<< Nyekk >> It's been a while v2.0

Hiii! It's been a while! Again! Almost a year duh. This is kind of a recap post.




So what happened is that Phe-chan just moved her blogging to Facebook, where actually someone reads the posts ^6^'' And for me, well... *insert picture of that waterhole with the bucket on a rope*

You can read(hah!) some fine resolutions below. You won't be in this post. I just realized that it's best not to take those. It opposes positive thinking for dummies. The desperation to reach said goals and then not reaching is depressing. So for me it is the best not to think about what I want to accomplish in the next year. More like backwards! Looking back and see this year achievements is more heartwarming.

So here comes:

• In January, I became a car owner. It's a Citroen Xm, and a long time love affair realized. An old car by today's standards, and very quirky. For example you can search for the handbrake because it's operated by foot! And it also self levels by itself when it's unbalanced by heavy people or much luggage. I do all the work on the car myself , mostly I enjoy doing it and understand it more and more. It's essential when running an old car, doing preventive maintenance, and to know how everything works in case it brakes down. I spend good monthly expense keeping it on the road since.
  
  
  Not my car, although not entirely dissimilar, only mine is green.
• In May, our little group went hiking to the local Ram-szakadek, which is a little canyon in the woods. We had a good time. Altough we have been there before, there are a lot of unexplored places there still. We plan to check out the cave on the opposing mountain next time!
  >
  The stream.
• In June, I switched jobs. Actually just employers, as I do the same job as before. The difference is that they actually pay me! My ex-company owes me a hugeee amount of salary, but they went crashing down so I don't think I'll ever see that. Still doing php, bughunting and raising the entropy of the sources by the way.
  
• In July, I took my family to the Balaton, to spend some summertime on the beach. We had been there for a week, it was fun.
  
  The recently reopened Sphere at Balatonboglar.
• In August, my dad and I rebuilt the kitchen and and the food storage room into a dining kitchen at my parents house by tearing down half-a-wall. It was completely rewamped, we put new floor, woodwork, and wallpapers. It came out real good, my mom was very happy. It became a living dining kitchen as it's the room the family spends most of it's time.
  
  Part of it.
• In October, me and my fiancee visited Vienna, it's a nice clean place, with some idiosyncratic rules that I cannot comprehend. But the Schonnbrunn castle and gardens were beautiful. It had a really great and exciting market!
  
  The great and exciting market
  Also visited the ZOO there. It was on every ad in the city "See the elephant and the Panda!". Expectation vs. reality. We saw an elefants butt from afar, as it was entering it's building. They were locked away after. Then the panda, we saw it's back when it was chowing away on some bamboo. It was a once in a lifetime experience.
  
  Also, koala is the most depressing animal in the world.
• In December, I bought myself a Motorola Xoom. Previously I opposed both tablets and android. However android matured a lot for it's 4.1 version, and I found a use for the tablet reading manga and watching anime. The Xoom is a fantastic device, even by todays standard it's very fast and capable, I love it. (in fact, I write this post on it now)
  
  Xoom with factory portfolio case.

There were also some BGDs happening, they are always a lot of fun, great opportunity to meet my friends. I don't have a lot of them, but the few I have mean the world to me. Sometimes I feel lonely, so these events are so refreshing. Even got to see good old Tim once. The earlier pinnacle (at least for me) of every year, the Japanese camp, is greatly missed T;_T;

That was my year in a nutshell!
I don't even promise I'll write here more as that's futile ;p But I'll try, as it's sad to see the empty blog, and as Pheebs said, it's for us to look back on precious memories.

Mata ne!^^ And Happy Mew Year! ^o^/

PS.: a fun demotivational :P

{{ Pheebs }} New Year's Resolutions for 2013

Hmmm..

Let me start by saying that when I was about 13-14 years old, I read a book. It was the Flower of Life by Drunvalo Melchizedek... His take on the '2012 is the end of the world' is a bit different than you'd expect. Here is what he says:

- Although Dec 21, 2012 is the date of the end of the age in the Mayan calendar it does not mean anything spectacular is going to happen on that exact date.

- The Mayan elders say the calendar foretells Earth changes and changes in consciousness AND that they occur within a seven-year period of time around 2012.

Imagine the 13 year old me.. of course I believed him. So for a while, I didn't really think what would happen to me after 2012. Of course as I grew up, I realized I don't believe in this anymore and put it aside.. but when I wrote the title of this post, I realized I'm not sure what I'll be doing in 5 years from now, or even next year.

So here is a small list of the same kind of resolutions I usually put on this blog... with only one big life changing bullet point:

- move out, move out, move out. I feel that I need to get this over with in order to grow up, to start my adult life, to feel what it's like to take care of yourself, to feel the weight of money, to learn to cook etc etc. I need to fulfill this so much, that it bugs me when I sleep, when I'm awake.
The small ray of light that surfaced a few weeks ago might help me do it maybe in the 3Q2013... if it does not, I don't know how I'll cope with that. It's not that I don't like living at home... who wouldn't. It's just.. it's like I'm a pokemon that wants to evolve, but doesn't have enough space to do it.

- driver's licence. I'm halfway through guys, I'm nearly there. If only I wasn't so afraid that I destroy all humanity with the car I'm driving..
Getting this licence was never about actually driving for me. I kept having these nightmares when I sit in a car and want to escape or go somewhere, but I either can't start it, or start it but go backwards. And I was almost never able to steer right. I guess it's a metaphor for my life at this time. Although, the stupid little brainless me thought that maybe if I learn how to drive it wouldn't happen again (never realized it meant that I'm not able to go forward with my life...), it never occured to me that bringing my nightmare to real life isn't such a good idea. So yep.. every time I'm out in the practice field (not in traffic at this point, thank god!), it's a living nightmare. Thanks past Me...

- continue forming, helping the taiko band I play in. Our name became Nikko, as in sunlight in Japanese ( 日光 nikkou, we haven't decided on the writing yet.. but it might get a ' below the o to mark the u). Nikko's members are basically the players who started around February/March 2012 at Taiko Hungary. That formation split up in November and started anew.

- doing a taiko flashmob. We plan to do a flashmob (they have dance flashmobs, look it up in youtube. It means that the participants gather at one point of the city to perform something, but they appear one by one, giving the whole experience a kind of impromptu feeling, although I think it's well organized) with Nikko. The date is not planned yet, all we know is that we need good weather to do it :)

- get a caisa / hang drum. It's so awesome I can't put it into words. And expensive unfortunately. So I think I'll fail this :D nevermind

- get a PC, play Elder Scrolls Online!!

- persuade Nyekk and Padi to do the same :D hey, I need nakamas to succeed in this cruel world filled with monsters :DD

- get on the Japanese Learning train again. We neglected this hobby of ours in these last 1-2 years. I want to get back to it again.

- survive at work.

That's all folks, I hope I didn't bore you. borju lol...hm, speaking of borju, I'm hungry, I could eat a gyros :D

Pheebs, who is hungry

PS

Oh, oh!! and I want to find my way back to irc. I love irc!

{{ Pheebs }} New years resolutions 2012 - review

Hi guys,

These were the things I wanted to do this year:

- spend 9-10 days in Scotland (planning is already in progress though)


Done, and it was the best trip we ever had with Mom (not taking my massive migraine into account that occured on the day before we were supposed to left for home.. that was the worst day of my life..). We loved it so much, that I alread booked our flight and hotel for March, 2013. Edinburgh is the most beautiful city I have ever seen... everyone should be able to go and see it. Not to mention that the first few books of Harry Potter were born there :D

- keep up with running, loose weight

Failed. I know, I know, they say you always have time for things you really care about. But I just couldn't spare time to continue.. tv shows got too exciting :DD

- learn more about psychology

Done :) my urge to study about the mind is too interesting to ignore. The area I'm most interested about is neuroscience.

- keep my friends

This was a silly one. Not to mention that in one person's case, I think I failed it. But anyways, I think I kept my friends... at least the ones I really case about :)

- stay silly

Khm.... done?
- stay alive... you know, it's 2012 afterall... besides, if I ever get to revise my promises this time next year, I'm already there. and i will sing something along the lines: this was a triumph, I'm making a note here: huge success...

It's the 28th of December, and I proudly announce, that we have all survived the apocalypse. Good for us. And darn, I wanted to post a youtube video of that song on Facebook...

- keep a watchlist of the movies I watched/am watching/will watch (right now i only have one on imdb, that helps me keep track of what i want to watch, but it keeps changing whenever i can cross something out)

This watchlist became my diary.. as in.. I always wanted to keep a record, but got too lazy to actually do it. So no watchlist unfortunately. Although, a feature in the ImDB iPhone app gave me the option to put a calendar entry for upcoming movies, so it's nearly as good as a watchlist. No, not really... not good for movies I watched before. Donmai.

- move out   This project became an obsession of mine this last year. And I think it will bug the hell out of me until I actually move out. Well, at least I made a progress in this one, with a bit of luck, this time next year I'll be in posession of my very own flat. Let's hope it happens this time.. this moving out thing really started to grow on me.. so much so that there is not a day when I wouldn't think about it.. and I think it will leave a mark in my childish mind.   So that was a review of last year. Will do one for 2013 shortly.   Pheebs   PS: how funny... I didn't even have taiko on this list :D who would have guessed this time last year, that I'll be a part of a band :D not me.

{{ Pheebs }} Taiko story

Dear all,

I haven't post here lately.. I think my last post was in January. And I'm sorry about it. Mainly because now I can't read back and see how I saw the world for 8 months...


And this is exactly how long I have been playing taiko.

For those of you, who don't know this wonderful instrument, here is a snippet from wikipedia (because I'm lazy to write it myself):

Taiko (太鼓?) means "drum" in Japanese (etymologically "great" or "wide drum"). Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums, (和太鼓, "wa-daiko", "Japanese drum", in Japanese) and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming. The performances can last between 5 and 25 minutes. Modern taiko was established in 1951 by Daihachi Oguchi. He is credited with forming the first actual Taiko ensemble referred to as kumi-daiko and starting the modern popularity of Taiko performances.

For more info, check the wikipedia site for taiko.

For me (and I assume it is the case for every other taiko player out there), taiko is not just any drum.. yea, I love its sounds of course, but I also love how your movement and state of mind changes when you play, how it gets people together. It's a theatre show in itself.

So, in February, my friend mentioned that there was an open day at a local taiko assembly (just fyi, there are 3 groups at this time in Hungary: Kiyo-kito taiko, Ataru and Taiko Hungary)... and I was late with a day. So I mailed them and asked if I could visit one of their classes. And so my journey in this world began.

I got hooked at the first moment, and I'm still under its spell.

As it turned out, I was one of the first students, because the open day didn't really go that well. But with months passing by, the assembly (now known as Taiko Hungary) got bigger with new people joining our fun, and soon enough we started performing in front of real people (not just our reflection in the mirrors). We played at the park on Children's day, at HungExpo where the Mondocon was held, and at the opening of a local luxury hotel (which is so luxurious that not even the tv channels dare to say its name out loud [if you feel bitterness in my words, you are correct]). We also had a training camp and a workshop with a foreign teacher, and all this together shaped us into a really close and flourishing group. We not only enjoy playing together, we like each other's company and we are all determined to do this for a very loooong time.

Until this week.

Apparently, nothing lives forever. We started to feel that something was not quite right a few weeks ago, when the question 'if the group broke up, would you still want to play' popped up in one of our classes. I for one was quite shocked by this question. Today I know that the two heads of our group had and still has conflicting ideas about what is important for our group and how the group should operate. It doesn't really look like it's going to be solved.. and quite frankly, I don't know what to do to prevent the group from splitting up.

I have been in a very grim mood since Monday evening, and it's getting worse with the days. However, it seems that a small portion of the group already has a backup plan, which includes the rest of us who are in the group for the fun. So we, as a performing group are not yet finished.

Sorry for not posting good news after such a long time. I just felt that this blog, being my diary and all, deserved to share and store my feelings with you guys and future me (who needs to read this blog from time to time to remember the good and the bad old days).


Pheebs

{{ Pheebs }} Filmharmonikusok

The title refers to a Hungarian Orchestra... but this is a special orchestra, as they are performing movie soundtracks. As you can see on the pic, they are going to perform mainly soundtracks composed by John Williams (Star Wars, Harry Potter, E.T., Indiana Jones etc). So seeing this poster made me drool... and since my birthday is on the same week I asked for tickets for this concert from my parents :)

A dream of mine is about to come true, as I was always found of movie soundtracks, even to the point when I heard a new one and I could tell who the composer was (in case of John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Patrick Doyle, and a few Japanese composers).

So, Papp Laszlo Sportarena, here I come! :D

Pheebs