New beginning

Last work day of the year.

Sleepy, tired, but getting ready to relax.

Now, for some food.

From "No" to "Yes"

William Ury


"As the saying goes, when angry, you will make the best speech you will ever regret"

100

Klári, you would be exactly 100 today.

Superpower, 4:40 A.M.

Sneeze, sneeze, cough, cough

Designers + Cats = LOL

In Very Simple Terms

"Just to put it in very simple terms. It's a story about us, people, being persuaded to spend money we don't have on things we don't need to create impressions that won't last on people we don't care about."

Tim Jackson

Sugata Mitra: The child-driven education

Dear Sugata Mitra,

I hope you will continue with you work for a long time and will prove your point to many.

Thanks,

Cookies

I dreamt that I was working and developers kept coming over to my desk and asked me to clear my cookies. After a while I got annoyed with them for interrupting me. Also, clearing the cookies all the time made the other work I was doing a pain. So after a while I was fed up and told them that I will no longer clear my cookies.
I should really stop deraming about work.

Grandma's Old Fashioned Brownies*

• 8 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 4 tablespoons cocoa
• 2 eggs
• 16 tablespoons granulated sugar (if brown sugar, use more than 16)
• 12 tablespoons flour
• 8 tablespoons walnuts / almonds, etc.
• 1 pinch salt

1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Melt butter in microwave.
3. Add the cocoa and stir.
4. In medium bowl beat eggs until frothy.
5. Add sugar, flour, and salt (also nuts if you are using them).
6. Pour cocoa mixture over egg mixture and stir all together.
7. Put into a greased pan, bake for 30 minutes.

 
*From food.com

Tap Water Yes,

bottled water no.

This Guy

Hole-in-the-wall

Meet Sugata Mitra

Perhaps

Perhaps, maybe it might just get better. There were smiles.

Day

What a shit day. Let me rephrase that. What an utterly shit day.

Henceforward

Why would you choose feeling sorry for yourself when you could have the time of your life?

Tuscanyyy!

Tuscanyyyyyyyyyy!

Lessons For Me

If you are honest, people might not hear what you are saying.
If you stop talking for a bit they might call you autistic.
If you plan to fly to London you might end up in Prague first.
If you think small plastic flowers can't make you laugh you are just plain wrong.

Queue

Standing in a queue, waiting. At the grocery store, at the airport, tickets and pop corn, for my transaction to go through. Wasting time. Such a copious waste of time. People stand in the wrong queue, they just want to ask just one more question, they just picked the single one item in the store with the bar code wrinkled or half torn off. And then there is the argument about what’s on sale, but it was, for the life of God it was written on there, it’s three for two, no, it’s the cheapest, no, you cannot choose which one, no it doesn’t apply to the ones you have selected. And yes, you may leave them here, no, neither of us have heard of the word sorry, no, we do not care about the rest of them standing in the queue. Oh, yes, add the ignorance element and boredom quickly turns into hatred. All you really need is say, at least one female, nose sniffer and make-up adjuster behind that simply magical counter. Make the story about yesterday’s far from perfect date just a tad bit longer, let them wait, let them have all the details, they have time, you are on a break, it’s your right as a human being to have a break, after all, you work so hard, until the supervisor comes, you are at the top of the world, do you think she knew her shirt was totally see-through, what some men want, what some women want, just a sip more of my coffee, oh, it’s rubbish, why didn’t I take more milk, there wasn’t any more skimmed, why is that bloke staring at my tits, I hate it when they do that, hello, I have a face too, I am a human being, you know. Yes, I do work here, no, I haven’t noticed the frighteningly long queue I am supposed to be dealing with, no, I have no brain and don’t care either, when it hits 7 pm, love, I’m oughta here. Hey, mister, you can’t just leave you basket here, it’s full, it’s not my job to..., oh, sure, just, walk out. Oh well, next customer, over here, over here, nextplease. NEXTPLEASE, yes, YOU!

33

What a

fckd up day. But the end of it was good.

Can't Sleep

Deadlines

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."

Douglas Adams

What's going on?

People are breaking up. People are quarelling. What's going on? Is it the sun?

Yoga Again

Started bikram yoga again. Damn good for the body and the soul. Keep it up!

It's Raining Cats and Dogs, so...

introducing: the Rain Drum*
















* via hrl

Mike Ullmann

I will miss your smile, humour, love and caring.

PS

Variations on Danger*

*via hrl once again (Happy B-day!)

But then you find something in your inbox that makes you laugh*

* from hrl (thanks!)

What a Rubbish Night

Noises, smells, headaches, too warm, too cold, bad thoughts, noises, good thoughts, general emptiness, general fullness, sms, bird chirping, bathroom noises, pillow in the right place, pillow in the wrong place, sms, bird chirping, sore throat, thoughts, blanket unhappiness, ladidadida...

Happiness...

... in bed.*


*recommended by hrl

Triple Banjo

Hungarian Wave

Morning Laugh

Mapping stereotypes can be found here.*
Laugh your heart out. I did.

*recommended by hrl

Statistics

Tom Stoppard: The Real Thing

Go, see! It's been a very long time since I have seen real good theatre. And have laughed a lot too. Just puts you in a fine mood.

That 1 Black Square

PIXELS by PATRICK JEAN.
Uploaded by onemoreprod. - Watch original web videos.

News in the Morning

Sometimes no news would have been such good news. Indeed.

Hectic But Fun

The most hectic, most fun day. Hard work finally appreciated. Staying hopeful. Didn't miss my internal deadline either, to my honest suprise. Exhilaration helps a lot, being constantly on the go. It's sort of like being tipsy. Late dinner in East Dulwich with good people. Steak, yum. Toast to my first website launch.

Hungry times

Cold day today. It's spring, hello! Sleet tomorrow. REALLY?

Holiday

Just started work, now off to a holiday. Weird, but great.

Should write longer posts. But gotta pack, get ready, etc, etc.

On my list: longer posts.

The Curious World of Keyboard Shortcuts

They really are quicker, you just need to remember, them (that's the tricky part).

Tired and :-)))

First week done, learned a lot. I like the team, they help me loads (which I certainly couldn't do without). So now, off to bed with a book. Sweet, sweet dreams.

First Day

:-)

4 a.m.

Invest in the Process, Not the Outcome

I Believe in Creativity, #2

Autism and Adversity

One of the best ways to start the day: watch TED videos.

Temple Grandin: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds

Aimee Mullins: The Opportunity of Adversity

Bobby McFerrin Hacks Your Brain with Music

Bikram Yoga, 3rd Time

40 degrees, 26 postures, 90 minutes. Incredible amount of sweat, concentration and battling with yourself. Afterwards it feels like you are walking a few centimeters above the ground. Light, comfortable, positive.

Alice in Wonderland

Loved it!!!

Welcome:

Mr. Cs.-T. Benedek! :-)))

Truly Remarkable

Sleep on...

Lifted by Pixar.

I suppose

“It doesn’t make sense. But yes, I suppose it does.”
woman, mid 30s, on the train at Charing Cross

I believe in

A man walked up to me in Lewisham. I thought he was lost, wanted directions. But no. He asked me what I believed in. I thought about it a bit and replied:
"I believe in creativity."
That clearly took him by suprise and took him off his trail. As far as I could tell, he was trying to get me to meet the local buddha-jesus-messiah person to exchange some valuable thoughts about saving the terrible no-goal world we live in. He never got to deliver his pitch, nor did he make much sense. I guess he expected me to say I believed in one of the known religions or none of them at all, and any of those would have given him a clear path to start off of. Sorry, I was no help.
After a few minutes I wished him good luck and was on my way to the market.

Yes, Heart Shaped

No kidding: The World's Smallest Spontaneous Atomic Valentine*


*recommended reading by hrl

Heart Shaped

Did someone in marketing invent Valentine's Day?

Welcome to the World

Mr. Péter Boldizsár! :-)))

Dogsitting in Brixton

At my sister's house for a few days with her tiny white dog. She responds to food and play, but couldn't care less for cats. What are cats, anyways?

Augmented reality - an extended form of reality

Incredible what's out there. Watch, learn!

Clothes, Avatar, Business Card, Nearest tube...

Parisian Love

A search story.

Túrós táska

Guess who can make túrós táska in London? Against all odds... Okay, not yet from scratch, but getting there.

Rainbow Maker

The rainbow maker is making rainbows all around, quite diligently. Sunshine around here comes with a plus.

Live Long

Conductors

2 of us

It is just the 2 of us in the apartment again. Very strange.

Are you older than 25?

Wanted to buy beer today at Sainsbury's. I could see a question forming in the head of the cashier lady. Just wasn't sure what she'll come up with. She asked me whether I was over 25.

Hey, that's made my day. I said "yes and thanks for that." She smiled. I smiled.

I think it must have been my funny new hat.

Avatar

Definitely go and see, in 3D!

Angry

Angry day today. Like no other. Let's leave it at that.

JAM

Made jam for the first time.
Yesterday: 90 % strawberry, 10 % blueberry: 3 jars.
Today: 100 % plum (a kind of red): 8 jars.

In business!

Special thanks to Rebus for her assistance and to Kata and András for their professional advice.

Illustration Cupboard...

... is a lovely, small gallery near Green Park Station, across the road from the Royal Academy of Arts.
Exhibitions of original contemporary book illustration from around the world.

Headache!!!

Snow again or what?

Adverse

Today it took me 2 hours to get from one place to another. Normally, it is just a 15 minute train ride.
Due to adverse weather conditions. That's the slogan.
Trains are delayed, cancelled. Flights delayed, cancelled. It takes several hours, sometimes a half day to clean up an airport runway.

Sometimes your flight arrives to Gatwick, but is turned around and is on it's way back to Budapest.

Due to today's wet weather, please take extra care...
...it's just SNOW!

Never mind

Never mind.

Mr. Benn

Can't

Can't sleep. Why not?

Sleepy

Sleepy day. And some snow again to finish it off. Still no pumpkins.

Just in case

There are times when one loses one's hat. Then there are other times when one buys a new hat. And again, there are those times when one loses one's hat and buys not one, but two funny hats, just in case. Today it was one of those times. Yes, two hats, just in case.

Thinking Times

Missing Ingredient

Decided to make pumpkin soup, found a recipe that promised a delicious outcome. Made a check-list, trotted off to Sainsbury's. Pumpkins, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, leek, pepper, single cream. Easy. Guess which ingredient was out of stock. Pumpkin soup another time.

Tapaaas!

Nothing new to report. The good old, the same old. 4 plates full of yummy tapas. Stomachs full, farewell, good night.

Merry-go-round

Tonight, a small achievement: a merry-go-round ride on Leicester Square. I know it's not much, but I never ever go on any rides, anywhere, so don't ever try to convince me.

But it was something.

New year, ey?

Happy New Year!

Sleep, read, eat, sleep, read, eat, sleep...