August 24th 2010

DROWSY BIRDS

by Mihai Eminescu

Drowsy birds at even gliding,
Round about their nests alight,
In among the branches hiding . . .
Dear, good night!

Silence through the forest creeping,
Lullaby the river sighs;
In the garden flowers sleeping. . .
Shut your eyes!

Glides the swan among the rushes
To its rest where moonlight gleams,
And the angels' whisper hushes. . .
Peaceful dreams!

O'er the sky stars without number,
On the earth a silver light;
All is harmony and slumber . . .
Dear, good night!

English version by Corneliu M. Popescu

Moonlight
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As a pale phantom with a lamp
Ascends some ruined haunted stair,
So glides the moon along the damp
Mysterious chambers of the air.

Now hidden in cloud, and now revealed,
As if this phantom, full of pain,
Were by the crumbling walls concealed,
And at the windows seen again.

Until at last, serene and proud
In all the splendour of her light,
She walks the terraces of cloud,
Supreme as Empress of the Night.

I look, but recognize no more
Objects familiar to my view;
The very pathway to my door
Is an enchanted avenue.

All things are changed. One mass of shade,
The elm-trees drop their curtains down;
By palace, park, and colonnade
I walk as in a foreign town.

The very ground beneath my feet
Is clothed with a diviner air;
White marble paves the silent street
And glimmers in the empty square.

Illusion! Underneath there lies
The common life of everyday;
Only the spirit glorifies
With its own tints the sober grey.

In vain we look, in vain uplift
Our eyes to heaven, if we are blind;
We see but what we have the gift
Of seeing; what we bring we find.

In my sky at Twilight

by Pablo Neruda

In my sky at twilight you are like a cloud
and your form and colour are the way I love them.
You are mine, mine, woman with sweet lips
and in your life my infinite dreams live.

The lamp of my soul dyes your feet,
the sour wine is sweeter on your lips,
oh reaper of my evening song,
how solitary dreams believe you to be mine!

You are mine, mine, I go shouting it to the afternoon's
wind, and the wind hauls on my widowed voice.
Huntress of the depth of my eyes, your plunder
stills your nocturnal regard as though it were water.

You are taken in the net of my music, my love,
and my nets of music are wide as the sky.
My soul is born on the shore of your eyes of mourning.
In your eyes of mourning the land of dreams begin.

LA LUNA ASOMA

Cuando sale la luna
se pierden las campanas
y aparecen las sendas
impenetrables.
Cuando sale la luna,
el mar cubre la tierra
y el corazón se siente
isla en el infinito.
Nadie come naranjas
bajo la luna llena.
Es preciso comer
fruta verde y helada.
Cuando sale la luna
de cien rostros iguales,
la moneda de plata
solloza en el bolsillo.

Federico García Lorca

Today I remembered this poem that touched my soul in the past...


In time you learn

by Jorge Luis Borges

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,

And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
And company doesn't mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
And presents aren't promises,

And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,

And you learn to build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn...
That even sunshine burns if you get too much.

So you plant your garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure...

That you really are strong

that you really are valuable,
man and learn and learn ...
and learn every day

With time you learn that if u like to stay with
someone that gives you a good future,
means that sooner or later you will want to go back to the past.

With time you understand that only one who is able to love you with your faults
without trying to change you,
can bring all the happiness you want.
You realize that you're time with this person just to accompany your loneliness,
inexorably you get to not want to see.

With time you understand that true friends are counted,
and as one who does not fight for them
sooner or later will be seen surrounded by false friends.

With time you learn that words said in a moment of anger,
the rest of your life may continue to harm the injured.

With time you learn that the excuse is something anyone can do,
but forget that, it's something that just really big hearts can do.

With time you understand that if you seriously hurt a friend
it is very likely that his friendship will never be at the same intensity.

In time you realize that although
You can be happy with your friends,
one day you will cry
after those you have let them go.

In time you realize that every experience lived with each being,
will never happen again.

In time you realize who humiliate and despise a human being
sooner or later will suffer the same
humiliation and contempt, but multiplied square.

With time you hurry or forcing things to happen,
This will result in finally
they will not be as expected.

In time you realize that in reality
was not the best future
but when you are living right at the moment.

With time you will see that although you feel happy with who you are circumcised,
you will miss the ones who were with you yesterday
and went and now they are no longer ...

With time you will learn that trying to forgive or
apologize,
say you love, you mean you miss,
to say that you need
to say that you want to be friend
before a grave
doesn't make any sense.

But unfortunately,
just in time you learn all ...

Tracy Lee Stum -3D Street Painting

More interesting facts...

1. The little circles of paper that are cut out after a paper has been punched by a hole puncher are called "chad."

2. The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq miles/4,53 sq km.


3. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed asparagus had medicinal qualities for helping prevent bee stings and relieve toothaches.

4. Almost is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

5. In 1845 Boston had an ordinance banning bathing unless you had a doctor's prescription.

6. A person standing under an oak tree is 16 more times liable to be hit by lightning than if he had taken refuge beneath a beech tree. The oak tree has vertical roots which provide a more direct route to ground water.

7. The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.

8. The first domain name ever registered was Symbolics.com on March 15, 1985 by the Symbolics Computer Corp. in Massachusetts. In 2009, the domain was sold to XF.com Investments for an undisclosed sum.
Symbolics.com is the first of nearly 200 million (200,000,000) domains to be registered. Nearly 100 million (100,000,000) of those registered domains are of the .com extention. 668,000 new .com domains are registered every month.

9. Every three seconds, a new baby is born.

10. The first umbrella factory in the U.S. was founded in 1928 in Baltimore, Maryland.

11. Charles Dickens kept the head of his bed aligned with the North Pole. He believed that the earth's magnetic field would pass longitudinal through his body and ensure him a good night rest.

12. Toronto, Ontario was home to the biggest swimming pool in the world in 1925. It held 2000 swimmers, and was 300ft x 75ft. It is still in operation.

13. Karen Roman grew the world's largest cauliflower. It weighed 22 pounds.

14. Gases that build up in your large intestine cause flatulence. It usually takes about 30 to 45 minutes for these gases to pass through your system.

15. Close to 3 billion movie tickets are sold in India every year.

16. People in France own more pets in the world per person than any other country.

17. In 1832 the Scottish surgeon Neil Arnott devised water beds as a way of improving patients' comfort.

18. On October 15, 1794, the first silver dollar coins were released to be circulated to the public.


19. Retirement planning time: Adults spend an average of 16 times as many hours selecting clothes (145.6 hours a year) as they do on planning their retirement.

20. When Alexander Graham Bell died on August 4, 1922, millions of phones went dead. In Bell's honor, all phones served by the Bell System in the USA and Canada went silent for one minute.

21. Only men were allowed to eat at the first self-service restaurant, the Exchange Buffet in New York, opened in 1885. Customers ate standing up.

22. The largest diamond found in the United States was a 40.23 carat white diamond. It was found in 1924 and nicknamed the "Uncle Sam." The gem was discovered near Murfreesboro situated in Arkansas by W.O. Bassum

http://www.internetstones.com/image-files/uncle-sam-diamond-rough-crystal-before-ctting.jpg

23. Two French toolmakers were the first engineers to put the engine in the front of the car. This gave the car better balance, made it easier to steer, and made it much easier to get all your luggage in.

24. Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.'

more on: http://ebizarre.com

What is happening to our sun?

Scientists say sunspots come and go but in the last two years they are mostly gone and it is unusual. David Hathaway, a physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. says "This is solar behavior we haven't seen in living memory"

It is think that missing sunspots and other phenomenons indicates that the sun's magnetic activity is diminishing. All together it seems that something huge is happening inside the sun.

What is happening?
You can find out more reading the article in The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/21/AR2010062104114.html?g=0

A wonderful breathtaking concert

Sir Elton John gave an amazing 2and a half hours concert in Bucharest, Romania


Sir Elton John and his band World Tour 2010 arrived to Bucharest after four other concerts in Poland, Serbia, Hungary and Czech Republic.
In the opening a Romanian band performed, VH2, warming up the people gathered in Constitution's Square in front of the second largest building in the world People's House.
A little bit after eight o'clock Sir Elton John and His Band started the show that kept people on applauding and dancing for two and a half hours. The show was supposed to go for two hours with a half an hour break, but Sir Elton John felt so good with the public in the square that he continued to sing a piano solo for few minutes when his band took a short break.
The piano, Sir Elton's voice, the drums, the guitars, the lights...everything was in perfect harmony and spread such a joy that can hardly be described in words. Everywhere you could look in the Constitution's Square, Bucharest people where all a smile and this is what Sir Elton John and the whole band felt and received and made them perform with smile faces and enjoy every minute they spent in Romania.
At one moment Sir Elton John said to people "Thank you for your warm applause". In fact, after every song he was smiling and thanking people for their applause and joy.
When "Sacrifice" first piano accords spreads into the square the public burst into applause and screams and light the lights and wave their hands.
Davey Johnstone, the guitarist, gave people few of his guitar picks to the fans.


Davey Johnstone the guitarist

Sir Elton John offered two autographs and received a large bouquet of red roses at the end of the great performance he had in Bucharest.
"Your Song", "Sorry seems the hardest word", "Something about the way you look tonight", "Rocket man", "I'm still standing"...and many more flew in the air and the piano seemed charmed by the artist magic fingers along with the rest of the instruments in a perfect harmony making people sing along and dance and feel every vibe.


Bucharest public

When the end came people started to shout "Elton, Elton" and the artist came back on the stage and performed three more songs with lot of joy. At one moment he even jumped on top of the piano smiling and applauding with the crowed.
Sir Elton John was for his second time in Bucharest. His first concert happened in June 2003 and I have the feeling after Saturday night he will come back for sure some time in the future.
Until then...everyone and each of the persons that have been in the square has the memory of the great emotions he/she/they lived during the wonderful performance of the one and only Sir Elton John.


Big smile and open arms to embrace the public in Bucharest

"Love, health and happiness. God bless you" said Sir Elton John in the end to the public which gave him the energy to go on singing without break.


Design on the back of Sir Elton John tuxedo

Did you know...
1. Babies that are exposed to cats and dogs in their first year of life have a lower chance of developing allergies when they grow older.

2. Barbie's boyfriend Ken was not sold in India until recently because it clashed with the traditional arranged marriage.

3. The first man to distill bourbon whiskey in the United States was a Baptist preacher, in 1789.

4. The U.S. army packs Tabasco pepper sauce in every ration kit that they give to soldiers.

5. Tiger Woods' real first name is Eldrick. His father gave him the nickname "Tiger" in honour of a South Vietnamese soldier his father had fought alongside with during the Vietnam War.

6. The board game Scrabble was originally called "Criss Cross Words" by inventor Alfred Butts.

7. It is said that during his lifetime, artist Vincent Van Gogh only sold one of his paintings (The Red Vineyard).

8. Because of its size, the Pentagon operates much like a small city; it has it's own shopping mall, bank, power plant, water and sewage facilities, fire station, police force, fast food restaurants and a "mayor".

9. William Howard Taft is the only man ever to be President AND Chief Justice. The US Supreme Court appointment came second and was a job Taft enjoyed much more than the presidency.

10. The word "laser" stands for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission by radiation."

11. The first prototype of the sound-proof phone booth was built in 1877. Mr. Watson, Alexander Graham Bell's trusty assistant, used a bunch of bed blankets around a box. He created the booth to prevent his landlady from listening in on his conversations.

more on: http://ebizarre.com/

"Faith" is a fine invention
When Gentlemen can see—
But Microscopes are prudent
In an Emergency.

Emily Dickinson