OBLIGATION TO JOY

(Or What Happens on Christmas)

Let me rant about this lovely holiday for a moment. Or about how overrated and blown out of proportion it is. We all know the streets light up in beginning of November (if the city leaders have some sense) or in October (if they don’t). There’s the shopping frenzy, the movies, true values are forgotten, yadda, yadda, yadda. Okay. This doesn’t bother me in and of itself. What bothers me is the fact that all this is supposed to make us happy.

“All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.”

   ~Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven

EVERY GHOST TOWN HAS A LIFE

(Or I Love My Stupid City, and I Never Even Knew)

Maribor, Slovenia.

It doesn’t seem like anything special. Truth to be told, it probably isn’t, just a town with its history and its present, with its strengths and weaknesses, bad roads, and so many cobblestones, and narrow allies that smell like piss.

The thing is...

Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one.

~-Johann Wolfgang Van Goethe

JUST NATIONS OF LIARS AND COWARDS

 (Or Why Do We Lie through Our Teeth All the Time)

When was the last time you told a lie? Yesterday? Today?

Not me, you might say. I don't lie.

But you do. If you're anything like the rest of the Western society, you lie, and you keep on lying.

How many times did you ask somebody how they were doing today? How many times did you answer the same question? And how many times was the "I'm doing fine, thanks" truthful?

THAT BLANK PAGE STARING AT YOU

(Or the Why, What, and How of (My) Blogging)

It sounds like an easy thing, the blogging. Simply open the page… and write something. Anything you want.

You take a moment. And you sit down and write.

HEROES WITH BEHAVIOURISTIC PROBLEMS

(Or What Does It Say about Our Society When the Heroes Act Worse than the Villains)

For those who know the movies, this rant has to do with MCU, specifically our war-friendly inhabitants of Asgard. With Thor the Dark World (and somebody explain to me why the German title is Thor the Dark Kingdom. That is so very German. Right. Makes perfect sense). I just have to rant about that because certain aspects of the movie (and the two movies involving Thor that came before) pissed me off beyond belief. I won’t go into details and discuss the plot; there is tumblr for that, and I’d be in danger of throwing up. Instead, I want to talk a little about how the plot reflects our society.

AND A PIECE OF AMERICA FOR ME, PLEASE

(Or the Little Things Foreigners Won’t Know Because Nobody Happens to Mention Them)

The movies, the books, even the music. Nowadays, almost every aspect of pop culture has something to do with America. Still, it’s impossible to know everything. Some things people just don’t tell you. Funny thing is, those details seemed to have stuck to my memory the most. So, what can an inexperienced tourist expect?

NO, 'RUNE' IS NOT THAT WORD YOU USE WHEN YOU CAN’T COME UP WITH ANYTHING ELSE

 (Or Why Must Authors Keep (Mis)using It.)

Yes, I am going to ramble about runes. Because I can. I like runes, I really do, even though I’m much too lazy to actually learn their meanings thoroughly and all… But at least I know most of them, and I know what runes are, and it annoys me to no end to see the expression tossed around in various works of fiction.

THE INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD OF FANS

(Or the Precarious Balance between War and Peace and How It Works)

It starts innocently enough. An interesting movie. A good series. A book you cannot put down. A day or two to ponder the things, the necessary internet search that follows, and you’re hooked, yet all is still well until that one crucial moment: you realise there are others like you.

Nowadays, ‘fandoms’—consisting of fan [fanatic] plus the suffix -dom, as in kingdom, freedom, etc.; a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterised by a feeling of sympathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest—are a common occurrence. Being a part of a fandom is great. It doesn’t end with “oh, we have a common interest, nice. So, what else do you like to do?” Seeing/reading the movie/series/book is just the beginning.