FRANORAK - Francesca's impersonal blog :)

Colours and Dreams - my illustrations blog

2009-11-08T09:51:00.004Z

So, what's the best thing to do when you do not have time to update your blog?
Build an other one of course :)

Don't worry, I still love this blog and blogger.com.
But I happened to have to work with Wordpress and I wanted to play with it a little more.

Also, I wanted to create an illustration blog with some of my favourite works from my DeviantArt account and my Glass no Kamen fanart.

So this is what I have been doing in the last week or two, and I am still working on it :)
Enjoy and any feedback is welcome!
Colours and Dreams - My illustrations blog

Site of my life - Maya no Garasu no Kamen

2009-10-08T15:11:00.002+01:00

So, I am being so rubbish at updating my blog.
My health is getting better, yet I am so tired that my billions of exciting ideas remain all in my head!
I seem to enjoy sleeping more and more every day!
(And eating, of course. But I have always loved eating so it doesn't count)

Anyway, today I want to make a nerdy announcement.
About 1 month ago, after 6 years since I bought dreamsaddict.com, I moved its hosting from Windows to Linux!
And I even bought some database. I haven't used it yet though.
In the meantime, I am tidying up the code of all the web pages.
The plan is changing all my websites from html to php.

All of this will mean absolutely nothing to you, but it makes my life so much easier when I have to keep my sites updated. And it renovates my enthusiasm. I even bought a new laptop (at last!)

If only my days had 36 hours, all the broken links will be already fixed, all the sites in dreamsaddict.com would be already in php and all my fanlistings would be database-driven.
Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, was it? And look at the magnificent result :)

So, today I want to celebrate once more, the site that actually changed my life
Maya no Garasu no Kamen

Thanks to "Glass no Kamen" the manga, many years ago I found a strong motivation in self-teaching html and building a site to share all the info I could find with the fans from all over the world.
Thanks to the manga and the fan site I built, I happened in different ways to meet my best friends, to find amazing pen pals and to receive excellent works from stunning fanartists.
Thanks to the site I built, and all the encouraging messages I received from all over the world, I happened to believe in my dreams again.

So, since 99% of my blog visitors are actually Glass no Kamen fans, I want to thank you all for your precious support.
Your feedback, help and collaboration are priceless.

Thank you!

Perfect Quote

2009-09-14T17:42:00.002+01:00

"I used to hate being out of the loop. Lately I am happy that I don't know what the hell is going on. Also: Get the fuck off my lawn."

ChiNurse

Radiohead - No Surprises

2009-09-10T00:19:00.002+01:00

A heart that's full up like a landfill,
a job that slowly kills you,
bruises that won't heal.
You look so tired-unhappy,
bring down the government,
they don't, they don't speak for us.
I'll take a quiet life,
a handshake of carbon monoxide,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
Silence, silence.

This is my final fit,
my final bellyache,

with no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises,
no alarms and no surprises please.

Such a pretty house
and such a pretty garden.

No alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises (get me outta here),
no alarms and no surprises, please.

Site(s) of the week(s) - Geek Sucks & There, I Fixed It

2009-08-12T21:40:00.003+01:00

It's getting hard to update this blog every week.
Especially when you spend all your time in Deviantart, Facebook and Twitter (d'oh!)
At least I have deleted all my Twitter accounts but one. Getting better and better :)

Two great links that I should thank work mates for telling me about.

Geek Sucks - Design and Development Inspiration Blog

There, I Fixed It: Epic Kludges + Jury Rigs

The melancholy sweetness of Camera Obscura

2009-08-02T21:54:00.004+01:00

Last year, while listening to random music on LastFm I fell in love with Belle and Sebastian. For a long time I only listened to them, and still now I am a big fan of them.
I learnt about the existence of this branch of indie pop influenced by chamber pop artists of the 1960s. And I started to be interested in other bands, similar to Belle and Sebastian, that were recommended by LastFm.

If you don't know Belle and Sebastian, well, now you've heard of them, and I will be very unhappy if you don't go and listen to some of their great music :)
They are already quite popular, and they deserve all the success in the world. Their lead singer and songwriter Stuart Murdoch is just a genius ♥ ♥ ♥
I have this feeling that I would be happy to live in Glasgow. Bands from there create an awesome sound!

Anyway, this blog post is not dedicated to Belle and Sebastian but to less famous, yet equally awesome Camera Obscura, an other Scottish band whose first album was produced by Stuart Murdoch. This last fact is mainly the reason why I happened to listen to their music the first time. It was love at first hearing, really!

I got to know their third album first: Let's get out of this country. After listening to it an awful lot of times, I decided to move to the other ones, and especially the newest one: My maudlin career. Seriously, they are more than talented!
Tracyanne Campbell's dreamy voice sings beautiful, retro yet timeless, innocent, sweet, melancholy tales about love. Sublime melodies, stunning string and horn arrangements.
You can't remain indifferent, even if you are not an hopeless romantic :)
I am not sure how to label their kind of music. Folk? Chamber pop? Indie pop? And by the way, do we really need to label everything?

I've just started knowing these artists.
This is not a proper review of their albums. It's rather a more than warm recommendation: you have to listen to their music!

I will see them live at the Sheperd's Bush Empire on November 3rd. I just can't wait!

Interesting links:
Camera Obscura - Official Site
Review of "My maudleen career" on For Folk's Sake
Metacritic - search for Camera Obscura: they got quite a good score! Most reviews are very favorable, and user comments are mostly positive.

Perfect Quote

2009-07-31T16:08:00.002+01:00

"If A equals success, then the formula is A = X + Y + Z.
X is work.
Y is play.
Z is keep your mouth shut."
Albert Einstein

Site(s) of the week(s) - Omegle, Oddee, Drum Set

2009-07-22T21:09:00.006+01:00

Hello lovely readers!
Hope you missed me :)

I am hopefully back for good. Health hasn't been my best friend this year, but I hope now I can leave behind a lot of negative things and be back to my happier self :)

Oops. This is supposed to be an impersonal blog.
He he.

Anyway, even if I am very happy to support sites dedicated to a good cause, charity, environment and so on, I keep believing that we often need something useless, odd and mental to keep our spirits high.
Well, at least I do. And I am afraid I sort of rule here. Don't take it personal :)

So, 3 precious pointless links are on their way...
Hope they'll make your day :)

Drum Set
Among the most outrageously useless sites I have ever seen, still I am not telling you how much I enjoyed it. Just play some music with the virtual keyboard, try the sound of your own name, and feel sorry for me if you think it's really pathetic :)

Omegle
I actually think it's sad and interesting at the same time.
An anonymous chat with a random online user. Don't know if it's the first chat like that. Probably not. Which is even sadder.
I have never been a fan of chats, but I thought this deserves to be mentioned for its weirdness and absurdity.
Do people (in this moment almost 3000 online users) really need to chat to someone whose name (age, sex, nationality, appearance, whatever) they don't even know?
"Cause anything is better than posh isolation..."
(from a beautiful song by a talented chamber pop band he he)
W H A T ' S W R O N G W I T H P E O P L E ?

Oddee
Destined to become one of my favourite blogs ever.
"A blog with over 3 million visits a month, it features the odd, strange and bizarre things of our world. Be amazed!"

Site of the week - Allvoices

2009-06-23T23:17:00.006+01:00

I'm recently getting back to the good old days when I would spend too much of my time in that paradise for socially handicapped people called Facebook.
Which means I belong to the category...? He he. Don't ask.
I almost abandoned it, and switched to Twitter.
Right. I have 2 accounts on Twitter now.
Still I love sharing photos. So currently I am addicted to both Facebook and Twitter.
WHAT'S WRONG WITH PEOPLE?

Anyway. I've just received an email by someone at Allvoices asking me to join their community. I must confess that I am flattered! Someone came across my blog and asked me to join. So, obviously I joined.
Anyway... I am too tired tonight to understand completely how the whole thing works, but it's like a community of bloggers who write and discuss about topics. And I just love it!
Maybe I will dedicate a little less time to Social Networking crap. Maybe I will spend less energy in loooong emails to my best friends Ali and Cecy. Or maybe I will just sleep even fewer hours than usual.

Please have a look and let me know if you join! My username is... Guess what... dreamsaddict :)

Allvoices

Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

2009-06-11T10:15:00.002+01:00

And I'd give up forever to touch you
Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be
And I don't want to go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
Cause sooner or later it's over
I just don't want to miss you tonight

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything seems like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know your alive

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

And I don't want the world to see me
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am

Site of the week - 64 Words for Aung San Suu Kyi

2009-06-08T08:08:00.003+01:00

I'm back! With a link to a site I want you all to visit.

64 Words for Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, symbolises the struggle of Burma's people to be free. She has been detained for over 13 years by the Burmese regime for campaigning for human rights and democracy in Burma.

64 For Suu is the global hub for supporting Aung San Suu Kyi on her 64th birthday (June 19th 2009).

Please visit the website and leave your birthday message!

64 Words for Aung San Suu Kyi

The Cardigans - Communication

2009-05-24T00:42:00.003+01:00

For 27 years I've been trying to believe and confide in
Different people I've found.
Some of them got closer than others
And someone wouldn't even bother and then you came around
I didn't really know what to call you, you didn't know me at all
But I was happy to explain.
I never really knew how to move you
So I tried to intrude through the little holes in your veins
And I saw you
But that's not an invitation
That's all I get
If this is communication
I disconnect
I've seen you, I know you
But I don't know
How to connect, so I disconnect

You always seem to know where to find me and I'm still here behind you
In the corner of your eye.
I'll never really learn how to love you
But I know that I love you through the hole in the sky.
Where I see you
And that's not an invitation
That's all I get
If this is communication
I disconnect
I've seen you, I know you
But I don't know
How to connect, so I disconnect

Well this is an invitation
It's not a threat
If you want communication
That's what you get
I'm talking and talking
But I don't know
How to connect
And I hold a record for being patient
With your kind of hesitation
I need you, you want me
But I don't know
How to connect, so I disconnect
I disconnect.

Perfect Quote

2009-05-12T22:10:00.002+01:00

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover."
Mark Twain

Site of the week - ToyVoyagers

2009-05-10T08:29:00.002+01:00

This time it was my funny work mate (actually boss!) who told me about this site:
ToyVoyagers - Travelling Toys - Little Things on Big Adventures.
Now be honest, it did make you smile :)

"If" by Rudyard Kipling

2009-05-10T08:27:00.000+01:00

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

The ultra-condensed book about happiness by Matthieu Ricard

2009-05-06T23:44:00.004+01:00

Semiserious tribute to a brilliant site I mentioned in a previous blog post: Book-A-Minute Classics.

Following are the ultra-condensed great lessons you can learn from the excellent book "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill".
Do never forget them.

1. Who cares?

2. Who do you think you are?

3. Peace and love!

4. Rome wasn't built in a day.

5. Meditate, people, meditate.

Hehe. I will write more serious and boring posts about Ricard's philosophy one day.
But I thought this concise list would be of help :)

Camera Obscura - Country mile

2009-05-03T22:23:00.004+01:00

Silver Birch against a Swedish sky
The singer in the band made me want to cry
We're all inside our own heads now
We are leaving new friends
Leaving this town
I wish you could be here with me
I would show you off like a trophy
The road it winds, it twists, it turns, oh my stomach burns

Once again I'll be the foolish one
Thinking a blink of these lashes would make you come
Don't you worry, don't get in a state
I don't believe in true love anyway
Who's being pessimistic now
I could document this as our first, as our last row
The more you look forlorn, the more to you I warm.

I won't be seeing you for a long while
Oh I hope it's not as long as these country miles
I feel lost, I feel lost.

No I won't be seeing you for a long while
Oh I hope it's not as long as these country miles
I feel lost, I feel lost.

No I won't be seeing you for a long while
I hope it's not as long as these country miles
I feel lost, I feel lost.

No I won't be seeing you for a long while
I hope it's not as long as these country miles
I feel lost,
I feel lost,
I feel lost,
I got lost.

Site of the week - Worldometers

2009-05-02T07:49:00.005+01:00

I guess this has to be taken seriously, but honestly I think it's just mental.
And outrageously pointless.

On the other hand, I seem to be attracted by pointless stuff.
Enjoy :)

Worldometers

Site of the week - Dreamsaddict Design

2009-04-28T20:38:00.002+01:00

Finally a little bit of shameless self-promotion!

**Edited: Oops, I forgot this is an impersonal blog. I took away the details of my private life hehe**

Today I decided to revive my tiny online portfolio: Dreamsaddict Design.

My good old, recently formatted laptop used to freeze every time I tried to open Photoshop, so I have only GIMP installed. I must say, I am impressed at how good this free software is. If only I knew how to use it as well as I know how to use Photoshop I could work with it so quickly :)
So, I didn't redesign the whole website; almost all the images are from one of the old layouts (my favourite one); I had to create only a few new images, and I modified (a lot) the CSS and some content.

Please, please, please test it and give me feedback!
Even IE6 works against me (oh well, it works against every developer!) and I am not sure why I cannot use it anymore, so if you have IE6 please test the site and send me your comments!

End of the shameless self-promotion corner :)

Belle and Sebastian - If you find yourself caught in love

2009-04-25T21:45:00.004+01:00

If you find yourself caught in love
Say a prayer to the man above
Thank Him for everything you know
You should thank Him for every breath you blow

If you find yourself caught in love
Say a prayer to the man above
Thank Him for every day you pass
You should thank Him for saving your sorry ass

If you're single, but looking out
You must raise your prayer out to a shout
Another partner must be found
Someone to take your life beyond
Another TV, I Love 1999
Just one more box of cheapo wine

If you find yourself caught in love
say a prayer to the man above
But if you don't listen to the voices
Then my friend you'll soon run out of choices
What a pity it would be
'Cause you talk of freedom don't you see
The only freedom that you'll ever really know
Is written in books from long ago

Give up your will to Him that loves you
Things will change, I'm not singing overnight
You've gotta start somewhere
Start by kidding on your care

If you find yourself out of love
Say a prayer for the one you love
Tell your boss that you've gone away
Down your tools for a holiday
But if you're going off to war
Then I wish you well
But don't be sore
If I cheer the other team
Killing people's not my scene
I prefer to give the inhabitants a say
Before you blow their town away
I like to watch them play
I like to marvel at the random beauty
Of a simple village girl
Why should she be the one who's killed?

If you find yourself caught in love

Site of the week - Passive-aggressive Notes

2009-04-22T07:28:00.002+01:00

I was very pleased to receive so much feedback after sharing on Facebook and Twitter a certain photo of a certain note stuck to the fridge by a certain flatmate.

Funny ex-colleague Kat, suggested that I visit this website - and I really loved it.

Passive-aggressive (and just plain aggressive) notes - no, your mother doesn’t work here.

The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham

2009-04-17T07:53:00.004+01:00

I definitely have to thank my dearest Cecilia for talking about this movie and book in her blog. I didn't read her review, because I decided straight away that I had to watch the movie, possibly after reading the book.
What convinced me, was the awe-inspiring poster of the film.
I've been lucky enough to have the book lent by Kitty and David (thank you my friends!) and I read it in a few nights, and then I ran to the cinema to watch the movie.
First of all, you might know already how much I usually prefer the book rather than the movie version. And this is what happened.
But I liked the movie as well.
I just think it's a completely different story!!!

Anyway, let's start with the book.
I thought it was a romantic novel; I was more than wrong.
And, strangely enough, it's not a negative comment.
There is something else I really love reading besides romance (^_^): it's the characters' psychology. And this is one of the strong points of this books.

The story is quite simple.
The pretty and vain Kitty accepts to marry the boring and cold Walter Fane to run away from her ambitious mother and to get married before her uglier and younger sister Doris. Walter Fane brings her to Hong Kong (in the movie it's China, not Hong Kong) where he works long hours as a bacteriologist. Here the bored Kitty falls in love with the sexy English Vice Consul Charlie Townsend, and the two become lovers.
When Walter discovers that, he accepts to volunteer as a doctor in the village of Mei-tan-fu, where people are dying like flies because of a cholera epidemic.
Kitty is forced to go with him, after realizing that her lover has no intention to divorce his wife and leave his children to marry her.
In Mei-tan-fu, Kitty grows more mature, while Walter becomes even more silent than before, despising her in his heart, unable to forgive her.
He is eventually infected by cholera and dies. Kitty, pregnant (and not sure about the father) comes back to Hong Kong, where she falls once again in Charles's arms. Despising herself, she is ready to move back to her family's house. Her mother dies before she arrives, and Kitty is ready to start a new life with her father, who has never been respected and loved by his wife and daughters and finally deserves a happier life.

This is the original story.
Quite far from being romantic!

Kitty is a spoiled and fun loving lady, not particularly intelligent. But the reader can't help sympathizing with her. She is humane. She is down to earth. She admits her faults and she asks for forgiveness. Nobody is perfect, after all!
In Mei-tan-fu, witness of horrid deaths, she only asks her husband to be friends, not to make life harder than what it already is.
Walter, on the contrary, is a hopelessly repressed, boring, clumsy man. He should be handsome, but Kitty (and she's not alone!) is unable to be attracted by him. He is considerate, and polite, very intelligent, but it seems very difficult for Kitty to fall in love with him.

I haven't understood well why he fell in love with her, and what he expected from her. He knew every silly thought of her, he knew why she married him, he knew she didn't love him. And still, he fell in love with her and married her.
He was as passionate as an ice-lollipop, he talked to his wife only when strictly necessary, he loved his job more than her: how could he have been so shocked that his wife fell for the first good-looking idiot who wooed her properly?

At first, I hoped to see a new Mr. Darcy, or Masumi Hayami, to come out. Maybe the unfaithfulness could give him a shock and wake him up!
Wrong guess!
Walter is simply not humane, I would rather say diabolical.
He's proud and serious, unable to forgive a woman he probably idealized, till the end (and unable to forgive himself as well).

He gives me gooseflesh to imagine what was in his head when he decided to volunteer in Men-tan-fu. He got completely insane! I can imagine his devilish sneer when he told his wife about his decision.

If there were any doubts about his folly, the scene of his death would wipe them off. Kitty, who still doesn't love him but is sincerely sorry for him, asks him for forgiveness. Even if he's suffering badly, before dying he manages to say: "The dog it was that died".
Like everyone, when I finally learnt that it is the last line of Goldsmith's "An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog", I looked up the poem in internet. I found it, read it, and my last hope of a sign of humanity from that icy dull robot disappeared.
The elegy is about a dog who bit a very good man. Everyone thought the man would die, but in the end it was the dog that died.
I will not comment what the poem actually symbolizes.
What did the mad man mean by whispering this verse before dying, is not 100% sure for me. I don't think he refers to cholera, but I think he refers to his wife and himself. Even if he knew he was committing suicide by volunteering in Men-tan-fu, he expected his wife to die.

I feel that the death of some characters is a source of relief, for Kitty (Walter's death) but also for Kitty's father (Kitty's mother's death).
Also, I would say that other two keywords for this novel are punishment and redemption.
Walter punished Kitty for her unfaithfulness, but life itself punished Walter and Kitty's mother (who dies without knowing about his husband's promotion) for their stupidity.
At the end of the book, Kitty is finally ready to start a new life, loving her father as she has never done before. The good ones are not the most virtuous ones, but the most humane ones, who made mistake and try to learn from them, who are able to forgive themselves and then the other ones.

I love the final scene of the reconciliation of father and daughter very much.
What a pity it has been completely cut off in the movie!
But this is not the only thing I don't like.
The poster of the movie reads "Forgiveness comes at a price".
Haha. I don't need to add anything.
Hollywood is Hollywood.
Walter Fane on the big screen is just someone else. He's sexy and charming, he's far from looking boring and cold; in Men-tan-fu he shows his feelings for his wife more than once and eventually jumps on her (lucky Naomi!!!). He becomes sweet and passionate, he doesn't even care about the fact that he might not be the father of Kitty's baby. Who's this man who stole Walter's role?
Honestly, I enjoyed the movie. The photography is very good, Naomi Watts is perfect, Ed Norton is: wow! The movie is skilfully created to enter your heart and break it into pieces.

I really like the movie if I consider it an other story from the book I read.

1. Walter is not Walter the robot, but a sexy mortal man who makes teenagers' eyes get starry (LOL am I a teenager?)
2. Charlie is less charming than Walter's shoes, while in the book he's supposed to be irresistible.
3. The Mother Superior is neglected in the movie, but in the book she is one of the most wonderful characters
4. I wrote this already, the final scene has been cut off! *sigh*
5. In the last part, Kitty says that she hopes her baby will be a girl, so that she can give her a different education from the one she has received. When I read that, I thought: "Haha, at the cinema it would be a boy, named after the father - actually supposed father". I've seen that too many times in the movies. I hoped so much this wouldn't happen in this movie. Unluckily, it happened :p
6. In hte movie Kitty ignores Charlie when she meets him again in China (in the book Hong Kong) after Walter's death. But well, since Kitty in the movie basically falls in love with Walter, which never happens in the book, this is not too surprising!!!

In spite of that, the movie is worth seeing.
The novel is not so popular, so if you don't care about reading a very good book, don't bother. If you do, just watch the movie forgetting the book.
Fall in love with Ed Norton's Walter, and cry for his death, and enjoy the photography. There are a few beautiful romantic scenes created for the movie (I like the scene of the piano very much!).
And, my very favourite scene in the book exists also in the movie!
I'm talking about the scene where she eats salad in Men-tan-fu, even if it's very dangerous, and then he eats it too. It's completely insane, perfect for Maya and Masumi! I got crazy when I read that part!!!

→ Highly recommended!
→ I also really love the soundtrack. Lang Lang rocks!!!

REM - Everybody hurts

2009-04-16T09:01:00.002+01:00

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, hang on.
Don't let yourself go, 'cause everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes..

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along.
When your day is night alone, hold on, hold on.
If you feel like letting go, hold on.
If you think you've had too much of this life, hang on.

'Cause everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends.
Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand.
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone.

If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on.

Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes.
And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on.
Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on.
Everybody hurts. You are not alone.

Site of the week - Matthieu Ricard

2009-04-14T21:48:00.003+01:00

Did you lose any reference points?
Is your working environment as friendly as the Artic circle?
Is food no longer a pleasure and still you find yourself overweight?

Do you keep wondering if there is a way to be truly happy?

If you answered no to this last question, it might be a good sign. You could be one of the few lucky human beings who are actually happy.
In that case, please write me :)
I am looking forward to hearing from you!

Otherwise, this website might be of interest.
Matthieu Ricard.
This man is a French Buddhist Monk who lives in Nepal. He wrote several books.
I heard of him thanks to my dearest Cecilia, who sent me his essay "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill" as a (very appreciated) present.
I am still reading it, but I thought I would introduce this great philosopher and photographer to you. Have a look at his site!

Peace and love!

Site of the week - Charity Caritas Italiana

2009-04-07T00:02:00.009+01:00

Sorry, no funny, artistic or demential websites this time.

Earthquake in Abruzzo, April 6th 2009

* 150 reported dead *edited: unfortunately the number almost doubled*
* 1500 injured
* 10,000 buildings affected
* 50,000 people affected
* The affected region is 50 miles North East of Rome.
* Epicentre at Tornimparte, Abruzzo.
* It's the older towns that really suffered, though there are cases of some modern buildings that have collapsed.
* International help from Russia / France / Greece has been offered.
* L'Aquila hospital suffered. First Aid was delivered to casualties in the street.
* Aftershock smaller tremours are making rescue dangerous.
* Map of the locations suffered in the earthquake here thanks to ANSA. Click the small map at the bottom of their page to see in detail.

Italian Earthquake Abruzzo Official Donations website is the Italian Charity Caritas Italiana.