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| ------------------------ | ------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ------------------------- | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ----------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | ------ | | | checkbox | position | cover Erotica: Delta Of Venus And Little Birds | title Erotica: Delta Of Venus And Little Birds | author Nin, Anaïs | isbn 0156074702 | isbn13 9780156074704 | asin 0156074702 | num pages 0pp | avg rating 3.85 | num ratings 693 | date pub 1977 | date pub edition Jan 01, 1986 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Erotica – The Delta of Venus and More by Anais Nin, author of Artists and Models – my note on this story is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20.. Erotica – The Delta of Venus and More by Anais Nin, author of Artists and Models – my note on this story is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... along with a few hundred other reviews8 out of 10The Delta of Venus by Anais Nin is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, and The Veiled Woman is just one of the incredibly sensual, exciting stories that constitute the novel, actually a collection of erotica, apparently requested by a collector, who also wanted them censored, that is shorterThis man paid for arousing narratives, but he was focused (exclusively, one could say) on the sex, the penetration and whatever else was lurid enough, but he was not pleased with descriptions, the images of skin like satin, which make the delight of the literati, who would have to think that primitive man nonethelessThe range of sensations, orgasms, positions, perversity (the Hungarian Adventurer has sex with children), places where coitus takes place is incredible, and I think again what would have happened, were we to have access to this treasure for intercourse and more when we were teenagers, and had to do with https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/10/... Rebreanu, Ion and RascoalaEven when finally reaching Bocaccio, whose Decameron is placed higher, if you will, than The Delta of Venus, because the former is on the same list with War and Peace, Marcel Proust, with the 100 Greatest Novels of All Time https://realini.blogspot.com/2012/05/... that was not the same as The Veiled WomanBefore the Veiled Woman, I have read Lilith – the same name as the wife of Frasier https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... - wherein the husband tells his wife that he had given her a vial with the Spanish Fly, presumably, some sort of Viagra Avant la letterThe woman is off to the movies, and she is with a friend, she begins to fantasize, maybe the woman will put her hand on her sex, she spreads her legs, and experiences what would be called the Placebo Effect, thinking of this French man, who had the Spanish Fly and would go on for three nights and three days, without pauseHowever, it turns out that this was just a prank, there was no substance in there, and somehow, it shows how ‘there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’, which is from Hamlet, and it was all taking place in the mind, ‘which is its own place, it can make heaven out of hell, and hell out of heaven’ Paradise LostPerhaps the next tale, Marianne, is even more interesting, and arousing, albeit this depends on ‘what your poison is’, this woman is still a virgin, she writes the erotica that is brought to her, and starts imagining her lover, then this young, handsome fellow walks into her studio and says he wants his portrait doneExcept, he wants to be naked, he is clearly an exhibitionist, and when she is enchanted with his body and especially the penis, he is erect, with clear, evident pleasure, but he is not making any move, he just comes to undress and have Marianne work at his painting, drawing him, and looking with intense desire at the manEventually, she comes near him, descends on her knees, puts her tongue on the penis and then ‘absorbed him’ – I stop here to think that it is one of the passages, maybe all make it clear, where the difference between Anais Nin and a mediocre writer of pornography is displayed, I never thought of a woman absorbing the phallus…He came in her mouth, then he said ‘you are the first woman’ and repeated that, if I remember well, although he does not make any move to possess her, there is no penetration, Bill Clinton said ‘I did not have sex with that woman’, there are many who see felatio as something else, and oral sex more acceptable that intercourseIn my youth (I am still 35, biologically, what am I talking about) it was the other way round, most, almost all women saw felatio as disgusting (how could you bring something like that up), except, I had sex with more than a thousand, because I did not ask for oral sex, offered myself, cunnilingus was so rare and coveted in those yearsEventually, Marianne and this outré young man (I was going to say lover, but is he, does he qualify, is this just a preference, is it worse, Anais Nin throws some light on various penchants, styles, preferences, ways of having sex) keep in the same vein, she gives him blow jobs, they would say in the present, and he just enjoys itThere is a climax of another kind, Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... wrote about the best dramas, the reversal and the climax, which happen at the same time in Oedipus Rex, when the king finds he had killed his father and married his mother, and takes out his eyesThe young man tells Marianne that he wants to be a model, so that others can paint him, but she is devasted and…jealous, which would seem so bizarre, given that the fellow does not, well, do anything, he is not into coitus, he just loves to be admired, exhibitionist, yes, but not ‘active’ in other ways…still, it is enough for Marianne to be against the move, she knows that he will have an intense pleasure, when the women (come to think of it, maybe the men too, it was not explained) will watch him, he will get erect and…well, in fact The Veiled Woman is for the next ‘review’, I was so taken aback by Marianne and Lilith that The Veiled Woman was left waiting…Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 18, 2024 | date read Nov 18, 2024 | date added Nov 18, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Girlfriend in a Coma | title Girlfriend in a Coma | author Coupland, Douglas * | isbn 0060987324 | isbn13 9780060987329 | asin 0060987324 | num pages 288pp | avg rating 3.62 | num ratings 19,772 | date pub Jan 01, 1998 | date pub edition Mar 01, 1999 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Girlfriend in A Coma by Douglas Coupland author of Microserfs, my note on the latter is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/02/... together with a fe Girlfriend in A Coma by Douglas Coupland author of Microserfs, my note on the latter is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/02/... together with a few thousand other reviews 7 out of 10Girlfriend in a Coma is placed on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, though I do not see why, it is not on any of my lists, in the Science Fiction and Fantasy section, while Microserfs, by the same author is in the State of Nation chapter, on the same list, the latter was enjoyable for yours truly, alas, I entered a coma…With the former, due in large part to the challenges evident from the start, the rhythm is good, only the words transport one to another world, just like some of the new ones, spread on TikTok, have changed their meaning – the word of the year (2024, people may get to this in 2342, if there is still a planet here) is…bratOnly not brat as spoiled brat (the significance I knew) but something good, Kamala was good, brat, until the cohorts of deplorables decided they want the Orange spasm, which has nominated a talk show host to be defense secretary, a guy selling soap in the shape of grenades, and throwing an ax, that could have killed a drummer…Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/... explained how words change their meaning, or lose it, infamous used to be the one with origins in infamy, only with time, and misuse, it just became famous, and could no longer be used according to the MasterDemure is now handled to be, well, anything, and then we have delulu aka crazy, I think, the same thing with Girlfriend in a Coma, which starts with – ‘Part 1 All ideas ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 17, 2024 | date read Nov 17, 2024 | date added Nov 17, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover A Princess of Mars (Barsoom, #1) | title A Princess of Mars(Barsoom, #1) | author Burroughs, Edgar Rice | isbn 0143104888 | isbn13 9780143104889 | asin 0143104888 | num pages 186pp | avg rating 3.81 | num ratings 58,668 | date pub Feb 07, 1912 | date pub edition Jan 30, 2007 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs author of The Stories that were the base for The Legend of Tarzan, my note on this is at https://realini.bl A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs author of The Stories that were the base for The Legend of Tarzan, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/06/...7 out of 10A Princess of Mars is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the Science Fiction and Fantasy section, and though I did not enjoy it much it is essentially a good read, provided one gives it the attention it deserves, or indeed, any activity that could bring joy, something explained in the quintessential:Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... the author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, co-founder of Positive Psychology, looked at the conditions for reaching maximum happiness, and it is counterintuitive, people may think they get home, sit on the couch and bingoNevertheless, one needs to be challenged, the rules would be ‘you are in control, nothing else matters, it is an autotelic experience, there are clear goals, time expands or compresses – the other day, while running fast, I thought time stopped, it was so demanding – there is constant and instant feedback, throughoutLast, but not least, you have to be on the line between boredom and burnout, and the litmus test for A Princess of Mars indicated in my case boredom – not because the book is flawed, it is my fault – alternating with, if not burnout, the feeling that I am lost at times, because if it is interesting, I lost the thread alasAt one point, Dejah Thoris, A red Martian princess of Helium, has a very interesting dialogue with the hero, John Carter, he had said he fought for her, and that was upsetting, because their customs, on Mars, are different, albeit not the opposite of what we know, and especially in the past, things were quite similar between the two planets…Dejah Thoris explains ‘on our planet, there are two types of women, men fight for both, categories, but they will marry one type, and will not ask the other, you, John Carter, did not ask me to marry’ - it was along those lines, and in the past centuries, it was the same on earth, indeed, some places have the same normsMars has been an old obsession of humans, it is very present in literature https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/05/... films, one recent hit was called…The Martian, with Matt Damon in the leading role, of a cosmonaut stuck on that, red planet, and in dangerHe has to use faeces, to fertilize, create some soil for potatoes, which he has to eat, there are no other sources, in his emergency…Elon Musk, best friend of the Orange Monster, the latter elected ten days ago to be the next (and after they saw what he is like) leader of the free world, is determined to send people to MarsThat is not an ignoble goal, except this is a disgusting fellow, psychology studies have shown that we are the common denominator of the five people we spend most time with, or else we are pretty much like those individuals (which means that Musk= Orange Idiot for me) albeit, I am in continuous battle with the spouse…True, but then we could not say we spend time together, it is more of the Fight Club https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/07/... with some modified rules, in there, it was you don’t talk about it, well, I do, also, first night, you have to fight, well, it is all the time hereGames People Play is a fantastic psychology book, a classic, by Eric Berne, and the most played game is IIWFY aka If It Weren’s For You, humans in relationships blame their partner for…well, everything, except they choose those spouses, lovers so that they are prevented from doing what they do not want anyway and blame somebodyHistory is always contemporary history’ and in the same vein, Science fiction, stories that take place in the future, on different planets, are still about what happens on earth, projections of issues, problems that are human, and most often specific to the time when the author writes those narratives, we now know there is no Princess of Mars, although it does make sense to think of an exit strategy, it would be much better to keep this planet operable, inhabitable, gifted as it is with atmosphere, water, all the conditions needed for life, except they are getting worse, what with climate change, every year beating the record of the previous one for temperaturesHaving mentioned the Orange Calamity, he says climate change is a hoax, and ergo, he treats the subject as such, he has made some ludicrous nominations for important jobs, one for defense secretary is just a guy from Fox News, who threw a hatchet in central New York, as a stupid challenge, and it a drummerJhe also peddling soap, shaped as grenades, the first in history to do that and land such a position, then there is Gates, accused of drug use, sex with a seventeen-year-old, and he is to be…the next Attorney General of America, as Jimmy Kimmel says, in the world of Trump, they put that in their resume, under special skillsFor National Intelligence Agency head, there is another clown, or perhaps a Russian operative, the pone for Environmental Protection, talks of anything expect the environment, it is a mad world, but we knew about this, the deplorables have votedNow for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 09, 2024 | date read Nov 16, 2024 | date added Nov 16, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Einstein Intersection | title The Einstein Intersection | author Delany, Samuel R. | isbn 0819563366 | isbn13 9780819563361 | asin 0819563366 | num pages 136pp | avg rating 3.55 | num ratings 6,005 | date pub 1967 | date pub edition Jul 15, 1998 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The Einstein Intersection by Samuel Delany is placed on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, which is a good one to use8 out of 10I was thinking The Einstein Intersection by Samuel Delany is placed on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, which is a good one to use8 out of 10I was thinking about the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list and how good it is to use, because you find many good reads (using the site Goodreads hahaha) on it, though not The einstein Intersection, or not so much, and you can also benefit from the large number of suggestions, with which you can juggle, hit or missIf we think of the alternatives, I have tried The Norwegian book club top 100, Modern Library, TIME 100, also Le Monde, which has many more French oeuvres on it, actually, chefs d’oeuvre on it, but it is easier to work with a wider selection https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/...The Paradox of Choice, a fundamental work in psychology, written by Barry Schwartz explains how multiple choices can be overwhelming, indeed, they are, I have trouble deciding what to take next, ordering them now by…size, the shorter opuses get priority, while the one thousand plus books will be delayed indefinitely What I like about the 1,000 suggestions is that you can try so many, and if they fall by the side gate, there is no Sense of An Ending https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/04/... that is, with the shorter lists, I have managed to get through most of entries, and reached the point where the remaining are not enticingWhen you have finished about six hundred, I may be optimistic here, but at the rate this is going, it could not be by much, hey, look at the spot I have in my land, I am number one (for now) at least in one department, a young lady is the best, most followed, which is what counts, and she even gets fussy about connectionsKudos, I guess, for my part, I try, work, get words together here, and become braggadocious, just because I pour out ‘reviews, at least I try, some days ago, I saw my status diminished, by a person (was she a woman, they, or just some fake profile) who took online notes aka reviews which were only made of…emojisThere were no words – actually, I use the past tense, as if they may not be there, if I check, maybe I am sent to number 142, and above there are signs, drawings and what not, for a good while, maybe one year, there was this fellow who pretended to give you his opinions on novels, just using copy paste and showing 300 entries per dayOn the other hand, what I have been doing above has any connection with The Einstein Intersection, not really, so here are some quotes The narrative is about ‘a race of aliens ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 11, 2024 | date read Nov 15, 2024 | date added Nov 15, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Moral Essays: Volume I De Providentia. De Constantia. De Ira. De Clementia | title Moral Essays: Volume I De Providentia. De Constantia. De Ira. De Clementia | author Seneca | isbn 0674992369 | isbn13 9780674992368 | asin 0674992369 | num pages 480pp | avg rating 4.27 | num ratings 402 | date pub 64 | date pub edition Jan 01, 1928 | Realini's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Moral Essays – De Providentia, De Constantia, De Ira, De Clementia by Seneca – one of the greatest thinkers of all time, author of On The Happy Life a Moral Essays – De Providentia, De Constantia, De Ira, De Clementia by Seneca – one of the greatest thinkers of all time, author of On The Happy Life and other essays, my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... with hundreds of other reviews10 out of 10Let us start with De Providentia, and say that the stoics insisted ‘it is not what happens, but what you make of what happens, be happy with what you are given, wish for what you already have’ and other rules along the same lines, critics will say it was easy for Seneca to be so serene, he was perhaps the richest man of ancient RomeIndeed, with that, he was one of the wealthiest of all time, because we have to convert the coins he owned into our money, and besides, there is also the issue of what the others had, which is an exercise in futility, if we are to use the Stoic precepts, and we can also say he knew about having a fortune, he was not confabulatingOne wonderful argument in favor of Seneca and the Stoics is that studies in psychology have demonstrated they were right ‘Happiness Activity No 6: Developing Strategies for Coping-practicing ways to endure or surmount hardship or trauma, Happiness Activity No 7: Learning to Forgive –keeping a journal or writing a letter in which you work on letting go of anger and resentment toward one or more individuals who’ve hurt or wronged you’This is from the magical, astounding, life-changing The How of Happiness https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... by Sonja Lyubomirsky, after intense, elaborate, years long studies, the conclusion is that we need to be prepared for Providentia, ForgiveNow, if this damn fate brings in an Orange Felon, to be the leader of the free world (elected, so, maybe it is not blind misfortune) what do you call that, I wonder, but I am reminded that the Stoics were so exaggerated may be the word, that they insisted we must thank those who test our stamina, as in Orange Clown, thank youI could not do that, just as I think of an example from the How of Happiness, in the Forgiveness department, wherein she tells us about this murder, in south Africa, the parents of the victim went down there, met with the killer, and then the mother of the dead young woman not only forgave, but made an NGO with the murdererSomething to that effect, I forgot the details, but the magnanimity, probably religiosity of the mother was incredible, a sadistic, vicious thought enters my head, and I say…then she went home, and voted for…Orange Jesus De Constantia is not really my thing, as these lines prove, I am all over the place (maybe the ‘weave’ of the often-mentioned Orange Moron sounds familiar, alas, I do it too, but I am not a candidate for, well, anything…oh, yes, I have fallen in love, a little bit, so I do want to be elected in that sense) but then, this is the challengeTo get into The Zone, be in Flow, obtain Maximum Engagement https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... there are a few conditions, one is skills meet challenges, or else we have to be on the line between burnout and boredom…‘We are what we regularly do. Excellence is not an act, it is a habit’ this argues for Consistency aka Constantia and it is attributed to Aristotle, who has another favorite rule, The Golden Mean, virtue has vice on either side, courage has madness on the left (biker going with maximum speed on ice) and cowardice on the rightAside from Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... we have the Talmud, though I have seen it associated with Lao Tzu, the idea that ‘you need to mind your thoughts, for they become words, words become acts, acts become habits, and habits form character, character is youDe Ira aka About Anger, needless to say, a Stoic would not contemplate that – Seneca was rich, so again, why should he bother – but sometimes, it explodes, one incident is fresh, at the gym, this man I know, calm, cultivated, serene was lifting some weights, and this woman is shouting ‘pula mea’, aka ‘my cock’, though she did not have oneThis is as foul as can be, well, probably there is worse, and I will be sexist here (old fashioned, passe, retrograde and all the rest) for a woman to say that, it makes me wince, and get in Thin Slicing, Harding Effect, Blink mood https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/... with a clear opinionYes, if there is harm, offense, and so on, it is not just justified, she is entitled to much more, maybe use a gun (illegal here, but as a concept) but to just scream out that, without any reason, this is disqualifying, just as it is for anybody, he, she, they, it is also true that there is this tendency to ‘show off’, and in the worst possible wayThere is the wise metaphor of Buddha, to be angry is like taking some hot coals in your hand, with the intention of throwing it on your enemy, but while you do that, your hand will get burned, and then of course there is Clementia, covered above by Happiness Activity Number 7, Forgiveness, we need this for the other, but also for ourselves, it is also a gesture of kindness, like Anthony Quinn says in Lawrence of Arabia https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/... ‘ I am a river to my people’Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To the Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 14, 2024 | date read Nov 14, 2024 | date added Nov 14, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Death of Ivan Ilych & Other Stories | title The Death of Ivan Ilych & Other Stories | author Tolstoy, Leo | isbn 1593080697 | isbn13 9781593080693 | asin 1593080697 | num pages 400pp | avg rating 4.03 | num ratings 456 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Dec 15, 2003 | Realini's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest writers in history, three of his magnum opera, Anna Karenina https://rea The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy, one of the greatest writers in history, three of his magnum opera, Anna Karenina https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/... War and Peace and The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories are on the list of Greatest books of All Time10 out of 10 There has been a backlash, what with the war in the Ukraine, the invasion launched by tyrannical Putin (who may be closer to victory now, alas, because of a shortage of conscripts, now Orange Jesus has been elected) readers have taken another look at Leo Tolstoy and other paramount Russians and rejected their workOr else, found passages, aspects that are debatable, or outright jingoistic, which is to be expected frankly, they did not have the same standards, convictions a couple of centuries ago (even one hundred years back) and then in various places, here too, there is revision of the classic history, the triumphal versionIndeed, in lands like Hungary, Italy (which has a prime minister from a party that was descended from the fascists, and other extremists in coalition) there is a vision that demands the present to get inspiration, and copy the past, which was absolutely glorious, and they have to keep the hordes of invaders awayIn my realm, we have had this extraordinary historian, Lucian Boia, who gave us food for thought https://realini.blogspot.com/2012/07/... with his books, which dismantled the idea that ‘we saved Europe, we were the brave, smart, fabulous nation that won against the Turks, stopped them and so on…Vienna, Paris and others have us to thank, but that is just that verité ‘history is always contemporary history’, written by the winners, we project in the past our image, select the wins, discard the losses, or just pass over quickly, we could also see it this way “History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.” Another truthThe latter is from the wondrous History Boys https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/... by Alan Bennett, but I need to return to the case in point, eventually, Insha’Allah, albeit there is a new strategy, one that I devised yesterday, thinking I better divide my notes, in…two, short, relevantAnd the second part, where I could ‘weave’ – that is what the elected leader of the free world, Orange Felon, calls his ramblings – on the blog, and nobody would mind…true, why would they mind the way it is now?Well, it is a different scheme, and if nothing else, maybe it proves that I have an open mind, creative energy, which have been identified by Martin Seligman https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... as two of the character strengths, plus, there is the lasagna effect mentioned in…The most popular lectures at Harvard, where Tal Ben Shahar used to be a teacher – you find his wonderful talks on YouTube, available because they want them to be, free of charge – and he said that his favorite dish is lasagna made by his mother, but he could not eat it all day, every day, hence the Lasagna EffectI have found the – I thought of stopping here, and send the rest of this on the blog, but on the other hand, I have already digressed to the pint where there is no Ivan Ilych, and he is unlikely to show in these lines, so let us get on with it, as it is, or is not – same principle at Stefan Klein, a German expert on positive psychologyThe only one I know, author of The Science of Happiness – How Our Brains Make Us Happy and What We Can Do To Get Happier https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/... who has some good points there, some of which I remember, one regarding the need for change This does puzzle me at times, because Stefan Klein, Tal Ben Shahar and others insist on this principle, while talking of rituals – just like we need to wash our teeth, a few times every day, the Harvard professor explains we need to have these positive thoughts, rituals, the eight hugs every day and more, the gratitude exercise for instanceSo, what do we do, change, or do the same ‘we are what we regularly do, excellence is not an act, it is a habit’ and the same Aristotle talked of The Golden Mean, virtue is in the middle, with vice on either side, excesses, so maybe the same applies here, we have to have change, if only on the route to work and backWhile also thinking of the Talmud ‘be careful with your thoughts, for they become words, mind your words, they become acts, the acts get to be habits, habits form character, and character is You’ so change some things and keep the good habits seems reasonable, now about Ivan Ilych, he finds he will die soon, and his world is turned upside downFor some reason, I think of Dostoevsky, who was sentenced to death, had three minutes in front of the firing squad and left one to say good bye to family and friends, another to pass his life in front, and the last to admire a ray of sunshine, he is however pardoned (maybe it was a ruse all along) and he writes in his masterpieces about this, the moments when we face death, memento mori, how we would rather be on a rock, in the middle of the ocean than face extension, so we need to think Carpe Diem, enjoy the moment and read -“The person who doesn’t read lives only one life. The reader lives 5,000. Reading is immortality backwards.” Umberto Eco Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 3 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 09, 2024 | date read Nov 13, 2024 | date added Nov 13, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Manon Lescaut | title Manon Lescaut | author Prévost d'Exiles, Antoine Franç | isbn 0140445595 | isbn13 9780140445596 | asin 0140445595 | num pages 192pp | avg rating 3.36 | num ratings 14,493 | date pub 1731 | date pub edition Apr 01, 1992 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Manon Lescaut or The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut by Antoine Francois Prevost – you can find a couple of notes on this novel, i Manon Lescaut or The Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut by Antoine Francois Prevost – you can find a couple of notes on this novel, included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the Love section, along with hundreds of other reviews https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/ that you may want to miss9 out of 10There will be an experiment here, I will try to make a shorter note here, maybe a more relevant, Insha’Allah, as well as curt one, with my impression on the read, some lines on Manon Lescaut, her lover maybe, and then try and move the rest to the blog, just in case anybody would like an in-depth analysis, with innuendo and fireworksFurthermore, there may be a need to be more positive – one of the leitmotifs of Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/03/... is ‘be a merit finder, not a fault finder – and ergo, maybe the fist part of the take is appreciative, and the second, well, we will seeThus, Manon Lescaut will be in this small piece a heroine, inspirational, what with her devotion, love, creativity, zest, elan vital, joie de vivre, appreciation of beauty and excellence (incidentally, these are character strengths as identified by Martin Seligman, founder of positive psychology) and more materialistic on the blogShe loves Chevalier des Grieux, and is cool headed, demure about it – let us project some of the thinking we have in the present, as well as some new words, Collins dictionary said ‘brat is the word of the year, as in Kamala Harris is brat, regardless of the big loss, I see her as a thousand times better that what they have now…Into the narrative, which will be four centuries old in 2031, I understand that they use demure for, well, anything on TikTok, and delulu is another big hit, so with time, maybe I will have a third version, for younger readers (since there are no mature, middle aged, or any kind o readers on the blog, except five or ten per day, and even these may just as well be blind clicks, why not target a newer audience) to post somewhereBy the way, I tired TikTok, in order to promote my own invention, I need an agent, someone to promote, help me sell this thing I invented, which is here http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u...+ on display, maybe there is some profit, incentive to use this in an ad, say I use the product service, drink, and then I get on to do the thing from the video, and there are two macaws thrown in as wellBut it did not lift off, and maybe there were just a couple of likes, say twenty, but with that, there is nothing to move to Louisiana with – furthermore, why on earth would I do that, now that Orange Jesus will be crowned king – let us return to Manon Lescaut, who Had to move there, since she was exiled from EuropeThere is much to admire, perhaps all the elements of Positivity https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/05/... are there awe, interest, inspiration, hope (though, about the end, in the second part), pride, serenity, joy, gratitude, love, with amusement maybe in short supplyAs ‘promised’, I think I will stop the first part here, and ramble on with the second take, on the blog, not before my culpa, this was not really to the point, on topic, but hey, at least I have cut in two my usual ‘weave’ (a new word, promoted by Orange Jesus aka Orange Monarch from next year) and stop here with the ‘curt version’ Manon Lescaut part IIThere should be a sense of ‘liberation’, now that I can say anything here – given the statistics, nobody really takes the trouble, as they should, I mean it is not really for the large public, so we can have a Panglossian attitude https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/... this is the best...Of all possible worlds, because there is no traffic here, ergo no harm done, no accidents or anything, and then there is the liberty of saying something, shouting, without constraint (some, maybe) and there is the slim possibility that some alien, or weird creature will still see it and like it, like that message in a bottle Now about Manon Lescaut, the less euphoric take, let me mention the joke, which shows how vile I can be, not that Manon Lescaut was like that, it refers to this man, who is asking some female ‘would you sleep with me, if I gave you one million dollars, and when the answer is yes, he continues with how about twenty dollars?”And the interlocutor is offended and shouts ‘what do you mean, insulting me like that, but the retort is ‘look, we have already established what you are, so we are just haggling over the price now…’ this mean joke came to mind because there is, at least in my mind, some less appetizing, likeable aspect of the heroine’s characterYes, we all need comfort, but she seemed to be letting down her lover, when the going was tough, albeit, with the assumption that it would be bad for both, nobody can survive without food, on love alone, or maybe they could, it they are yoga masters – like yours truly, there is the link down there, I have to try and promote again…and againOverall, Manon Lescaut is impressive, there are some very emotional passages, then there is the fate she has to face, let us not get to that, even if I have said nobody cares, we have no visitors here, but this is not Anna Karenina Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 07, 2024 | date read Nov 12, 2024 | date added Nov 12, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The Bamboo Bed | title The Bamboo Bed | author Eastlake, William | isbn 0718107667 | isbn13 9780718107666 | asin 0718107667 | num pages 285pp | avg rating 3.72 | num ratings 46 | date pub 1969 | date pub edition 1970 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Bamboo Bed by William Eastlake is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, the last book that I enjoyed from that compilation is Suite Bamboo Bed by William Eastlake is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, the last book that I enjoyed from that compilation is Suite Francaise and my look at it is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... together with a few hundred other notes7 out of 10The book with Vietnamese characters that I like most is A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... by Robert Olen Butler – we are friends…on Facebook, which normally means exactly nothing, but this connection has a little storyThere it is, not much of a saga, but still – I placed a YouTube video with my view of the mesmerizing Pulitzer Prize Winner, and then I see there is a comment and it was from…Robert Olen Butler, to the effect that the author was appreciating my view, to some extent, probably considering the remote place where I resideBut I had not just doubts, the feeling that this is not real, you do not have every day a Pulitzer Prize Winner noticing you (I don’t, in any case) and when he contacted me on Facebook, I had to ask my daughter, Hannah, about the veracity of this event, I mean, it could not be real, it was some impersonator?It turned out it was the Pulitzer Prize Winner!Furthermore, we even had some lines of dialogue, he liked my macaws, sent me a link to a story about some parrot, the way I remember it was quite tragic, the owner dies, then the daughter breaks the neck of the bird, and though terrifying, I am thinking what will happen to my two macaws, when I will be departedFor a while, it will be the spouse, who is thirteen years younger as it is, then women live longer than men, but these boys live sixty years, maybe more…well, they will be lucky, Insha’Allah, and now back on The Bamboo Bed, which seems impressive, only the subject, the fact that Orange Jesus has won the elections just two days ago, do not offer the best circumstances and this is why I must say I did see some merits…Only left it out nevertheless, despite of the fact that critics said ‘this is a brilliant, strange, wondrous performance...The Bamboo Bed is the war in Vietnam ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 2 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 07, 2024 | date read Nov 11, 2024 | date added Nov 11, 2024 | owned | format | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Manon Lescaut | title Manon Lescaut | author Prévost d'Exiles, Antoine Franç | isbn 2080273396 | isbn13 9782080273390 | asin B09YZ1N3N6 | num pages 365pp | avg rating 3.18 | num ratings 83 | date pub unknown | date pub edition May 11, 2022 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Manon Lescaut belongs to the canon of major operas, and I have a red and green macaw called…Puccini – you can see him at https://www.blogger.com/blog/ Manon Lescaut belongs to the canon of major operas, and I have a red and green macaw called…Puccini – you can see him at https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edi... - however, this note is about the romantic novel, with its original name, the Story of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut, written by Antoine Francois Prevost, there may be two notes about this, not that it matters much8 out of 10This will be an experiment, in that I have not finished the (rather short, at about one hundred and twenty pages) book, which is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, has been adapted into an opera, which in fact better known, when you search the net for Manon Lescaut, you get Puccini, not PrevostWell, not as the first result, you do find a lot on the book, which will be four hundred years old in 2031, but still, it is a surprise to see that if you type this name, you do not get ‘the original’…so, I am only near the middle of the narrative, and I know I will finish it, I try and write about what I think, to see how it will changeThat is, if the perspective will change – I have had a large number of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read that I dropped, wrote on them nevertheless, because I knew my intake ill not change, and whether it is forty of six hundred pages, the same emotion will be there, or worse, it could be boring, to stay for so long We know from Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... that we have to be on the line between boredom and burnout, where skills meet challenges, also we are in control, it is autotelic, there are clear goals, nothing else matters, time compresses or dilates, feedback is instant and constantReading about the love between Manon Lescaut and the chevalier des Grieux is also a conduit for Positivity, the ultimate expert on the subject, Barbara Fredrickson, has discovered the components – amusement, interest, hope, awe, joy, inspiration, pride, serenity, gratitude and love, the latter is the pinnacle https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/05/... the supreme elementI do not know what to think of Manon Lescaut, the character, I do not mean the novel, in that I was going to say, for this, first part, she may seem a bit materialistic, but maybe she is just realistic, refusing to opt for a scenario where she will have love, and that is all – the Beatles said it ‘love is all you need’ – and saying no to PanglossManon Lescaut and des Grieux love each other, but they have no means, in various stages of their relationship, which makes her desperate and then she takes a lover, and sends the young man (Des Grieux away) so that they both can enjoy life, which does not mean romantic moments, and no food, or is it too callous I now realize how biased I can be – Manon Lescaut could even be seen as altruistic, as in that option we have seen, ‘I love you so much, that I will deny myself, and accept losing you for your happiness’, something along these lines – because of two things, that I could see, one in the distant past and another recentYears ago, I had the chance (or bad luck) to meet Miss Romania – it was amusing, for when she said that in the car, I thought it was a joke and insisted I was the maharajah of Punjab, or some such nonsense – and fell in love, only to be dismissed, after about ten months, and the choice, a bit later, was a local nawab, some real maharajahNonetheless, the fortune of this husband was stolen, embezzled, whatever the technical term was, and he ended up in jail, but the point is, I had my brief Fight Club https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... with a version of Manon Lescaut, and it is tempting to conclude that money was the reason it ended Back to the present, and there was this message, taken in the sauna – this is the place which pops up often in these notes, recollections, ‘the weave’, as the Orange Felon aka new leader of the free world calls it – and cruel as it is, it has veracity, and brings the issue of money versus feelings to the forefront again‘My love is as a fever longing still for that which longer nursest the disease…my reason, the physician to my love, angry that his prescriptions are not kept has left me/ and I desperately now approve desire is death…past cure I am, now reason is past care/ my thoughts and my discourse as mad men are, at random from the truth vainly expressed…’That was from a sonnet of William Shakespeare https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... although I am reading – and the theme returns again and again – about the conviction that many have on the real identity of the author of Hamlet, Richard III, and the rest of the magnum operaI have seen a very Zen, serene, admirable, inspirational woman, and ‘fell in love’ – albeit this is such a complex feeling that there is more to say, also, there is the doubts expressed by Thomas Mann, are we allowed to use the supreme word so lightly – and I joked about this at the spa, in the sauna downtown, where we know each otherThis lawyer is a bit more cynical (hence the thousands of jokes about them) but also the voice of the truth, when I said it, he mocked the ‘confession’ by expressing a sort of baffled amusement, ‘this guy (me) is something, at his age, and then infatuated, and what is worse (maybe he just said more surprising) is that he has no money, as to say take these three bags (meaning Gucci, Prada), have a good time there…’ indeed, with some wealth to spread, it might be plausible that there is some hedonism to offer, but as it is? Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 06, 2024 | date read Nov 10, 2024 | date added Nov 10, 2024 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Les Liaisons dangereuses | title Les Liaisons dangereuses | author Laclos, Pierre Choderlos de | isbn 0192838679 | isbn13 9780192838674 | asin 0192838679 | num pages 402pp | avg rating 4.06 | num ratings 55,090 | date pub 1782 | date pub edition Mar 18, 1999 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos – celebrated as a chef d’oeuvre, adapted for the big screen, in resplendent style, my note on the film Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos de Laclos – celebrated as a chef d’oeuvre, adapted for the big screen, in resplendent style, my note on the film is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/...9 out of 10What better novel to take now, after this devastating, incredible, lamentable election, in what used to be the greatest democracy in the world (the land we admired, I even tried to move there, with hindsight, it is wondrous I did not make it) than this book, which sends us to 1779, to read 175 letters, of love, deceit and moreI was thinking in terms of what was it like then, and how much have we changed, where are we now, we must have progressed, and yes, we did, we fly, connect on the internet, we can even write silly notes (like this one) and ‘share them’, but them on the blogs, Goodreads sites, for others to indulge in a messy entertainment Nevertheless, on other counts, I see a clear regression – the thought strikes me, maybe it is regression to the mean, as explained by Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/... in his fundamental Thinking Fast and SlowIn Thinking Fast and Slow, we have this episode with Israeli fighter pilots, Daneil Kahneman was somehow involved in their training, and one of the commanders (or ‘The Commander’, I forgot which) insisted that the trainees redress, rectify mistakes, because he is very tough, maybe he screamed at them or something like thatHowever, Daniel Kahneman explains that it is ‘regression to the mean’, incidents in which something spectacularly good happens, or disastrously wrong take place are not repeated, because there is a return to ‘normal’, the averages, which makes sense, we could not keep it to the top speed, if we run, forever I guessOn the other hand, we had a calamity in 2016, and then although people could see the whole display of abjection, lying, bravado, pomposity, vanity, selfishness, cruelty, stupidity, let me stop before it gets too disgusting (oh, only that was there for all to see too) they still took this choice the other day, and in huge numbersWhat was it, 75 million?It does not matter, anyway, they could have been one thousand and that is 1,000 too many, even if one thousand crazies, fools or psychopaths is smallToo have more than seventy million plunge like that, either they are insane, or I am crazy – I saw this comedian on Comedy Central, a stand up act, and he was talking If https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/... the quintessential Rudyard Kipling poemThe idea there is that: ‘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…’Then you do a few more stunts like that, then ‘you’ll be a man, my Son!’ which has one, well, probably more messages, but if you look Through a Glass Darkly https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/... you could come up with another, maybe funnier, darker interpretation of the poemThe comedian says you ‘should have your head examined’, which is what the spouse said a few days ago, and now that I look at the win of Orange Jesus and I say that I need to see a doctor, for to me, it is the most stupid, revolting, outrageous, terrible thing people can do, there would be some more as heinous, but let us stop hereTo go back – through the ‘weave’, as the Orange Idiot calls his rambling, moving from wind mills to sharks, saying he wants to be a whale doctor, then to the fool Kennedy, with the worm in his brain and the dead bear in his car – to Liaisons Dangereuses, at least Valmont and Merteuil did their loathsome intrigues with styleUsing some modern-day standards (better go back to the hippy days, what with republicans and their phobias, hatred and lunacy, we could not say today’s norms) we could even say that Valmont, the marquise de Merteuil had sex with various partners (and each other) and ‘make love not war’ was a slogan onceAt the same time, this cretin called Orange Jesus by his cronies, and then voted as such by more than seventy million ‘deplorables’ (I agree with Hilary Clinton, they were, and they are, no matter how bad the move was, because it infuriated the ‘garbage’) who see him as the one bringing prosperity (as if they do not have it)Others look at him and see…Cyrus, this guy from the bible, or some other, a prophet, The Chosen one, oh My God, I am not religious, but then these apostates are out as well, because they should reject a liar, cheater Confidence Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 02, 2024 | date read Nov 09, 2024 | date added Nov 09, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover [Signs [Screenplay]](/book/show/176608142-signs-screenplay) | title Signs [Screenplay] | author Shyamalan, M. Night | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 95pp | avg rating 4.50 | num ratings 4 | date pub unknown | date pub edition 2002 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Signs written and directed by Night Shyamalan, writer and director of The Sixth Sense – my note on that is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/01/... Signs written and directed by Night Shyamalan, writer and director of The Sixth Sense – my note on that is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/01/... along with thousands of other reviews8 out of 10I remember seeing Signs with my daughter, Hannah, at least I think I do, maybe it is just an illusion, wishful thinking, or the effect of the breaking news of the last few hours, as in the last few hours of sanity on this planet, since Orange Jesus has just been elected (again!) to be the leader of the free world, God damn it!Hence, the decision to take on an obscure film, so that I take my vengeance upon it (or something, for that matter) and so that we do not drag your spirits down in the process, be warned: I will mention a few words about Signs, but mostly, I will pour bile and lament the ascent of the Orange Devil, who will fuck us all upSigns is about aliens, and in that, it has a similarity with the world we live in – or I do, you could be a supporter of the Orange Felon, and then you feel this is heaven, and you just won, the rest are losers, ‘Lock her up’, and all that idiotic nonsense – it is no longer the land of the free, greatest democracy in the worldInstead, they have the aliens settling in there, with their vicious, disgusting Darth Vader https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/... ready to settle scores, lock enemies up, get the army against them, shoot protesters in the leg, maybe send a few missiles into…MexicoMy favorite comedian is Seth Meyers https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/... or at any rate, now, there used to be John Cleese, The Monty Python crew, but let us not get derailed already, and he has had excellent Closer Looks, the one of yesterday crucified the Orange MonkeyTalked about the time when he falsified the weather report (in itself a violation of the law), stolen secret documents to store in his bathroom at Mar a Lago, also to just give them away to hoi polloi, in a phone call he blabbered about the plan of war against Iran, at another time he brought in the…nuclear submarinesLet us make the infamous ‘weave’ and change from one subject to another, without any warning, sense, or rationality, after all, in this day and age, being a demented narcissist is the winning ticket, that is one of the takes of this dark day, and return a bit to Signs, Mel Brooks was Graham Hess and Joaquim Phoenix Merrill HessThe two are brothers, and in their corn field, then house, you have the vile aliens coming down, it is not just their place, it is happening all over the world, aka they have taken America now, with the MAGA garbage -yes, Biden, in his confusion and patriotism, he stepped aside to try and avoid the calamity that happened anyway, while the orange moron is there, for another four years or more, though with his diet and lack of exercise (mental, or otherwise) he might collapse, to make way for yet another weird creature, in calling the supports of the idiot garbage, just like Hilary was spot on, though not clever for campaigning, when she said deplorables, they are, and this is their world now – and we will have to adapt or die, maybe‘There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so’ Hamlet https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/... ergo, we have to get over it, use this and other wise words, quotes, methods, therapy, runner’s high, with oxytocin, serotonin, and the restStoicism is another way https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/08/... appropriate for the era of the Orange Vader – ‘it is not what happens, it is what you make of what happens…only you can take yourself down…be grateful and wish for what you already have’ maybe not the last one‘Happiness Activity No 6: Developing Strategies for Coping-practicing ways to endure or surmount hardship or trauma and Happiness Activity No 7: Learning to Forgive –keeping a journal or writing a letter in which you work on letting go of anger and resentment toward one or more individuals who’ve hurt or wronged you’The above is from the marvelous The How of Happiness https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... by Sonja Lyubomirsky, we need to forgive and have a strategy of coping with adversity and trauma, which includes eliminating negative thoughts, taking walks with this result out of the mindAlhamdulillah, we will then get into a different stage, and I will also mention another fabulous psychologist, Harvard Professor Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling On Happiness https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/... which is a mesmerizing readWe get from there the illusions we have, ‘we will be so happy, if only we moved on this Caribbean, Pacific Island, California’ (the latter, seeing as it is a blue state, would make sense, a place with humans, not cave men) but with the move, it is found that these are myths, because of Hedonic Adaptation, we stop feeling mirthfulThe magnificent thing here is that the reverse is also true, if we adapt to almost anything good, and stop enjoying a new car, watch (the material things are not advisable for spending) it is also true that with negative events (say an election) we get used with the calamityNow for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 08, 2024 | date read Nov 08, 2024 | date added Nov 08, 2024 | owned | format | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover L'isola di Arturo | title L'isola di Arturo | author Morante, Elsa | isbn 8806409077 | isbn13 9788806409074 | asin 8806409077 | num pages 386pp | avg rating 4.02 | num ratings 12,961 | date pub 1957 | date pub edition 1975 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Arturo’s Island aka L’isola di Arturo by Elsa Morante is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, along with History, by the same author, Arturo’s Island aka L’isola di Arturo by Elsa Morante is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, along with History, by the same author, my note on the latter is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/11/... together with thousands of other reviews 8 out of 10This is written on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, the day of the American Elections, or else the time when we descend in The Heart of Darkness https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/... if Orange Jesus is elected – let us hope he will be rejected, against the odds at betting housesWhat better time than this to immerse in a story about an island, remote, which involves reading about the past – we are not talking about the present, at least not for as long as I could be on L’isola di Arturo – and therefore, we would have a different mindset, away from those perilous developments in the United States Only, can we stay Far From Madding Crowd https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/09/... and read about Arturo, or are we brought back into the news cycle and worry if we still have a sane world tomorrow…well, wait, it cannot be sane, the way it plumps for such demonsBesides, it may still take a long time, what with the polls showing dead heat, and worse, the Orange Lunatic has made it clear, either he wins, and that means it will have been a fair election, or else he does not which can only be one thing, they stole it from him, just like in 2020, when he attacked Congress with his mobTake a look at this line ‘All the islands ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 2024 | date read Nov 07, 2024 | date added Nov 07, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover La cipolla (commedia in due tempi) | title La cipolla | author Nicolaj, Aldo | isbn | isbn13 | asin B0DN285LMW | num pages 46pp | avg rating 3.67 | num ratings 3 | date pub 1963 | date pub edition unknown | Realini's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review La Cipolla aka The Onion by Aldo Nicolaj8 out of 10Aldo Nicolaj has only two works on Goodreads, La Cipolla aka The Onion and The World of Water, the La Cipolla aka The Onion by Aldo Nicolaj8 out of 10Aldo Nicolaj has only two works on Goodreads, La Cipolla aka The Onion and The World of Water, the former has a grand total of two reviews to its name, with zero reviews and the latter has no rating, and ditto for notes, hence I thought I might bless the name with the first notice, however irrelevant this will be and unrelatedLast night, they had Hamlet in Sos Picant aka Hamlet in Spicy Sauce, by Aldo Nicolaj, albeit this is non existent on the site, in the old days, I could introduce some entry, but now, I have to be a librarian or something, which in some ways sounds good, you could not have any unauthorized moron play with the siteOr could you?Games People Play is a psychology classic https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/... by Eric Berne, and yes, people play on Goodreads – but let me introduce a spoiler alert, before I set myself free and just focus on the topic I have in mind now, the elections taking place tomorrow I am celebrating the fact that I am number One!On Goodreads, for my territory, where I moved, again, to the top spot, only in the number one reviewer sense, which means I run the marathon with notes, I keep writing – nonsense, and here is the evidence – but I try, like with the physical runs, it is important to take part, not the spot you land on, how good your lines areBesides, it is a good thing that a real worker is recompensed, at least for now, since we had a fraud at the ‘top of the ticket’, a fella who just poured a few hundred ‘reviews’ per…day!I mean, how could they let that happen, he was not really writing anything, just copy paste a couple of lines from the net, and bingo, this is a review and then he gets to be the top performer, at least the profile said soEven when notified, the site did nothingLet us move to something more serious, which is what happens in America, and then to the world as a consequence, after they put Hamlet in Hot Sauce tomorrow, the title of the play was superb, I thought, bizarreAlso a good description of what we have now, no longer the serious Hamlet https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/... but something weird, for we live in the era of The Orange Jesus, no longer the ‘real’ prophet, but a sort of Chosen replacement, reincarnation of CyrusAat least this is what his supporters claim, just like in the Bible that Cyrus saved the Jews, I have read how, but no longer know, although he was a pagan, not an Hebrew anyway, so this fellow that has committed every sin against that list with do not lie, something with the neighbor’s wife, and so on, will just save us allHard, impossible to believe?Absolutely!But hey, the ways of God are unknown, they retort, and look at the (fucking obnoxious I say) three Supreme justices he has named, how they brought abortion to an abrupt end in so many states, and thus so many ‘unborn babies’ are saved now, what? A few mothers die because they are denied care? Never mind that!This is indeed a con artist, The Confidence Man https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... as described by the sublime Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, and a commentator on CNN, where she explains often reactions of the Orange Fool, what he may be thinkingOne of the ‘strong’ arguments for supporters of the Orange Plague is that he is ‘good on the economy’, in fact we were discussing this earlier, at the sauna downtown, and it is such a fallacy, one of those false things, a myth, because the fellow had some achievements, but otherwise, he was basically a fraud, judged as suchHe was not paying contractors, he is infamous for not paying, bankrupted casinos and other businesses, when as they say ‘the house always wins’, he was going at the banks to get loans, and pretended he has so much, pretending his apartment is three times its actual size, the judge highlighted that, also emphasizing that he is in real estate, he could not lie (well, he can, always) and say it is a honest mistake, he ignores the businessThen he would claim he has nothing, or close to it, for tax purposes, and yes, many, most businesses do that – Google, Apple and the rest parked their incomes, or something in Ireland, so that they save billions, but that was legal, now Apple was sentenced to pay some billions due – but we are talking of fraud here, this man would not use the correct methods, and stick with that, think of the way he wanted to steal the elections of 2020!Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 06, 2024 | date read Nov 06, 2024 | date added Nov 06, 2024 | owned | format pdf by Cateragia per GTTEMPO | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover On a Happy Life, On the Shortness of Life, and On Providence: (Annotated) | title On a Happy Life, On the Shortness of Life, and On Providence:(Annotated) | author Seneca | isbn | isbn13 | asin B09GBS3F5Y | num pages 104pp | avg rating 5.00 | num ratings 2 | date pub unknown | date pub edition Sep 14, 2021 | Realini's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review On The Happy Life, Providence by Seneca – one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and one of the richest men of ancient, and presumably also of all On The Happy Life, Providence by Seneca – one of the greatest thinkers of all time, and one of the richest men of ancient, and presumably also of all time, one of a dozen notes on Seneca and the stoics is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/... we need stoicism to face the American elections10 out of 10It is the proper time to read or take on again Seneca, the Stoics, Michel de Montaigne https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... great luminaries that could help us get over the stress of the coming days, this is the Sunday before November 5Nevertheless, we could try and be Panglossian https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/... proclaiming that ‘we live in the best of all possible worlds’, regardless of the upcoming Armageddon, what with Orange Jesus favorite (2 in 3 at betting houses) to be the most powerful man on earthSo let us listen to Seneca, a real ‘very stable genius’, unlike the self-proclaimed buffoon, who may destroy NATO, bring Russia again in our courtyard, not just the backyard, and try to apply those precepts ‘wish for what you already have’, which is incidentally the secret for Nirvana, the state where there are no more cravings…The fact that an Orange Felon, who uses a lot of make-up, while screaming about ‘you send your child to school, and he comes home with a sex change’, which is preposterous, not just false, but this is the paradigm of the crazy, ‘disgusting’ monster – the highest ranking republican in the Senate called him that, just lie almost all of those who worked for him denounced the danger he presents, ‘fascist, fucking moron, and more such labels…you would not hire someone with such a CV, would you’ – is likely to be president is awfulThis is why we need Stoicism, before we get Atomised https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/04/... for it ‘is not what happens, but what we make of what happens’, although in this particular r case we need many more words of wisdom –‘the mind is its own place, it can make…Hell out of heaven, and heaven out of hell’, in other words, if the votes go for the absolute lunatic, we need a paradigm change like the one described in Vernon God Little, Booker Prize Winner by DBC Pierre, which is something like this ‘imagine you enter a room and a stranger has his finger up your grannie’s bum, what do you think…I will kill the bastard…but then you find that he is only trying to save her, she is in dangerWell then, I say he is my hero, and that is paradigm shift for you https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/... talking about those crazy elections, it is about the same, in my mind, we either have a finger or worse in the ass, or else we are savedWhich will not come easy, for the idiot will challenge the results, indeed, he has already done it, he made it clear, either he wins, which means it is all fair and just, or he loses, and that can only happen if the votes are rigged, by the way, he also won the last time around, in his fantasy world and that of his cult members In the psychology classic Influence https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/05/... by Robert Cialdini we have six principles, and among them there are the Principle of Respect for Authority, Social Conformity, Reciprocity, and those three led to a mass suicide in Guyana, some decades agoI refer to this, because it could happen again, although this time, it could be much worse, for the numbers involved could be catastrophically higher, and besides, those MAGA morons would not just affect themselves, but large parts of the world, if not all of it, what with destruction of NATO, blowing up world trade and worseIt does not have to be this way, but as The Economist explains in its lead articles, the risk is too high with Trump, and they endorse Harris, on the economic front, where he was supposed to be ‘better’, he will cut taxes, making the budget deficit astronomically higher, he keeps talking about tariffs with gusto, emphaticallyIn an interview with Bloomberg, he was told about the impact, when you raise tariffs, the cost is passed on to consumers, and then you have inflation, something for which he attacks Kamala Harris and Biden, but he will take to dangerous levels, especially if we will have the 20% on all, and thousands percent on some Chinese goodsThen there is the attack on democracy, what he did on January 6, 2021 and looks like preparing again, as I said, I mean as it is explained by so many, he insists he has won in 2020 (one of the tens of thousands of lies) and those hooligans and terrorists that occupied Congress are ‘patriots’, I mean what more do they needYou also have his talk about putting Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad (words to that effect) having the army set on ‘enemy within’, he wanted soldiers to shoot protesters in the leg, when he was president, talked about sending missiles into Mexico, love affair with Kim of North Korea, how he likes Putin, Xi…So we need stoicism, Seneca https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... has written about the Brevity of Life, among other things and it is indeed a waste of time to talk about a fool, also to speculate on what will happen, it is the old Zen Master Story, ‘we shall see, he keeps saying’ when the villagers alternate between sorrow, compassion, and mirth, he shows equanimity, for we do not know the future Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 05, 2024 | date read Nov 05, 2024 | date added Nov 05, 2024 | owned | format Kindle Edition | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover All Souls' Day | title All Souls' Day | author Nooteboom, Cees | isbn 0330392603 | isbn13 9780330392600 | asin 0330392603 | num pages 352pp | avg rating 3.67 | num ratings 1,146 | date pub 1998 | date pub edition Aug 09, 2002 | Realini's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review All Souls’ Day by Cees Nooteboom - this is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, but not as good as Regency Buck, my note on the latte All Souls’ Day by Cees Nooteboom - this is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, but not as good as Regency Buck, my note on the latter is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... together with a few hundred other reviews7 out of 10The verdict here is I did not find the gumption to move along with Arthur Daane, the Dutch hero of this novel, and we could in fact end this note here: the book was not for me, it is surely a good read for more astute readers, although it has had a rating scale ranging from "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish"Publishers Weekly said: "Nooteboom's attempt at an intellectual novel is worthy of respect, but Arthur and his friends are frustratingly static in their habits and thoughts, their perorations inflated with hot air. More enervating than invigorating, the book fails to communicate the vitality of a life of thought” how can I disagree?However, the start was not just promising, it felt like this is about…me, since Arthur Daane ‘had arranged his life to achieve too much free time’, which is exactly about what I did, crying like the hero of Groundhog Day https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/04/... ‘me, me, me’‘As soon as the novel got going, you might pick up a book ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 2024 | date read Nov 04, 2024 | date added Nov 04, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Suite Française | title Suite Française | author Némirovsky, Irène | isbn 1400096278 | isbn13 9781400096275 | asin 1400096278 | num pages 431pp | avg rating 3.86 | num ratings 75,699 | date pub Sep 2004 | date pub edition Apr 10, 2007 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky – a book with an incredible history, the author, Jewish -Ukrainian, has been killed in the Holocaust, and many dec Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky – a book with an incredible history, the author, Jewish -Ukrainian, has been killed in the Holocaust, and many decades later, the book would be published, this was possible because her daughters kept the manuscript…also, this is included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list9 out of 10With hindsight, I would say that this tragic, paradoxical, and such a sad omen, if the author writes about the love between defeated French, Lucile in particular, but also the hatmaker, and German occupiers (evidently, along with many other issues) Irene Nemirovsky would be taken by the Nazis and killed at AuschwitzEarly on, we have the description of the fall of France, in World War II, people leave Paris, they have to find petrol for the cars, also to get them repaired when possible, everything is hard, or impossible to find, at one point, Madame Pericaun is desperate and offers money to a man who has a donkey, to take them awayAlso, this character had her father -in-law with her, but in the turmoil, she simply forgets him, left behind, the old, now disabled man is taken to a shelter, and the nuns in charge would inform the daughter-in-law that the ailing refugee would have died like a Christina, and peacefully, Alhamdulillah, to make a joke, and include AllahOne fault line – actually, another line, the most important is between the Germans and the occupied population – is setting the rich versus the less wealthy, this bank manager insists they will be there, in Paris, unlike the others, they will not leave, but then a sudden change of mind, and he orders an evacuationHe does not provide exit means, except for a few, so instead of offering solace, regrets, compassion to the left behind, he actually scolds, attacks them and imperiously goes with ‘you need to step up, get a hold’ things like that, and one of them is even jocular, ‘so this is the way, push the ones you are discarding’, and it gets worseThey only get severance of a modest sum, explained by the fact that they did not show, which they could not, but this is about more than a few personages, we also have the Viscount de Montmort, and in particular his wife, who stay protected during the occupation, no Gemrans reside at their chateau, and show crueltyThe villagers want to pay for game, fish from their lake, but they are refused, the Viscountess is out of a joke I know from Fawlty Towers, perhaps the best comedy series ever, with ‘pretentious, moi?’ https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/11/... she is pompous, arrogant and selfishNot only they are free of occupiers, the husband becomes mayor and tends towards collaboration, and when she finds a poacher, Benoit Sabarie, she screams thief, he defends himself ‘we wanted to buy, and you denied us’, anyway, she has the Germans arrest him for the gun, he takes it, kills the nineteen years old Kurt BonnetBenoit shoots the dog, Bubi, and that was especially mean, I mean, jealous of the young enemy, alright, but what was wrong with the dog, was French and saved by the Germans – the center of the story is the love between Lucile and lieutenant Bruno von Falk, the latter is assigned to the farm where she lives with her mother-in-lawLucile Angellier is married, her husband, Gaston, had been taken prisoner, and nevertheless, he had been cheating on her, he had a mistress in Dijon, and a child with the latter, the infidel spouse spent half his time there, furthermore, he had been dissatisfied with the fortune he expected upon marrying, and the loss of it.In other words, Lucile is vulnerable, it is not her home – when Bruno von Flak asks about the house, when it was built, she says she does not know, she can tell him about her own place, but not this – worse still, Madame Angellier is not just hostile, she hates it when she thinks the ‘wretched woman is friendly with the foe’She did not say that, but she wants the invader dead, and that makes sense on some levels, only, what about poor Lucile, after all, the latter divulges the secret, how the son sends money to the mistress, and the reader is clear on that – damn you Gaston, you neglect the spouse, so what do you expect from her philanderer?The woman is loyal, despite the fact that she is impressed by the officer, who is gallant, offers help, shows respect, acts with nobility, has nice hands, looks handsome, is polite, and offers support – spoiler alert – eventually, he might even offer the pass needed for Benoit Sabarie, albeit he does not know it would be for himAfter the murder of the lieutenant Kurt Bonnet, the French man has to flee, and he is hidden for a while, until they arrive, his wife Madeleine, that is at the door of…Lucile, villagers know everything, and they are aware that ‘their German’ would protect her, and thus they want the fugitive to be hiding in the Angellier houseLucile agrees, in spite of the death sentence – the occupiers have announced that whoever helps the killer, will be executed by firing squad – and then her mother-in law finds, in the first place, the old woman is so vile, she insults Lucile, when she is carrying food and some wine, saying ‘romantic dinner’, sure it is for the lieutenant…Alas, we have two major wars, in Ukraine and Middle East, plus the civil one in Sudan, and Orange Jesus is given 2 in 3 chances to win next week, at the betting houses, so we might be in for some momentous, calamitous years to come…Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 27, 2024 | date read Nov 03, 2024 | date added Nov 03, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover A Clockwork Orange / Honey for the Bears | title A Clockwork Orange / Honey for the Bears | author Burgess, Anthony | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages 436pp | avg rating 3.92 | num ratings 83 | date pub unknown | date pub edition 1968 | Realini's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess – what it means with the paramount elections taking place next week, wherein Orange Jesus aka a version of the p A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess – what it means with the paramount elections taking place next week, wherein Orange Jesus aka a version of the psychopath Alex has 2 in 3 chances at the betting houses of getting the dictatorship he wants – a previous look at this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/... where you find thousands of other reviews…And a lot about Orange Alex, a calamity, but likely to be president next week, just like the mass suicides of the past10 out of 10This is the fourth time I take on A Clockwork Orange and I think it is not the last – Insha’Allah, you never know, with Orange Felon favorite to win the most powerful job in the world, however diminished if the fool is getting it, who knows what will happen, maybe this will be a province in Russia, and I will be in the gulagThey did bring communism here before, we had Ceausescu and I stood up and fought against tyranny, here is the proof http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... I am mentioned in the Newsweek covering the December 1989 toppling of one of the most vicious despots…Come November 5, we could see the making of something we have never seen before, and not in the sense the lunatic keeps in his mind, but because he will take what was once the greatest democracy in the world, and smash it into the ground, the real carnage he spoke of about eight years ago, to quote George W Bush:‘That was some weird shit’Now, I think A Clockwork Orange is not just a fabulous chef d’oeuvre – and here is a second look at the magnum opus https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/12/... - but it is also so accurate, useful in explaining some of what we see now in America, the part worshipping the Orange CrookIn the Anthony Burgess masterpiece, Alex is the antihero and I see the one I try not to name, expect using the nicknames provided by his cohorts, Orange Jesus, the criminal record he now has, Orange Felon, because he has been found guilty on what was it, thirty-four counts, and he clearly has done so much moreAlex is vicious, violent, irate, aggressive, but on a small scale, and although the supporters of the Orange Demon would say ‘look, it is exactly what the radical left does, they make up things, haunt the poor guy, witch hunt and the rest’, I say the man who had been president for four years has shown with acts and words how awful he isSo, what do you choose, if the alternative is a psychopath, with limited power, or a sick bastard with narcissistic personality disorder, who will have access to the nuclear codes and the button, his defenders say ‘he has been there, and we did not see Apocalypse Now, but that was because he had some sane folks nearbyAnd it is a miracle – like in The History of The World by Mel Brooks – almost all those sensible generals, secretaries of defense, chief of staff, vice president, I mean dozens of the ‘best people’ (for the idiot said and keeps saying that he always selects the best people, what a lousy leader) say he is an imminent threat to democracy At least Alex gets punished – he attacks innocent men and women, then he is abandoned by his partners in crime, and he gets punished, even tortured, so now we are in contrast territory, Alex has similarities with Orange Jesus, in my mind at least – doing the ‘weave’ - but there is also the severe contrast, one mentioned aboveThe Orange Alex however was not abandoned by the hoi polloi (his garbage crowds, I think Biden was confused when he said it, maybe he meant it after all, but then I see it as one of those absolute truths, for Musk and all) they worship him, it is a cult, he is the Chosen, no less, and they connect him with Cyrus in the bibleAnd yes, he gave them these three fucking stupid judges, and then the end of abortion, reproductive rights in so many states, and the whole thing looks like a nightmare, it is also a question of Influence https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/... the rules you find in this classicRobert Cialdini explains how you can have mass suicides, as in Guyana, some decades back, when they followed this Trump-like prophet all the way to South America, and then when the lunatic decided it is time for…mass killing, they just obeyed, that is the Principle of Respect for Authority for you and you can see some weird experimentsThen there is the Social Conformity, we tend to follow the example of others in unfamiliar territory – when an accident happens, one has to name the ones that need to help, because the tendency is to just pass and do nothing, but if you say ‘you in the blue jacket, call 911, and the red shirt, come and help, then you may get throughFinally, I must think of the Zen Master Story, wherein all kinds of bad, then good things happen, but the Master has equanimity all the same, it is mentioned at the end of Charlie Wislon’s War, and then maybe we get more wisdom from https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/08/... Ian Morris is a fabulous author, he has also written Why The West Rules For Now, and it is fantastic Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 27, 2024 | date read Nov 02, 2024 | date added Nov 02, 2024 | owned | format Hardcover | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover De la vanité | title De la vanité | author Montaigne, Michel de | isbn 2070426777 | isbn13 9782070426775 | asin 2070426777 | num pages 128pp | avg rating 3.59 | num ratings 39 | date pub Jan 15, 1992 | date pub edition Jan 01, 2003 | Realini's rating it was amazing | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review On Vanity aka De la Vanite by Michel de Montaigne, his essays have been included on The 100 Greatest Books of All Time, I have a few notes on some of On Vanity aka De la Vanite by Michel de Montaigne, his essays have been included on The 100 Greatest Books of All Time, I have a few notes on some of these brilliant thoughts at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... and other reviews 10 out of 10The essays of Michel de Montaigne are so wonderful helpful, substantive, meaningful that my plan is to continue reading them for the foreseeable future, in small installments, a few pages this morning, some more on Monday, next week, so tat the pleasure lasts and the wisdom has time to sink in, Insha’Allah, with patienceOne major advantage is that they make us think, as opposed to some other oeuvres that fail to stimulate the under signed -one recent example is The Transit of Venus https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... one of the important works…Actually, one of the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, but which failed to keep me on track, never mind to think seriously, now, Montaigne is another story altogether, earlier I was thinking that there are some paradoxes though, and his quoting of Seneca, other luminaries from ancient days could puzzle a modern readerTake Vanity, there could be a fine line between being pompous, arrogant and vain, and too modest, indeed, I am struggling with some of those concepts and the encouragement one gets from one side to be happy with what you have, and the urge to seek for more from another book, or source of Sagesse, allegedly The epitome of vanity is Orange Jesus, betting houses have him with two chances in one of winning next week’s election, which may be the Armageddon, though let us not be realistic, let us settle for just being Panglossian https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/... stating that it will all be fineWe have the definition of paradigm in a superb Booker Prize Winner, in which the protagonist, Vernon God Little, is an adolescent and he has to hear this: imagine you enter a room, and a stranger has his finger up your grannie’s ass, what do you think, and the answer is I want to kill the bastard, but then there is a twistYou see that this unknown man overcame his nausea to save your dear relative, what about now, well, he is my hero and then this is a paradigm shift for you https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/12/... the fantastic work, especially in the first part, was written by DBC Pierre and it is a favorite of mineThen we have the precepts of stoicism and what modern self-help books teach us, also psychology, the positive kind in particular, what do we do, do we show pride, have hope, or just stay modest, humble, and accept whatever the fate offers, ‘wish for what you already have is essential for Stoics and Buddhists alikeThe answer is in Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... on The Golden Mean, virtue is in the middle, on either side we have vice, say munificence – it is not giving away all you have, so that family and all are left paupers, neither being a miser, like me, would be the answerNow, I was reading earlier from Karen Armstrong, the ultimate expert on religion, and she was explain how yoga would be approached, it is not the physical feast – by the way, look at what I can do here http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... and tell me if you have any ideaMaybe we can make a million bucks with this, and we find a way to share, if you are an agent, know somebody, have the plan for what can be done, it is an invention of mine, at least third of it, the lotus and the head posture are from Yoga, but then I added my own contribution, so what about selling an ad, or more…I eat this, drink that other, use a service and then boom, I am able to do magic, which is the exercise at the link, however, I have tried to get a reaction and had zero, so why am I wasting my time here, well, because at this very moment, they may know about the future at the company, which is in dire straits nowMy senior partner, who has 70% to my 14%, is meeting a fellow who handles investments, maybe intermediary for buying, and we will see, the products we import from Germany are not selling well (or at all) any more, so there needs to be a way out, or else, no more writing for you, but just some work at the mallAnd in the meantime, I am trying to sell that invention, without any effect – 50 Cent was at the sauna downtown, all dressed, shoes in his feet, and I was thinking I should do this think at the link, so that the singer would see me and maybe take me on his team, and pay good dollars for it, except my buddy stopped meAnyway, one week later, there is Christ Hemsworth, at the same gym, in the center, coincidence, and then there is only this place with facilities, and I do my trick, gig, next to the treadmill, he sees it, but no invitation, like ‘I know somebody man, and I will tell him about you, you will be on stage, or something’ nothing of the kindIt looks like I did not concentrate much on Vanity, just because I am vain, and concerned with the menacing situation, gas expensive, German things unaffordable and what will we do, some answer maybe in store just about now, at 2pm, today, but I will return to Montaigne, the plan is to read and comment on him, for months to comeNow for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Nov 2024 | date read Nov 2024 | date added Nov 01, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover Beauty and Sadness | title Beauty and Sadness | author Kawabata, Yasunari | isbn 0679761055 | isbn13 9780679761051 | asin 0679761055 | num pages 206pp | avg rating 3.81 | num ratings 13,569 | date pub 1964 | date pub edition Jan 30, 1996 | Realini's rating liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata, Nobel Prize Winner and author of The Sound of The Mountain, included on the 100 Greatest Books of All Time li Beauty and Sadness by Yasunari Kawabata, Nobel Prize Winner and author of The Sound of The Mountain, included on the 100 Greatest Books of All Time list, my note on this is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2012/09/... along with thousands of other reviews 7 out of 10Beauty and Sadness is on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, the work of a Nobel Prize Winner – though it is said it is not his best, that could be The Sound of The Mountain, after all, the latter made it into the Top 100 of All Time – ergo one should be in awe, inspired by it, that is if he or she has those positivity ingredientsPositivity https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/05/... is a classic of psychology – albeit classics change with time, what was a fundamental read once is now dejected, sometimes anathema, or just forgotten, an article in The Economist explains about the Mona Lisa, now the best known painting…Perhaps even the most popular work of art, but it was once just some exhibit, not noticed in particular, until the saga of the theft caught the imagination, it was followed by the newspapers, it was enticing and voila, now we celebrate the enigmatic tableaux as the nec plus ultra, crème de la crème of artistic valorBack to Positivity, and unless I do the ’weave’, just like that Orange Idiot that is favorite to win the biggest of all games https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/09/... next week, then to Beauty and Sadness – alas, I did not get it, I probably lack the needed skills and I was thing earlier, maybe character to really enjoy it, it takes some strengths, resilience is one, and that is in short supply lately The components of Positivity are awe – there was none of that here, but it is not Yasunari Kawabata, it is just the under signed, it might be age, or just the litmus test I am using, also a question of Flow, Thin Slicing, having too high expectations, if one has read Proust https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/04/... then there is little, if anything, to bring the same supreme joy, NirvanaThe other elements of Positivity, identified by the ultimate expert on the topic, Barbara Fredrickson, would be interest, amusement, inspiration, pride, joy, serenity, hope, love, gratitude, and if I could try a silly joke – and why not, the advantage of not having anybody read your text is that you could put in it anything you want, and today I was considering the evidence that there is not a soul engaged with these lines – I have an ending that is the same for all the notes, in which I mention a proposal, offer a link to something incredible I do http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – and yet, there was no response to appeals, offers to partner, request for advice, and so on, and yes, maybe a few did go through this and had no reaction, but is that not the equivalent of having no impact, as if no human has gone through that, we give each likes, but it is the rule from Influence Influence is another classic of psychology, written by Robert Cialdini, and used in sales, marketing, and more, because it shows what influences people, and one of the six principles is Reciprocity https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/10/... somebody gives me a like, and I return the favorIt can have calamitous effects, in one instance, the case is exposed in the book, members of a sect committed a mass suicide in Guyana, and one reason was that the defective leader had made them some favors, and then to reciprocate, they listened to him when he said now you have to kill yourselves, it was not just that…It was also the Principle of Respect for Authority, and the Principle of Social Conformity at work, we tend to look at the others and follow the example, especially in situations, places that are unfamiliar, Guyana, in south America fits the description perfectly and there are special uses from reading Influence, in an emergencyIf there is an accident, we have to consider the Social Conformity rule, because strangers will tend to avoid getting involved, looking at each other for guidance, and doing nothing, but the solution is to say ‘you, with the green jumper, call 911, and you with the blue shirt, come and help with this victim’ and then we get supportYes, this is not about Beauty and Sadness, but then there was no Flow there for me, and that is classic number three, still psychology https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... which gives you what it takes to get into The Zone, and it is you are in control, nothing else matters, you have clear goals, constant and instant feedback, time is expanding and/or dilating and also it is…Autotelic (Sadness is not really…sadly), time really was flowing too slowly, feedback was not positive, because most importantly, if one has to be between boredom and burnout, on the challenging line, in this case, it was alternatively boring and then a burnout, because I could not follow, I also gave the example of stationsJust like with a good station, with fabulous music, or a glorious play, podcast, if you lose the frequency, then it does not matter is it is Shakespeare https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... and if we think Malcolm Gladwell, Blink – the Power of Thinking Without Thinking and Thin slicing, then we see all this in less than a minute, just like those art experts called to assess the a ledged ancient statues (which were new in the book) or the tasters, we do not know if it is Coke or Pepsi in a glass, unless we had been told, but those professionals will tell you in a few seconds if they use vanilla flavor, or the real thing from South America or the Pacific – was it Tahiti, it does not matter – the same with a book, a few pages is all it takesNow for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering 250,raisedafteralotofpersuasiontothestaggering400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me knowAs for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.” ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 1 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 21, 2024 | date read Oct 31, 2024 | date added Oct 31, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | | | checkbox | position | cover The British Museum Is Falling Down (King Penguin) | title The British Museum Is Falling Down | author Lodge, David | isbn 0140124195 | isbn13 9780140124194 | asin 0140124195 | num pages 182pp | avg rating 3.64 | num ratings 3,193 | date pub 1965 | date pub edition Sep 05, 1989 | Realini's rating really liked it | my rating 1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars add to shelves | review The British Museum Is Falling Down by David Lodge author of Paradise News, my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... where you fi The British Museum Is Falling Down by David Lodge author of Paradise News, my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... where you find a few hundred reviews 8 out of 10The British Museum Is Falling Down is the sixth book by David Lodge that I enjoy, first there was the mesmerizing, hilarious Changing Places - https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/05/... first installment in the Campus Trilogy, based on the writer’s own stint in America However, The British Museum Is Falling Down is closer to How Far Can You Go https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/08/... both books have Catholicism and the doctrine that forbids birth control, of any kind, and the only way to limit the number of children is Natural LawThat is, married couples – there is no other sanctioned kind of sex, and even the marital one is just meant to be procreative, engaged in just to have offspring, maybe they have changes somewhat, with Pope Francis being more open-minded, but they must still be very strict, surely – have to look out for the fertile daysAdam Appleby is a young research student, in 1965, married to Barbara, they have dated, but entered marital status quite ignorant of sex, both being practicing Catholics, there was no other conceivable manner, they have had three children, and given that the wife is feeling sick, the period is some days late, they may be having another babyThat is especially frightening, given that at twenty-five, he has no means to provide for the family, they live in a small space as it is, and another child would mean that he or she would have to be brought in the same room with the parents, and then where would Adam work, in the bath, with books and papers on his knees?As he is traveling on his failing scooter to the Museum, to research for his thesis, Adam is very depressed, but he will meet this fat, cigar smoking American, we would learn his name is Bernie Schnitz, as the foreigner is trying to place a call to Colorado and is trapped in the phone booth – there were no cell phones back thenAnd that was so unfortunate, I did not have a phone in our flat, and thus had to queue for hours to use one, in the commie days – then I fought in the Revolution of 1989, and the link to the article in which I am mentioned, in Newsweek, is at the end of the note – so Adam helps the American, and he gets some cigarsFurthermore, this will be a providential encounter, because this fellow might provide (spoiler alert) the way out, this is a comedy and needs happy end, as the novelist explains in the after word, which is in fact what you should read, if interested in information about this opus, for it explains everything, with an expert penThe hero receives a letter form the relative – we would see later what the real connection was – of a rather unremarkable Catholic writer, stating that she has some letters and papers from the deceased, and Adam thinks this might be his chance (it is such a desperate situation) seeing that there could be some material thereNot about this relative unknown, but he was seeing important men of letters, so he travels to the house, where we encounter some…butchers from Argentina, and the awkward host, but the surprise, interesting, erotic element is provided by Virginia, the daughter of the landlady, kept pretty much under lock and key, but very curiousShe says she is nineteen, but then we understand that she is just seventeen and determined to get Adam to change her status as a virgin, though she claims to be knowledgeable, and just sort of nymphomaniac, bringing Anais Nin https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... to mindWhat the mother has is not just outrageous, it is also unusable – expect of course, Bernie Schnitz, who has a huge budget to buy manuscripts for the Colorado university that wants to get prestige and has a fortune wot use will buy that and so much more – but the daughter is offering something much more enticingNevertheless, she wants sex with the visitor, in exchange for letters and an unpublished novel she has, really interesting, because they tell the real story of the mediocre Catholic writer, who had at middle age an erotic affair with this innocent woman – as she was some decades back – he stumbles into the room where she is taking a bath…Then there is seduction, intercourse, explicit exchanges and the writing of a novel where the characters are really the real lovers, with only the names changed, and that is ‘literary discovery’, it could help Adam get out of the financial hole where he is, it is just that his faith would not allow for this sex out of wedlockWhat to do is a big question, and he is faced with horrible poverty, destitution really, the end of his career before it even started, and then trying to get around this girl and her trap, so he returns in the evening, we have comical situations, David Lodge explains that he is using satire and makes references to great authorsEventually, he meets again with the American, who had wanted to…buy the British Museum and then take it stone by stone to rebuild in Colorado, and without that, he will just buy manuscripts – spoiler alert again – through Adam, and ergo the hero is saved, he will have money through this proposition and all is well when it ends well, let me just quote something serious and so wonderful, first a piece of dialogue ‘What do you think ...more | notes Notes are private! | comments 0 | votes 0 | # times read 1 | date started Oct 26, 2024 | date read Oct 30, 2024 | date added Oct 30, 2024 | owned | format Paperback | actions view (with text) | | | |

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