of information off the top of your head, which we all know is just not humanly impossible; hence no one ever admits to studying.

Personally, I am in the doo-doo if I don't start cramming soon....

The Era of Awareness - Alberoni

This was a great article in the op/ed section of the Italian daily, Il Corriere della Sera, that appeared sometime last year.

I'll be translating it for the benefit of non-dagos sometime this week. That is, if I have time in between financial statement translations...

Ciao ciao,
katy

La storia morale del nostro Paese e forse dell' Occidente si è svolta in quattro fasi. La prima è quella del dominio del costume. Alla ragazza che voleva uscire la sera il padre diceva di no e, se lei gli chiedeva «perché?», rispondeva «perché no!». Le trasmetteva l' imperativo ancestrale che non spiega, ordina. La seconda fase è quella della rivolta. I giovani si sono ribellati dovunque e, durante la rivolta, pensavano a come avrebbero impiegato la libertà conquistata. Discutevano di filosofia, di poesia, di cinema, di letteratura cercando dei punti di riferimento nei grandi autori contemporanei e del passato. Sostituivano il padre naturale coi padri culturali. Ma, vinta la battaglia, alcuni di loro hanno confuso la libertà con la sfrenatezza. Ne sono derivati gli anni di piombo e della droga. La terza fase è stata quella del lassismo che dura tuttora. Quegli stessi che si sono ribellati, quando hanno avuto dei figli, li hanno lasciati liberi di seguire capricciosamente i propri gusti, le proprie preferenze senza tener presente che nell' essere umano esiste la tendenza a seguire la strada più facile. Tanti giovani non si sono mai sentiti dire che la libertà è scelta meditata, responsabile. Pensano consista nel seguire l' impulso, il piacere immediato, giudicano tutto soltanto in base al «mi piace, non mi piace» e, in questo modo finiscono per non avere un criterio di giudizio razionale. Buona parte del «buonismo» di oggi è una miscela di tolleranza infinita per se stessi trasferita gli altri. Al compagno che allaga la scuola, agli zingari che scippano per strada, alla ragazza che ammazza la madre e il fratello o al giovane che uccide la nonna perché non gli dà i soldi per la droga. Arriviamo così all' ultima fase, quella appena iniziata, della consapevolezza. La grave minaccia economica, l' incontro con civiltà disciplinate come quella cinese, col terrorismo islamico, stanno spingendo molti a riscoprire quanto aveva detto Jefferson, che la libertà esige una mentalità matura, che conosce le alternative e sa scegliere. Richiede che la nostra mente si separi dai desideri che proviamo, sappia guardarli dall' esterno e, per quanto questi siano intensi e coinvolgenti, possa dire di no. A poco a poco diventano più numerose le persone consapevoli che il vivere sociale ha bisogno di principi morali chiari, di distinguere il bene dal male, di autodisciplina e rigore con se stessi e con gli altri . www.corriere.it/alberoni Alberoni Francesco

Don't ever go to NYC

Your brain will explode.

"Guy: There is this guy who says that men and women are from different planets.
Girl: Oh, Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. It's just a metaphor.
Guy: Oh, right. They came on meteors."

That explains a lot.

I like this one, it shows the fire going up the pole in the middle. About to crash. Timber.
as crappy as this pic is, consider it copyrighted.

Pyros, revel in it. On Hallowe'en all over Dublin, bonfires dot the landscape. What is it with Dublin and fire? We know Tom Kelly, the Dublin Firechief. Busy guy.
as crappy as this pic is, consider it copyrighted.

This pic is from about 25 metres away. It was hot. I tried getting closer but at 10 meters away I couldn't breathe.
as crappy as this pic is, consider it copyrighted.

Knackers R us. Kids around the fire. They dragged out an old couch and sat on it until the fire started getting low. Then they threw the couch on the fire.
as crappy as this pic is, consider it copyrighted.

From 20 to 50 people at any one time were standing around, watching and drinking, and drinking, watching the fire, and drinking... oh yeah, they drank a lot too.
as crappy as this pic is, consider it copyrighted.

Hellowe'en in the Bayside, Dublin 2005. Massive bonfire in the big green behind our house. Kids young and old had been preparing it for days, finding old bits of things to burn. They started it at around 4.pm, and by around 9 it was roaring.
as crappy as this pic is, consider it copyrighted.

These are the upside-down Chinese print curtains in my apartment. The Irish are just as ignorant of Chinese culture as the Chinese are of the Irish... probably more so, actually.
as crappy as this pic is, consider it copyrighted.