Tag: music
It’s been some time since May passed and since I’ve written anything here, but things have been crazy this past month. At the speed I am going, by the time I finish this post, June will be over already. Once again, I have a bunch of other unfinished posts waiting to be published, but I don’t want to leave May unreported. It’s amazing we are almost halfway through the year, isn’t it? May has been the busiest month in my year so far, mostly in terms of my job. I’ve spent most of it so sleep-deprived it was hard to…
Anyone else feels like January went by in a hurry? I barely got used to writing 2022 and now we are more than a month into the year. I started the year really exhausted after the end of year rush in my workplace, and I was determined to go on vacation for at least a few days. I was even contemplating a foreign trip for early February (just around now), which I haven’t had in a very long time, but that’s not going to happen now either (due to Covid and other reasons). Now I can’t have any days off…
As you would imagine, my opinions are formed by the things I read and watch, and by the people I am around. Not just in person, in my life, but online, the people I follow. Out of everything I consume, reading has the most important place in my life. I’ve been an avid reader since childhood and the touch and smell of a book is still one of my favourite things. Let alone reading in silence with nothing else to do! A rare occurence… My reading time decreased since I started working in my current job, where I spend most…
Happy Sunday! Christmas is approaching more quickly than I would be comfortable with. At this point, I don’t even know how am I going to finish off everything on my to do list in just six days. In world affairs, this week was mostly about very disturbing news from Aleppo. Clicking here you can find ways to help, if you can, please do. In other news, António Guterres took the oath of office this week to be the 9th Secretary General of the United Nations from January 1. In anticipation of his term we shouldn’t forget about the merits of…
Happy Sunday! Antonio Guterres was officially appointed by the General Assembly as the 9th Secretary General of the UN this week. I honestly think he is well suited for the role and great things can be expected in his tenure. On a completely different note, Bob Dylan got a Nobel Prize in Literature and although I am only slightly aquainted with his work, I am not at all one of those literature snobs who can’t understand this one. I have always considered song lyrics in the league of poetry (well, the better ones anyway), so congrats is definitely in order…
Eurovision 2015: the Guardian’s data-driven prediction Here, Eurovision 2015 explained by The Guardian. I for one, did not know that the Armenian song, which by the way is predicted to win, is about the 1915 genocide… “Genealogy’s controversial “Face the Shadow” references the mass murder of 1.5m Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. It was originally called “Don’t Deny” – Turkey still contests that it was not a genocide, and this title was deemed too political by Eurovision organisers.” There is one thing that no-one can explain though, how on earth did Australia become part of Europe? I (unlike…
The pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal Speaking at the High Level Meeting on “Happiness and Well-Being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm” convened during the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that the world “needs a new economic paradigm that recognizes the parity between the three pillars of sustainable development. Social, economic and environmental well-being are indivisible. Together they define gross global happiness.” The meeting was convened at an initiative of Bhutan, a country which recognized the supremacy of national happiness over national income since the early 1970s and famously adopted the goal of…
Since I was nowhere near a computer on Monday, and when I was I had to work, I completely forgot to mark World Aids Day. I just watched this great concert on Times Square from this Monday presented by (RED) campaign and Bank of America. I love Bono, I really do, but watching Bruce Springsteen singing U2 songs is just priceless. The whole concert is worth watching! (Source: https://red.bankofamerica.com/)
Doing: Being outdoors really. I work in an air conditioned office building where it is hard to even notice the changing of seasons. So usually I can’t wait to get out, breath some fresh air, and have some fun! I had some of it this August (not nearly enough, though), in the form of late night walks, short trip on the country-side while at home in Nagykálló, even a Danube cruise-trip. Learning: I have already written about Learning How To Learn, I took the 4-week course throughout August and it was so much fun. Highly recommended! Besides that, I was…
Welcome to the last Sunday Smack of 2013! This is going to be a special edition as this time I will recommend some year-end reviews of a wide range of topics. Hope you’ll enjoy! 9 Stories that Will Drive the Global Agenda in 2014 OK, I know that’s not what I promised, but I thought I would start with the exception. I think this is a great compilation, plus UNDispatch is still my favorite world affairs blog. Now, let’s see what 2013 was like… 2013: the year in world news Great picture review of world news on the Telegraph….
