I took my mother yesterday to visit her sister, my favourite aunt. She has a really exquisite garden, but unfortunately the spring is not that advanced here yet to see it at its best. And I also have forgotten my camera, so I could only make pictures with my phone. Which sucks, but I think they still are worth looking at. Click for full size.
©Charly, all rights reserved.
Well, some of them are. Some are assholes and some are downright dangerous. And some are capable of formulating comprehensive (though not perfect) argument for their point of view. I must say that I too don’t find watching people kicking spherical object around the field for 90 minutes even remotely entertaining.
However if we take “normal” in this context to mean “not different from any other group of people” then I would say the title is completely correct. Assholes and dangerous people are in any and all human congregations. The compounding problem here is that while a dangerous footballer will at the worst hurt one o their fellows on the playing field, a dangerous person with a gun can do much more damage.
I think I could have a reasonable discussion with Matt Easton, author of this video and I think he missed slightly a good opportunity to enhance his point by not wearing his “Fighters Against Racism” T-shirt in this one.
To me this is another issue that is not clear-cut black&white. We have a saying in Czech “Když dva dělají totéž, není to vždy totéž.” – When two (persons) do the same thing, it is not always the same thing. It applies here.
The key difference is the attitude and intent. Weapon collectors will grumble about laws that restrict their hobby, but most of them will respect the law and for example limit their collecting to weapons of the type that is legal in their country and they will buy ammo and shoot only a the shooting range for example. They will not found and congregate in corporation-like organizations lobbying for complete abandonment of said laws . They will not amas a load of super-modern weaponry and pallets of ammo to go with it. They will hunt the rare, the peculiar, the unique pieces.
It is possible to appreciate weapons for their aesthetics and technical intricacy and enjoy learning the skills to use them without ever hurting anyone, or ever wanting to hurt anyone. And it is possible to pursue such hobby even in a country with strict gun laws – only, like in any other hobbies, other people’s needs have to be taken into account and respected.
We do not celebrate any religious holiday, but they are a good excuse for my mom to go on a gingerbread-baking spree. They are beautiful and delicious, and each year she comes up with new designs and styles. I do not know how she does it.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
This first in a series of human anatomy sheets that I have drawn during my studies. As future biology teacher I had to acquire some basic knowledge about most of biology – sort of jack of all trades, master of none. However our class was one of the last where human anatomy was taught by a prominent Czech physician and scientist Profesor MuDr. Jaroslav Kos. He was eighty years old at that time and it was showing, however he still was formidable and very strict. I failed my first exam miserably, I do not even remember what the theme of the examination was. I think brain stem? Nevermind, it took me two attempts to pass and for the second attempt I really sat and learned latin like my life depended on it. He did not even let me finish on my second attempt and waved me away with top grade after I described how nervus olfactorius consists of multiple separated fila going straight through lamina cribosa directly into the bulbus olfactorius of the brain. I forgot most of my medical latin over time, but I still remember this.
©Charly, all rights reserved. Click for full size.
A fun fact about spine – the “S” shape of our spine and all accompanying problems it brings stem from the fact that it originally evolved for movement in water and later on land with lateral undulations, which was later yet modified for movement on land on all four with vertical undulations, which was even later modified for upright movement on hind limbs only. The spine was definitively not intelligently designed for vertical posture and load bearing. Evolution has done its best, but that is always “just enough”.
©Charly, all rights reserved.
This is a coloured sketch to one of my paintings. I cannot unfortunately make a picture of the final painting, because I gave it to my brother who now lives 400 km from me. All the paintings I gave him are at the moment not fulfilling their function, because my sister in law has stashed them away. They “do not fit with the color scheme of their new appartment” which I did not take kindly, because they could keep the paintings during the renovations in mind if they wanted to. Click for full size.
A bummer – I have just reminded myself that a lot of my sketches are ruined or damaged. A few years ago I was reconstructing the roof and the workers have moved my stuff around without heeding my instructions. The impromptu cover was also built sloppily and my warnings that I live in very windy area were dismissed as needles worrying of an amateur. Inevitably the drawings were stashed under the impromptu cover which got ripped off in a gust of wind. And rain poured on them. I only found out a few months after they left, when everything was mouldy.
It would take a lot of time to airbrush it in Photoshop, so some of the pictures will unfortunately have maps on them.
These are my recollections of a life behind the iron curtains. I do not aim to give perfect and objective evaluation of anything, but to share my personal experiences and memories. It will explain why I just cannot get misty eyed over some ideas on the political left and why I loathe many ideas on the right.
Kids are kids everywhere, at least when they are not dying from malnutrition. In at least somewhat functioning society they like to play, run around and nag their parents with incessant questions about the mundane as well as the profound. “Mom, why is the grass green? Mom, why does rain fall down? Mom, what is a whore?”
Children in eastern bloc behind the iron curtains were not different. We liked to play and chat, and we did so whenever possible. But one thing that many children from that time shared, some more, some less was fear.
Fear of nuclear annihilation.
Later in life I learned that people in the West were afraid of those evil aggressive USSR commies who wanted to wipe them out and were held in check only by superior military power of magnificent NATO. Well, on our side of the border it was those trigger happy evil capitalists led by evil imperialist USA who were held in check by superior military power of magnificent Warsaw Pact. And in reality both sides committed war crimes and atrocities, there were no angels in the hot spots of the cold war.
Adults might have had their doubts and objections regarding the veracity of all this fear mongering, but for kids it was definitively all real. The regular “fallout drills” at school, regular alarm drills, signs how to react in case of nuclear attack hanging in every office. Once we were playing with my cousins in the garden and we heard a noise from the sky we did not know. What instantly gripped us was the fear that these are the nuclear missiles heading for Prague. Where I live this feeling was exacerbated by the very real presence of the iron curtains.
From every window of my house I see across the border to Germany. If I were to walk in a straight line in any direction from my property, I will end up in Germany within a day’s walk. Going mushroom hunting was allowed only in certain directions and certain areas of the forest were taboo. Big signs “Caution, State Border Ahead” everywhere. I still remember that one of the signs was riddled with bullet holes. The only time in my life I have seen a real thing riddled with bullets
And the curtains themselves…
Due to the signs and restrictions on movement, they were not usually seen in person and I never touched them. Mostly I knew they are there, somewhere in the forests. But the train track was driving very close o them, so whenever we were riding train to visit the inland, I could see them from the window.
Three meters high, double fence of razor wire. Roundup sprayed shooting corridors. And a macadam road for easy military access.
To a child, that was a terrifying sight. I loathe to see such structures being build again.
So. Testing, testing. Is this thing working properly?
Caine asked for some help with blog content and after a consideration I offered to do it. She has handed me the keys to her blog and I will do my best to not scratch it. Hopefully my blogging skills are better than my driving (you really would not like to lend me your car, and I would never accept it).
Most people reading this blog know me already from comments. So just very briefly who I am:
I am male, Czech, living in CZ. First third of my life I lived behind the iron curtains – literally. After it fell I graduated in teaching of biology and chemistry, and I also briefly studied psychology and arts. Currently I am working in Germany and in the course of my work I often find myself in situations like in YouTube sketch “The Expert“.
You are free to guess who I can relate the most with. I have already once said about one of my managers that he is an incompetent buffoon with whom I refuse to work. I expected to be fired after that, but instead the boot has hit his ass.
My hobbies are gardening, photography, woodworking and knifemaking. In the past I was also drawing and painting, but alas I do not have time for that anymore. But I hope to have again sometime and I will post some of my former works. I was not magnificent, but I have on occasion managed to do a decent job of it.
©Charly, all rights reserved.
Politically I am left of center in my country, but I would be considered to be a radical leftist in the USA.
I consider the most important skill to have to know when to shut up. It is also the most difficult skill to acquire and hone.