Chill Over Camotes

Who needs more signs that the summer (dry season) is over than the pouring rains of the last few days? It just doesn’t wash away a substantial number of beach-bull-days, but some sidelines of income are getting scarce as well. I honestly don't like rain, who on earth loves it? At this time I was supposed to get half-drowned in the waters around Camiguin, or hide and curl myself up into a hammock (in between showers). But because my sister-in-law wasn’t sure she would join her officemates there, it got postponed. There’s still a silver lining left: Stephanie and I are planning to go to Apo Island or Camiguin, because her research and therefore her holiday here, is at its close. That’s another sad chilling thing. Right now, we’re just back on Camotes Island and the everyday routine. If you’re still having a long weekend, enjoy it! Image by Photobucket/akay877

The Corn And The Cuckoo

Because of a tight budget, the mishap of some left cooked wheat and the use of rollers in the hope to get long sheets of dough, flakes was what people ended up with. And for those cornflakes John Harvey Kellogg got a patent on the 31st of May 1884. Being the superintendent of a Michigan sanitorium, sweet and spices were not served because they were regarded to increase passion. But there’s an even more bizar twist. He recommended his flakes in combination with circumcision of males and application of pure carbolic acid on the clitoris, to prevent masturbation. I get a ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ feeling here. And next time when I crunch some flakes I add an extra portion of sweets and will give hubby a ‘certain look’. Image by Photobucket/derGoela! 

Say Cheese

My friend Stephanie arrived from her 5 days of holiday in Banaue and Baguio the moment I arrived on Cebu Island. She and her boyfriend invited me for dinner, I gratefully accepted but felt ashamed because I was late. I was stuck in some horrible traffic jam due to a big fiesta near their place. When I arrived late at 8.30pm dinner instantly started. And I have to thank Steph and Jo for the German/Dutch dinner they prepared! I honestly loved it, but could not say which part was Dutch, and which part was German! It’s because of my stomach problem, or else I would have taken seconds. Unfortunately there hasn’t been taken any picture because we all were too hungry and too tired to think of such thing. Let’s not forget to say ‘Cheese’ next time! (and a camera on the table) Image by Photobucket/wendypoo_27

Divine Dare-Devil

Joan of Arc (1412-1431) with the permission of the infant French king-to-be forced the English army to raise the siege of the city of Orleans in the 100 Year War between the French and English that devastated the whole of northern France. She accompanied the boy to his inaugeration, got captured on the 23rd of May 1430 and sold to the English. Accused of heresy and burned to death on May the 30th 1431. Since then she has inspired many painters, writers, (pop)musicians, directors and even a political right wing French party. But all far too romantic paintings and almost hilariously ridiculous drawings didn’t show me a convincing face. This young girl must have been a pain-in-the-bishops-butt. This Maid of Orleans was out of the ordinary. She jumped off towers, cut her hair short, dressed like men, and her eyes must have showed some hell of a fire. Then the Irish pop singer Sinead O’Connor came in my mind, and for some reason my lips pursed and my head nodded ‘yep, that’s her alright’. Image by Photobucket/misshiss2005

The Kola Jive

On the 29th of May, 1893, the first promotion of Coca Cola appeared in a newspaper. Since then, this mixture of sugar, orange juice, lime juice and vanilla has spread around the world. Maybe its sales so far equals the amount of all the ocean water on this planet? Not all ingredients are still the same, or known. It’s said that only two people have access to the secret formula. The cocaine of the early days got removed of the leaves around 1900, and the caffeine from the kola nuts reduced. I tried to find the most wow-thing of all the commercial depictions ever made for this beverage. The most remarkable of my findings is this miniature screen, more than likely a promo from the 1920s or 30s, according the fashion that is noticable. The Charleston Age, Roaring Twenties? Almost a too sophisticated world for such a sticky drink. And I can’t remember ever having seen a film about this period with people drinking it...Where’s my copy of The Great Gatsby, to see if I’ve missed the Kola Jive?! Image by Photobucket/9578

Big Apple's Icon

On the 28th of May 1930, New York’s favorite icon, the Chrysler Building, in competition with a neighboring rival project, raised a secretly constructed spine in barely 90 minutes to finally surpass the competition, and become the worlds tallest structure of those days of more than a 1,000 feet. Architect William van Alen’s Art Deco stainless steel Jewel in the Crown got at that height within two years in a pace of four floors per week, without any mortal accident. Where its rather recently renovated interior is a time capsule that brings you 70 years and more back in time, its well known exterior has a few less known features. Chrysler’s car ornaments like eagles (71th floor) and radiator caps (31st floor) are used, and always remind me of the gargoyles of the Notre Dame in Paris. Thanks to films like Godzilla, Spider Man and Deep Impact, I know them. Another film celebrity, King Kong, must have lost his sense for direction, he climbed the Empire State Building, if my memory serves me well. But maybe he knew that was the highest tree of the Big Apple when he got there? What would he have done, changed his mind, seeing this Margaret Bourke-White working atop in 1934? Image by Photobucket/JenniferG1973

A Jolly Good Fella

May the 27th, the birthday of Jamie Oliver (1975), Naked Chef (a reference to the simplicity of his recipes) celebrity, enfant terrible, culinary prince of the British Isles who dusted the greasy corners of many a kitchen, re-introduced fun in cooking with a boyish bravura and a sense of adventure. Scootered down a few Holy Houses. Got smiling faces in joyful anticipation around the dining tables again. May his lispy lips accompany his favoured fingers many more a dish! Cheers Olli! Image by Photobucket/pinx010590

Carousel Of Life

In the Carousel of Life things can get spinning round a bit too fast, like the current weather here: one moment it’s sunny, the next it’s raining. Some words that were meant to set light on a particular matter, have made people to open their umbrellas. I better give free rein to my own horsie! Image by Photobucket/charmpete

Giant With A Grin

May 26th, the birthday of the man who got nominated for The Worlds Greatest Entertainer by people like Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Mick Jagger and Elvis Presley; Al Jolson (1886-1950). Most remembered for his ‘Black Minstreled Faced’ performance of the song ‘Mummy’, the first recording of the human voice in ‘The Jazz Singer’ (1927) the very first -talkies-, films with sound. He got honored on the day he died by Broadway, turning off the lights for ten minutes, but oddly enough there seems not to be any statue or sign to remember him. Image by Photobucket/dorianholmes87

Triumph Of Tux

Where fashion of today has become more and more free of very restricted and sometimes rigid rules, there are still special occasions in a lifetime we more or less fall back to a dress code. Think of weddings. And because we’re not used to know them anymore, we might be baffled and feel insecure. No wonder with all those rules for the right kind of coat, shirt, trouser, tuxedo, cufflinks, bow ties, vests, cummerbunds. And that is just the Men’s Department. Despite all the fuzz, to get them in those outfits, don’t men look smarter somehow? Image by Photobucket/ichabodmine

Bravo, Brilliant Brillante

It seems that the young Pilipino director Brillante Mendoza has won the Golden Palm of Cannes 2009 for best director of the film ‘Kinatay’. As far as I know, the plot is about a boy who wants to marry his girlfriend, needs extra cash for it, accepts a ‘special’ assignment -it doesn’t sound it’s going to be a happy ending- but nevertheless, brilliantly done, Brillante! Image by Photobucket/emiratespalace

Australian Answer

Sorry Day, the 25th of May, is in Australia a remembrance of the mistreatment of the Aboriginal people and not only to the children involved in the so-called Stolen Generations: the taking away of children from Aboriginal families. As far as I know, Australia is the only western nation that has institutionalized a gesture like this to the, once, pushed aside native population. Although there’s still controversy among many people about the intention for these removals and the results of them, I think the admittance itself is honorable. Image by Photobucket/deadrose110

Old Beans, New Buttons

People get accustomed to many things, sometimes in a fashion that their memory fails short to recall the ‘old days of without’. With the speed of light, cell-phones are one of those things. Not that long ago portable phones were anything but portable. Think ghetto-blaster sized monsters. It seems to have been Toys of Business Boys, according pictures out of some dusty magazines of the 70s. I wonder where those guys left it after the call....in their pants, to impress the ladies? Even the thinnest, refined and latest is already showing fatigue, because the concept of a communication device woven into fabrics has been seen already on the drawing-boards years ago. One of these days, you literally can ‘push the button’ to say hi, and pull your earring to make a picture. And if you got the latest by then: by a wrinkle of your nose! Got the picture? Image by Photobucket/hh263 

Hint Of History

On the 23rd of May 1934 (the Big Depression) the four years of Bonny and Clyde’s violent visits to banks, shops, gas stations and a dozen or so murders in the southwest of the USA came to a hold. Ambushed and machine-gunned in a relentless shower of bullets. The 1967 Arthur Penn’s ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway is a classic among films, but rather romanticized. Unknown to me is the 1937 version ‘You Only Live Once’ starring Henry Fonda. I’m curious if the next B&C of which the shooting starts on location in July, with pop-singer Hilary Duff, will do justice. Ironically, the Bonnie and Clyde Museum manager is L.J. ‘Boots’ Hinton. He's the son of Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton, one of the six lawmen who swiss-cheesed Bonnie and Clyde and their stolen Ford V-8 on the road to Gibsland. It’s getting even thicker: he’s also on the committee that runs the annual Bonnie and Clyde Festival. So, while you’re reading this, he must be a busy man. In the recent Cash Crash, banks have not the stainless reputation and people lose their homes, jobs and future, once more. Let’s hope that desperate youngsters won’t make history repeat itself, and will take the car to see the latest B&C instead of becoming their successors. Image by Photobucket/beefsoup

Have A Cigar

Today, 22nd of May, is the birthday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), physician and writer of Sherlock Holmes. While waiting for patients to come, he started to write what would become an icon. And the first appearance of the detective with the cape and pipe was in 1887. Known for his sharp reasoning and drawing large conclusions out of small observations. Such as his findings coming from an inductive study of different kinds of cigar ashes... that brings me to another 22nd of May, this time the year 1998. The day that a judge ruled that secret service agents could be compelled to testify in the Monica Lewinsky Scandal. I wonder what Sherlock Holmes would deduct from all the betrayal, perjury, denial and obstruction of justice that came to surface in Monicagate? His creator might have had a soft spot for fairies, but Holmes falling for blue eyes? I doubt it. We likely would hear his famous remark, after the baffled question of how he did solve the case:-’elementary, my dear Watson!’- Image by Photobucket/sandy_morgan

To Dig Digits

Missing the Moment of the Day, because some battery ran empty out of a sudden, we possibly all have experienced. Sometimes it’s really bad luck: with all systems ‘running nicely’, the next moment, all comes to a full stop. The interrupted call while you’re on your way to something or someone, is such a moment. Having a great time with some friends, shooting some pictures, and your compact flash card is full to the brim. That’s a second. I’ve experienced that a lot. Main reason for the latter inconvenience is that more members of my family use the camera. My clever idea was to have a second card with me, instantly available, till I always misplaced this one. Such a flimsy thing in my enormous bag! Ok, it’s my absentmindedness, and the lack to Dig Digits to blame for as well! Image By Photobucket/JLBoco

Skirting Kites

Originally there was another post for this day, till I found out it was Ascension Day today! And very likely most of you are having a long weekend? Having your wife, (girl)friend, hubby, kids, dogs for a stroll on the beach? And let it all hang out? Not a bad idea at all! I hope the picnic basket is loaded with yummies, the beach soft and sandy, the sky with no ill-wind and your mind worry-free! Image by Photobucket/Necronaunts

In High Spirits

The 20th of May was the birthday of Hawaian singer/entertainer Israel Kamakawiwo’ole (1959-1997). If that name doesn’t ring a bell to you, you might have heard his version of Judy Garland’s ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ at the end of the film ‘You’ve Got Mail’ with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It’s also the day that, in 1927, Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) took off at 7.52 am, in his Spirit of St. Louis for the first ever solo flight over the Atlantic from New York to Paris. It took him 33 hours, sitting in his open cabine, wet or shine, to get his wheels on French soil at 10.22 pm the following day. I don’t know the weather conditions of those days and night, but during his flight he might have appreciated Israel’s ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’. To keep the Spirit up! Image by Photobucket/jesusfreak112288

Dazzling Dandy Day

Grace Mendoza was born on the 19th of May 1952, or 1948, or 1954. If that sounds a bit weird to you, her artist name will explain a lot: Grace With-More-Than-One-String-To-Her-Bow Jones. Known for her extravagant looks and stage acts. For her 1981 Nightclubbing album and performance in the 1985 James Bond’s A View To Kill. And apparantly busy with a successful come-back. This 19th of May is also the day (in 1897) that the Irish writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) got released after been accused of ‘gross indecency’. Both being seen (with or without reason) as highly inflammable, dandy’s, flamboyant, extravagant, bi-sexual and aversed to the conventional, together they would have been a guarantee for spectacle on the stage. Image by Photobucket/nicoole53

Temporal Times

71 years minus 1 day after the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics got opened, the 18th of May, is the day the very first woman who became Olympic champion 100m, Betty Robinson, died. Robinson ran her first 100m just a few months before, on March 30th 1928, aged 17. She finished second only to the American record holder. She matched the world record in her next race. At the Amsterdam Olympics, her fourth 100m competition, Robinson reached the final and won. It were the Olympics were Johnny (Tarzan) Weissmuller won two gold medals in swimming. She was the inaugural Olympic champion in the event, since athletics for women had not been programmed before, and its inclusion was in fact still heavily disputed among officials in those days. Especially when the 800m ended with several athletes being completely exhausted. Because of this, running events for women longer than 200m were not included in the Olympics until the 1960’s. 

Robinson was severely injured in a plane crash. She was fortunate to recover, but missed the 1932 Olympics. Another 4 years later, still unable to kneel for a normal 100m start, Robinson was part of the US relay team at the 1936 Olympics, to win her surprising second Olympic title. Her winning Olympic 100m time back then, 12.2 seconds, wouldn’t have been enough to qualify for a second round in Beijing 2008 (just a modest 58th place), where Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser made the stopwatch show a golden 10.78 seconds. Image by Photobucket/MLK01_ME

Hallmark Of The Horn

If the piano is the icon for classical music, the saxophone stands for All That Jazz. The first is, ofcourse, the oldest musical instrument of the two, but the sax got an official birth certificate on the 17th of May 1846. And that’s much older than some people think. At the very young age between 15 and 20, the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax (1814-1894) accomplished improvements for the bass clarinet, the French horn and several flutes. At the 1841 Paris Expo he showed the so-called sax horns. Which got the compliments of Hector Berlioz in 1842. After that the whole range of saxophones, from soprano to bass, was exhibited. The unmistakenable sound of the Horn made its introduction to the world. Image by Photobucket/music_man199

Radiant Reflection

The Inuit people must have been the first who invented ‘sunglasses’ made of flattened ivory seeing through narrow slits to block sunlight reflected on snow and ice. 12th century Chinese judges seem to have worn some kind of glasses, to conceal their facial expressions while questioning witnesses. In the days of the Silent Movie, actors, facing very strong lamps due to the extreme slow speed film, were wearing them to prevent, or to hide their red eyes, not to avoid recognition in the streets, as was suspected. That trick became second nature with later generations. And not just actors, because, aren’t we all hide sometimes behind dark and reflective ‘shades’, ‘specs’, ‘geeks’, ‘cheaters’, ‘glares’ and ‘sunnies’? From body-guards to bomber-pilots and from blind people to black-eyed? For professional or fashionable reasons, we all have them. But when they protect and cover our eyes (the windows to our soul) do they expose, tell something of the mood and nature of that soul, I wonder, while watching myself, in the reflective glasses of my opposite neighbor... Image by Photobucket/casey6549

Convenient Cattle

Let’s not beat about the bush, and kick in the door-of-delusion: the majority of people has become Convenient Cattle. Is that a too bold a statement? Maybe. But how many times do you take the car for that one mile, instead of walking? The escalator, instead of the stairs? And maybe these two are easily avoided, but what about the tv’s remote-control? That’s getting harder, right? Maybe, we are a bit lazy-on–the-side as well, all things considered. With the overwhelming amount of options offered, the choice what to pick, and when, can leave out the why a bit too hasty. What ingredients exactly are in that package of instant-whatever-you-fancy? Have you ever wondered what all those codes and peculiar names really stand for? Why they’re there? What they do, once been taken in? Whatever those bragging advertisements and reviews might say: best car, best home cinema system, best diet pills or best buy, always check out if you doubt! Don’t swollow without thinking! Image by Photobucket/mangrenade

Panties And Parachutes

On the 15th of May 1940, nylon stockings got on sale for the first time in the USA. Selling 72,000 pairs on the first day, and 64 million the very first year. Women lined up for them. But it wasn’t the first nylon product on the market, that was the toothbrush in 1938. As far as I know, any line up for this novelty has ever been noticed. Because of the second world war, silk was impossible to get and got replaced by nylon. Not for some fancy fashion, but for parachutes, tires, tents and the like. Because of this, nylon, in its turn became very scarce after 1942, even in the US. The more reason that nylon stockings became a ‘warm welcomed’ gift for GI’s to British women. This gift was always in pairs, because the 1-piece panty-hose we know today wasn’t available sooner than the 1960’s. Surprisingly it might be, but stockings were originally and exclusively a male piece of apparel, till the 17th century. Think of Shakespearian plays. With Cole Porter’s words: “in olden days a glimpse of stockings, was looked on as something shocking, now heaven knows: anything goes”. Image by Photobucket/lilly_yemanja

Awards Ahead

The awards given to me, got me off guard and like icing on the cake, my cheers were topped with a malfunction of the system. Result: a half finished awards draft/post, that doesn’t do any justice to the awards and the generous people behind them. So, for now I got them removed, but I’ll show (asap) all the awards given to me so far, like candies in a jar! But I keep the lit on top: they’re all mine! Except a handful of them, so, will the following bloggers open their hand, mouth or blog (to their own liking) to get one? Image by Photobucket/simplycardstock_DT

Healthnutwannabeemom
Positivemen
Margie and Edna Basement
Confessions of a Fitness Diva
Bill
Gem

A Kittle Cattle

Tourists being hostaged in their hotels, or arriving back home and then secluded in hospital rooms by people wearing protective masks, made me think of May the 14th 1796. Edward Jenner, an English country doctor (realizing that the local story of the Pretty Milk Maid who got infected by cowpox, but because of this, protected from contracting the much more dangerous smallpox) could be true, infected the 8-year-old James Phipps in the same manner as used with smallpox inoculation of those days (but people remained walking timebombs, infecting everyone who was around, till the inoculation had done its course) with the cowpox. The boy contracted cowpox and recovered safely after six weeks. Then Jenner applied the standard smallpox inoculation, that made the boy totally unaffected! Showing that cowpox had made him immune to smallpox! Inoculations have become standard nowadays. Tuberculosis, rabies, cholera and typhoid, once all killers, can be treated or even avoided. But the day will come another Kittle Cattle will be lurking around. And that day might be sooner than we think. Image by Photobucket/RobertSchumann

Spades And Thieves

I’m a bit late with today’s post..., so was captain Arthur Philip who left England with 11 ships full of convicts (most of them petty thieves from London) on May 13th 1787 and set sail to establish a penal colony in Australia. Till 1780 it was a convenient way for the British government to send them to the America’s to get rid off ‘unwanted groups’ in society from youngest-sons-without-heritance to prostitutes, political pain-in-the-necks and vagabonds. 8 months later, the crew, officers and some soldiers together with 778 desperado’s without much farm or technical skills came on shore of New South Wales. The first digging and pitching tents started in what would become the city of Sydney. Image by Photobucket/carollin5

Lady Of Lang Syne

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) as a toddler in 1820-1822, I can hear you ask if that picture is genuine, was photography already there? I’m charmed by the idea that it could be her standing there: the Lady With The Lamp-to-be, because there was a chemical process (making use of light sensitive but fragile material) that made (not long lasting) pictures possible, and affordable to the upper classes, in which Florence Nightingale was born. On May the 12th, the reason of today’s blog. With that background she was expected to become an obedient married wife, but strongminded as she was, she rebelled and chose for a career in nursing. She was sent to the Crimean War in 1854 to be confronted with an official indifference, overworked badly equipped medical staff, fatal infections and lack of hygiene. Next to a relentless dedication, it were her skills for statistics and administration that got the mortality rate down with 40%. For some reason, I always connect the film ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ with her name. Actually she was on the Crimean Peninsula when this charge took place. Back in England, in 1857, she promoted the nursing profession and organization. Advised the Unionists at the outbreak of the American Civil War. Ironically, after 1896 she wasn’t able anymore to leave her bed. For 14 years that was her remaining world. It’s thought she suffered from manic depressions or immense tiredness. Image by Photobucket/khok1

Temporary Twitch

This very early morning I got up with enough adrenaline to start the laundry, but I wasn’t able to finish it, that big a heap it was. A call in the afternoon from Stephanie, a Dutch girl I met lately here on the island, was telling me she was back from her long weekend. And if I was interested in hanging around Harbor View Resort and Puertobello Resort for a couple of hours? In the corner of my left eye that heap of laundry was staring at me… I stared back, and it shrunk, or maybe it was a temporary black-out. Anyway, we had those hours, and on top of that an invitation for a drink or two. Which I declined, because I had some catching up to do with blogging. And me blogging after a drink or two... Image by Photobucket/abrildos2003

Meadow's Maddest?

It’s nothing but swines these days, swines and flu! But do you still remember the Mad Cow Disease? Tens of thousands and more had to be killed to prevent an outbreak beyond control. Tens of people died. I admit not to be a vegetarian, I do eat beef, pork and poultry, and I’m not an expert in transmittable diseases, but the way we keep and transport these animals, with disrespect and sheer lust for profits, couldn’t that be one of the reasons why we’re facing all this, again? Image by Photobucket/snowcone45

Remember the Asian Flu? How many people died, I don’t recall. I’m Asian myself, I know the ways of transport here are imposed and very often ordinary people can’t change that. But is that really an excuse for this kind of transport? Animals have to get sick this way... Image by Photobucket/coreyburke

or this way... And don’t think that it’s better in the West, but those pictures are too horrible to show, so I started with a funny one. Telling a joke is good, even in serious matters, look at Obama: a big smile for his crack about Hillary and the kiss of flu. I couldn’t find a picture with a cow in it being transported on a motorbike anyway! Jokes apart: aren’t most of us the Meadow’s Maddest? Should we really be surprised, if not indignant, when nasty things jump on us while we keep on treating animals like that? Image by Photobucket/hoorenga

Mother's Finest Chunks

To honor mothers has been a long and widespread tradition. The holiday as we know it today, is a rather recent one. And for the ‘mother’ of this holiday, Anna Jarvis, who got it on the map in 1912, a big disappointment, to say the least. Even in her days she was strongly against the commercialization by what she wrote in a press release, criticizing the flower industry: ‘charlatans, bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers and other termites that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest and truest movements and celebrations’. To her, writing a personal letter was the only way and sending postcards was out of lazyness. Her protest in 1948 was that strong that she got arrested for disturbing the peace. That same year she died, after been confined to a nursing home, penniless and childless. The bills had been paid, without her knowledge, by the very same floral industry she so strongly opposed to. She’s buried next to her mothers grave. The woman she respected so much, she liked to honor her immensely. I’m pretty sure that she would have appreciated a home made apple pie, that always reminds me of the way mum’s used to bake them: not those flimsy fancy flutters on a scaring empty plate, but a real whopper with real chunks of apple to chew on and a smell of cinnamon that makes you smile! Image by Photobucket/mpkrider88

No Bail For Burning

Because of Mother’s Day, I post this one now, I don’t want the smell of burned books spoil the smell of freshly baked apple pie. On May the 10th 1933, Nazi’s started to burn those books, that like the Degenerated Art, were despicable to them. Quoting Heinrich Heine’s words of a century earlier: ‘...when they burn books, they’ll end in burning human beings’, a civilisation that allows this burning to happen is under threat. It wasn’t the first or last time. In 212 BC, Qin Shi Huang Di, the first emperor of China, the one of the famous Terra Cotta Army, advised by his cancellor, ordered that all philosophy and history books from states other than Qin origin, except the copies in the imperial library, had to be burned. And in our time among others, the Satanic Verses by Rushdie (1989) got on the stack by Muslims, and the same happened to the Harry Potter books (2001) by American Christians. To me, all what these people do, who lit those fires, is chasing ghosts or monsters in their own limited labyrinth, and accusing others for not joining them. Image by Photobucket/mapichai

Sloppy Seconds, Sloppy Safety

The chain of defence is as strong as its weakest part. If you get sloppy around or in the house once every while, when it becomes a habit that you’re not really aware of, you better watch out! Because some people might be watching you! And hit that weak point at the right moment (for them). Then whatever sophisticated home alarm you got, it won’t be able to do its work properly! A regular walk with a critical eye in and around your house could give you simple but sufficient tools to help, like getting in those things outside that can be useful to get in your house. Driving around a residential area you might be amazed what’s available to get into those homes! And I’m not talking frontdoorbells here! Image by Photobucket/akucing

Two Firsts, Two Birds

On the 9th of May 1994, Nelson Mandela was inaugerated as South Africa’s first black president. Having been ‘well seasoned’ on Robben Island, he had the right mixture for presidency at the time. It makes me wonder, and look over the Atlantic now: there have been passed a hundred days or more since the USA has got its first black president... I really can’t tell yet, if they got a Dove of Destruction or an Eagle of Enlightenment watching the sky over there. Image by Photobucket/1985aryat

Feet Up, Florida Awaits!

If you ever got bold ideas to pack and book a holiday for a team of people, in character running from the fearless to the reflective, you might have stopped out of a sudden, and sat back to think again? Not a surprise, because it’s a daunting enterprise to find a destination that will suit them all, and a place to accommodate them all. Florida is such a place, with names like Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios for the outgoing. A string of beaches, numerous swimming pools and tennis-courts for the energetic. Meanwhile, the laidback will be pleased with all the silence that surrounds them! There’s a kind of master key, a magic word to get this all cracking: Westgate. And if you don’t like Florida for some reason, you’ll get lucky in Missouri, Nevada, South Carolina and Tennessee, with that same name! Image by Photobucket/dj_revil

Shapes Of Salvage

With 97 million volunteers the Red Cross is an impressive ‘army’ to stand up for first aid in case of disasters of natural or human origin. Until the second half of the 19th century there wasn’t such an army nursing system. It took Henri Dunant witnessing the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino, his persuasive appeal to the locals to help the victims without discrimination and his 1862 book ‘A Memory of Solferino’ to lead to the First Geneva Convention of 1864. The Red Crescent appeared when the Ottoman government used it for the first time in the Russo-Turkish War (1876-1878), because it was believed that the red cross could have alienated the Muslim soldiers. Instantly on the battlefield it was respected, and became officially recognized in 1929. Less known is the Red Crystal; the neutral protection symbol that got officially aknowledged in 2006. And hardly seen since the 1980’s, Iran is still allowed to use the Red Lion with Sun. Whatever the symbol, it’s the content that counts. Have a save World Red Cross Day! Image by Photobucket/odinpatrick

Boredom Beaten

The 7th of May 1998 was the day the iMac was introduced, and boredom was kicked out of the offices, schools, museums and studies. Even the backside was done with an eye for detail and looked great. Colleague Friendly one might call it. Several generations of iMacs have followed, but this first generation has never been topped in the fun of entertainment or, even more important: the pleasure in working. Image by Photobucket/ittierre1 

Birthday Birds Blog

This 6th of May is the day that the Eiffel Tower was officially opened to the public at the Paris 1889 World Expo. Since then 200 million people have climbed Paris’ icon, making it the world’s most visited (paid) monument. Not bad for a structure that was meant for the Barcelona 1888 Expo, but was turned down because it was seen as an expensive, strange looking feature, not fitting to the city. It’s also the Birthday of George Clooney (1961). I tried to find a picture of G.C. together with E.T, to Kill Two Birthday Birds with One Blog, so to speak, alas. But my attempt has got me close, right? Ohh, I can’t tell you the address (of C. or of the used models) to send all the boxes of chocolate to, but I can give you my address, I won’t mind, I’ll take care of them! Image by Photobucket/Strangesoundslv

Wheel Of (Mis)Fortune

I’m just dropping in the caf, grab a seat, for a Take Five in my search for a replacement of my car engine’s cooling fan. It doesn’t look good, and I mean the prospect of finding one as well as the old fan: some shit must have hit it. I desperately need one to get my touring bussiness running! You might call it a Wheel of Misfortune. Well, we can’t be all Lucky Dogs, I guess! See you soon guys! Image by Photobucket/hesmylobster

A Midwives Miniature

This International Midwives Day got me started to write a few lines of this, perhaps truly first profession? In ancient Egypt, midwifery was a recognized female occupation, according documents on papyrus dating from 1900 to 1550 BC. Dealing with matters such as obstetrics, gynecology and the birth prognosis of the newborn. Amazingly different styles of birth chairs are mentioned in them as well. If you ever wander around the Luxor Temple, you’ll discover plenty of midwives depicted. Very often women seem to have delivered sitting up (the picture above depicts a Pre-Columbian miniature, I guess, I'm not sure) while we are accustomed to lie down. I wonder when that changed and why. An 1887 drawing shows a Sioux woman giving birth standing up facing her husband. So, it’s not very typical of our days either, that dads-to-be are present during labor and give a helping hand. Surprising was to find out the various levels of appreciation for midwives during the centuries and cultures. From being (almost) equaled to men, to occasionally been prosecuted for witchcraft in Medieval times, based on their knowledge of herbs and potions (they used them for the pain of labor at a time when the church held that pain in labor was the Lord's just punishment for Eve's original sin). How out of this world can one get? But it’s not totally mad if we know that not even 50 years ago people got killed for wearing spectacles in the presumption they were intellectuals and therefore ‘dangerous’! It’s a Weird World where midwives lay their hands on new life, time and time again! Image by Photobucket/senrei76

The Circle And The Square

The May 4 Movement in 1919, was an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal intellectual movement, aiming for the introduction of western concepts like democracy, science and technology. Students demonstrated against the Japanese aggression on Tiananmen Square (evoked by the Paris Treaty that handed over Chinese territory to Japan). They got imprisoned but were released after huge pressure. Later disappointed intellectuals became part of what would become the communist movement. Years and generations later, it were the communist dinosaurs who got the student demonstration of Tiananmen Square in 1989, that lasted almost two months, between March the 13th and June the 4th, crushed. Students and workers all over the country were once more on the barricades for more democratic reform. The Square was cleared of any sign that would even hint to what happened. There was one single man who tried to stop the rolling in tanks with his own life becoming the never fading image of courage, the very next day. In the aftermath people got arrested, and the international press banned. Till this day no-one knows if the dead rate was 200 or 2,000. How many got injured or disappeared. Including the Tank Man. The ‘Gate of Heavenly Peace’ is heavily monitored ever since. The vicious circle around a square has closed. Today it is May the Fourth, Youth Day in China, to celebrate the next generation to make the nation a better place… Image by Photobucket/danielshay

Dancing And Dropping

It can’t be all Doom and Gloom, unbutton yourself, let it all hang out (a bit). There you are...isn’t that feeling good? Let’s have the bad spirits danced away or walk like the Egyptians. Burn some lazy calories. Get our brains freed of cobwebs. Thanks for dropping by. Wish you all a nice sunday morning/afternoon/evening! Image by Photobucket/LucyRed6

Invasive Ingredients

To use, with all the best intentions, the ingredients that are known for their nutritious or wholesome qualities, is not a guarantee for a four-star-meal. If it’s food that’s concerned. But this is also the case with many other things. Seaweed, for instance, we know from the mouth watering scrumptious sushi, and that it’s used in, for instance, soap and beauty masks. So, without a doubt, many good things can be said about this use of seaweed. If manufacturers are able to contain these qualities in their product: by all means. Even when they got names like Apidexin. Go ahead. But being very aware of what you’re doing is common sense. I know someone who’s allergic to kiwi, and the smallest portion of it, used in some tasty dish would make her terribly ill. Like her, ask or read about the used ingredients, there might be side-effects lurking around for you! Image by Photobucket/ExquisiteSalonAndSpa

Relay Of Life

With all the available today’s tools of communication, language, if it’s the spoken or written word, or the image, won’t be easily lost, but most of the time received and passed on. In the days of Marathon the news had to run many hours, if not longer, to be delivered. Today it can be seen live on television. But what’s of all times, is that at all costs, people want this news known, and others want it to be stopped. This World Press Freedom Day reminds us of both. And it’s up to all of us to decide if it’s good or bad news. If something has to be done, or not. Maybe, freedom of speech might be proven the longest marathon ever to undertake, and the most dangerous and besieged one. But also one that matters, because it's a Relay of Life. Image by Photobucket/phkimm

Past, Present (Future?)

Dos de Mayo, occupied Madrid/Spain by Napoleon 1, 1808, may seem very old history, but an uprise of a suppressed people and the brutal slaughter of these citizens by the occupying forces that followed is, alas, still a crime we could have to witness. And in these turmoiled images there’s always a single face that tells the whole story. Manuela Malasana Onoro, a fifteen-year-old seamstress defending her city got caught, nearly raped, imprisoned and executed on the ground she had been carrying a weapon – a pair of scissors. The rebellion was silenced, but the Spanish War of Independence was seeing its first daylight. Image by Photobucket/avaloncat