The Egyptian revolution

I think I'm due to post something intelligent. Though to be completely honest, I really don't feel it. I think this will be completely idiotic and inarticulate, but you know, to hell with diction.

I really don't have that much to say because I'm not that well informed on the subject. But what I do know is that if this revolution in Egypt is anything like what I heard my parents describing the Romanian revolution to be like, then a lot of people are going to regret it in a couple of years. If they were starving now, they will starve even more in the future. If poverty and injustice were bad now, they will be even worse some time down the line. Sure, they'll be able to criticize the president and they'll have stand up comedians building sketches around the blunders of politicians. But that'll be all they'll have. In Romanian we have a saying "sa faci haz de necaz" which means to laugh at your misfortunes.

Of course, it all depends on who will take charge of the country right now. Will the military council relinquish power like it's supposed to or will it keep an iron grip on the land and start yet another dictatorship? If they do get a new president, who will it be and what will he do for the country (I'm using "he" because even if we're talking about a revolution, this is still an Arabic country and I highly doubt that their first new president in 30 years will be a woman)? In Romania, after the revolution, the people who took over were Ceausescu's old lackeys who seized their chance to overthrow their old master so that they could take their turn to gnaw at the bone. So it was basically the same system, the same mentality (for the leaders as for the population), slightly enriched with the concept of "freedom of speech", but also filled with corruption and unemployment. So, sure, the Egyptians have a shot at living a better life. But there are also chances that they were better off with Mubarak. I'm not saying that all the nations of the world should be subservient and just live with their lot and with what life gave them without fighting for a better future. All I'm saying is that revolutions don't always have a happy ending even if they manage to get rid of the old hag who was in charge. But at that point it's only the beginning. Anything can happen now and there are more ways in which it could go bad than ways in which it could go well.

In anthropology there is a concept that is called "anomie" and it represents a lack of social norms or a mismatch between an individual's personal beliefs and those of his native culture. It is used to describe why people might commit suicide in societies that are too restrictive or too rule oriented. However, the reason why I'm talking about it in this case is because, while I was typing, I had an image pop into my head. When I first heard about anomie, I was taking an anthropology class in CEGEP and we were watching a video about rites of passage for young warriors in amazonian tribes. And they were explaining that, in this tribe, young boys were taken into the forest where they would have to pass a series of tests and trials through which they would grow and they would come back to the village as men. However, these trials would challenge them on a physical as well as a psychological level and during that time they were in a sort of no-man's-land. Neither boys nor men, during this transitional state, they would come to see their world and their culture through the eyes of an outsider. This was the most dangerous stage in their development because at that point they had the choice to either accept the cultural norms of their people and live as accomplished men in their tribe, or they could decide to reject them and this would bring internal and external conflict (of course, ideally, the second scenario should not happen and earlier socialization should be enough to prevent it). This transitional state is what they call "anomie" and this is where Egypt is right now. It's in between regimes. Anything can happen.

And that's as far as my reflection goes...

Undecided people

Nu am chef azi, nu am chef azi,

I'm in no mood today, I'm in no mood today,

N-am chef de nimic.

I'm in no mood of anything.

Nu am chef azi, nu am chef azi

I'm in no mood today, I'm in no mood today

De vodca sau de gin,

Of vodka or of gin,

Tequila, rom sau vin

Tequila, rum or wine

Tigari, nu mai vorbesc

I don't even want to talk about cigarettes

Iar pe tine, pe tine,

And you, you,

Pe tine te urasc.

You, I hate.

Nu te vreau azi.

I don't want you today.

Nu ma vrei azi, nu ma vrei azi...

You don't want me today, you don't want me today...

Imi spuse ea razand

She tells me laughing

Nu ma vrei azi, nu ma vrei azi...

You don't want me today, you don't want me today...

S-a ridicat usor, avea un umar gol

She got up slowly with a naked shoulder

Si zambetul amar,

And a bitter smile

Baiete esti prost, iar eu nu sunt o curva

You're an idiot boy, and I am not a whore

Pe-un trotuar!

You found on a sidewalk!

Nu ma vrei azi? Nu te vreau azi!

You don't want me today? I don't want you today!

Nimic mai usor

Easily solved

Nu ma vrei azi! Nu te vreau azi!

You don't want me today? I don't want you today!

Eu voi pleca-n curand,

I will leave soon

Ramai cu mine-n gand.

Keep me in your thoughts

E lapte-n frigider, iar banii, ciorapii si

There's milk in the fridge, and your money, your socks and

Sapca ta sunt pe calorifer.

And your hat are on the heater

Te-am iubit, maaaa!

I loved you!

Te iubeam! Fraiere!

I loved you! Sucker!

"Ne vedem joi, ne vedem joi",

I'll see you on Thursday, I'll see you on Thursday!

Am urlat dupa ea.

I yelled after her.

Vreau sa vii joi, vreau sa vii joi

I want you to come on Thursday, I want you to come on Thursday

Alerg descult pe hol,

I run barefooted in the hallway

Dar holul este gol

But the hallway is empty

Un paharel de vin, ma uit: Cine e?

A glass of wine? I look, who is it?

Vecinul meu Dan de la mezanin.

My neighbor Dan from the mezzanine

Au trecut ani, au trecut ani

Years have passed, years have passed

Si viata s-a schimbat.

And life changed,

Au trecut ani, au trecut ani

Years have passed, years have passed

Mi-am luat si eu nevasta

I got a wife

Urata si cam proasta,

Ugly and a bit stupid,

Am doi copii cu ea

I have two kids with her

Si ii feresc cat pot de mult

And I protect them as much as I can

De soacra mea.

Of my mother-in-law.

Au trecut ani, au trecut ani

Years have passed, years have passed

Si viata s-a schimbat.

And life has changed.

Au trecut ani, au trecut ani

Years have passed, years have passed

Ma duc mereu pe hol, dar holul este gol

I always go in the hallway, but the hallway is empty

Nu-i lapte-n frigider, iar banii, ciorapii

There's no milk in the fridge, and the money, the socks

Si sapca nu-s pe calorifer.

And the hat are not on the heater.

Au trecut ani, nu-s pe calorifer,

Years have passed, they're not on the heater,

Au trcut ani, am fost un fraier,

Years have passed, I was a sucker,

Un mare, mare fraier...

A big, big sucker...

I know I already posted this song once, but I would like to re-post it for the simple reason of emphasizing the message. I would also like to dedicate it to all the guys out there who don't know what they want (which kind of covers almost all of the male population). And I was actually going to follow this with a rant about how much guys can be undecided in life, said rant being full of personal and somewhat unfair examples. But I decided that I'll stop being a hypocritical bitch (I've been enough of that so far this week) because if I think about it, women can be just as bad as men in certain cases. So I guess that in the end, this is about making bad decisions and growing from it. And a general frustration with undecided people. That unfortunately includes me...

Elektrokardiogramm

I am not crazy!! EKG does exist! It's just the German version of ECG! Which means that I got made fun of for nothing... damn you Madame!!

Soft Kitty or Ode to Sheldon

Soft Kitty
Warm Kitty
Little ball of fur

Happy Kitty
Sleepy Kitty
Purr Purr Purr

Another pointless rant or What Sheldon Cooper has contributed to my life

I constantly have to remind myself that this is not a place to display my every whim or my incessant whining (it's so much more fun to annoy my dad with that... and then have him tell me how I never shut up when he whines and talks twice as much as I do... it's funny how blissfully unaware some people are of the irony of their lives... well not on the spot, but thinking about it afterward it is... it's like the "not funny then, funny now" series on Chuck Lorre's vanity cards... and going back to the irony of people's lives, I'm pretty sure that includes me too, it's just that I'm unaware of it... hence blissfully unaware of the irony of my own life... but I digress...). As I was saying, this is not a place for me to whine. It's a place for intelligent thought and constructive ideas. This is not a Facebook account. And actually even Facebook is not really appropriate for displaying the entirety of your movements, thoughts, incidents, readings, feelings and pictures you have taken with your cat (I am especially not targeting anyone. *Hint, hint, wink, wink**Facebook whores*). I'm sorry, that was my little rant on people who can't move from one room to another without mentioning it on their wall. But coming back to the subject at hand, this blog exists for the purpose of intelligent thought and constructive ideas. But weirdly enough, it hardly feels constructive when nobody ever challenges them. I don't even know why I'm writing this here because I hardly have time for debates of ideas right now, but I guess it would feel less lonely out here. Ironically, when I created this blog, I wanted the solitude of binary space... because with the multitude of pages that are available on the Internet, it's easier to keep one's thoughts anonymous and hidden from the world than if I had written them in a diary and had it hidden in one of my drawers. But tonight I don't want to be alone. All I can picture in my mind right now is Sheldon Cooper's small, nerdy, chipmunk-like smile. I like Sheldon. His social awkwardness makes me laugh at the same time that it breaks my heart. And this was a pointless post from beginning to end. I think I need to read less of Chuck Lorre's vanity cards...

Duty is such a strong word

I almost laughed when I heard this song today. Why does it sound so familiar? I really wonder why hahaha!

History of everything

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started, wait...
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!

"Since the dawn of man" is really not that long,
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song.
A fraction of a second and the elements were made.
The bipeds stood up straight,
The dinosaurs all met their fate,
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and Pangea
See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang!

It all started with the big BANG!

It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will cause the stars to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it won't be heard
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!

Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating how we're here, they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Encarta, Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!