My new youtube videos

And so I did it. I did something I've wanted to do for a long time which is post videos on youtube. I've been asked so many times how I tie my headcovering... but never the courage to actually post a video. I did it today. I'm still nervous lol because I look so silly and I might take them down after a few days. It was great to overcome my fears tough. Here is it:



Hahaha now you can see my face and how terrible my English actually is! Anyways, again, I'm glad I could overcome this fear. ^_^

Have a great week everyone!!

obs.: I removed one of the videos, but the headscarf one is still there.

Monday, December 21, 2009

No title

Why do I love something?

If something touches your heart what is there to explain?

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Busy

I've been busy with studying and also had visitors this week. My hostsister from Japan and a friend of hers - and mine - were here in Rio with me. It was awesome! I missed them a lot and it was fun to speak Japanese again (and realise how much I forgot and need practice.... >_<). I also realised I don't know my own city that well. When we show our cities around we find out so much! It's amazing.

I have a lot to say about that and others things, but I'm also happy to find out I have 6 followers now! Yiei! ^^ I hope I can really start writting more often.

Now it's off to study. I have a test tomorrow... at 7 a.m (!!!).

Talk to you all soon!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

A few facts about me

I have two followers now and that makes me very happy! Thank you, Heather and Zaufishan! By the way, thank you, Zaufishan for promoting my blog on your Facebook. I still think readers will take a long time to come and stay. But let's not get our hopes down. ^ ^ As I might have mentioned sometime a long time ago on this blog, I was going to add some facts about me. So here we go:

Internet nickname: Odna Draug. (Yes, my nickname has a last name also lol There's a very long story about this nickname and I would have to write a post about it. I tried to changed a few times but it was hopeless as some people in my real life also call me Odna. Yes, I'm aware it means “alone” in Russian . More on that later.)

Other online nicknames: I have some which are a secret. I'm a bit of a paranoid. But I came out on youtube. My nickname there is “Karkimannar”. No, no real movies there yet.

I'm 27 years old. I'm Brazilian from Rio de Janeiro, born and raised ^ ^. I live with my mother in Rio de Janeiro. It might sound weird for some, but here it's quite common for people to live with their parents for a long time, especially for economical reasons.

I studied in two different Universities at the same time finishing one first and then the other. I graduated as a Film making major in 2005 and I'm graduating now as a History major. The University system in Brazil differs greatly from the one found in the USA.

I'm a private teacher as a part-time job. I teach German, English and Portuguese for foreigners.

I love languages! It's one of my biggest passions! I speak Portuguese – my native language ^ ^ - English, German, French and Japanese – none of which I speak perfectly lol. Although the last two ones are my worst, I'm conversational in both. I'm studying Russian at the moment and loving it! I've studied Arabic, Estonian, Latvian, Hungarian, Korean and probably something else but it never evolved. I have a list. I'm a freak like that.

I'm a nerd.

I have many hobbies. Some include studying, reading, drawing, writing, singing, internet and video games.

I also love cooking and usually the cook around here. I find cooking very relaxing.

I have no religion, but I'm very spiritual and I care a lot about my beliefs.

I'm crazy about purple, green and black. However, I do love all colors it's just I prefer those three ^ ^.

I hate green bell peppers. Hate them. It's the only food I truly hate. Don't give me that! Noooooooo!

Give me kimchi every day. I loooooooove kimchi.

I have a cooking blog in my native language, Portuguese called Viagem Culinária.

I've lived in four different countries including my own: Brazil, Germany (Lemgo), USA (New York City) and Japan (Osaka). In Germany and Japan I was a scholarship exchanged student with hosfamilies. I also spent two weeks in Riga, Latvia, in 2002 with a wonderful host family.

I was in Manhattan in September 11th 2001.

I worked in a restaurant in the Trump Tower as a coat checker. It's almost an anthropological experiment.

I love the world.

I'm a Film maker. I've directed three (very bad) short movies and participated in several independent short films and documentaries. This is my dream and I hope I can become a full time Film maker soon.

I'm also an amateur singer. I was in a band but we are in a hiatus. I hope to come back soon as I'm passionate about music. Our music was very weird and experimental as we all are very eclectic. Nowadays I sing more lyrical and enka.

People in real life think I'm very talkative and extroverted. But in reality I'm very shy, insecure and self-conscious. I'm trying to overcome that tough.

I'm very opinionated and have been feeling like... I'm not expressing myself well and/or enough lately. It's probably because I'm not brave. (I won't say a “coward” because it's a bit much, no? Hehehe ^ ^') Although I do love discussing so I can learn more and more everyday. I also have a tendency to talk to people I don't agree so I can understand their points of view. .

My favorite season is autumn.

I'm addicted to coffee and mineral water.

Weirdly enough I'm a day person outside and a night person at home. Meaning I get sleepy very early when I go out but if I'm to stay home I go to bed very late for no reason what so ever.


I'm terrified of dogs. I'm not against dogs or hate dogs, I'm just very afraid of them, especially very little dogs. But I've liked dogs in my life a lot. I think they are adorable... and somewhat scary.


I love food. Loooooove food. I have many favorite foods.. hard to make a list.

Anyways, that's a little bit about me. Hope it covers for now... it was actually quite hard to think what to write about! I probably forgot something essential! LOL!

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Disappointment

Today I was really into writing this post and gave it a lot of thought as I spent my day in the bus and library. But weirdly enough, as I came home tiredness won and I just couldn't. I'll just give you a briefing, but not really all that I wanted to say...

I was very sad to see the way people were treating Kim and Erin as they stated their current situation. Kim leaving Islam and Erin having doubts. I think some people were just acting the worst of the worst, Muslims and non-Muslims alike... a terrible example of how humans can be so... ok, detestable. Detestable is the word for me. I was so sad and upset.

People judge others so easily. How easy it is to judge another person, yet very few people look deep into themselves and see how they are. People make it all about them, and as I stated in my previous post... many times it's not. It's just not about you all the time. And if you think it is... the problem might be you. One should analyze oneself and try to find just what is actually bothering you so much.

In the website Muslimness they made a very nice post. A post about comprehension and compassion. Things which many people are just lacking. I really recommend reading it.

For the intolerant people out there: you give humanity a bad name. I'm so sad... truly disappointed.

p.s.: Kim closed her new blog and channel. I wish her all the best and wished I had talked to her more and sooner.

Friday, November 20, 2009

A path for each

Yesterday was an interesting day in the Islamic blog and vlogsphere. As you might have noticed, no, I'm not Muslim. And no, I'm not Christian as you can check here. So why do I read so many Muslim blogs? I don't really know for sure. I guess the ones that I do like to read are interesting to me, make me relax, smile and feel good. I like the way my favorite bloggers write, what they write about – not that I always agree with what they are saying – but I do like to read them a lot. As this blog has actually being frozen since April I never got a chance to update the ones I read the most. I'm also shy, even to comment online – yes, I know, it's silly. So many of those bloggers never noticed I read them daily and watched their videos because I never expressed myself at the time. I regret it now.

So, what happened yesterday? I went to bed on Monday after studying a lot – as I wrote here I have an important paper due so I can finally major in History – and read my favorite blogs before bed. So, I wake up, get ready, check my emails and check the blogs again. But... where's Kimdonesia's blog? (For those who don't know, Kimdonesia is an Australian girl, Kim, who converted to Islam and had one of the coolest blogs and the coolest youtube channel. Not to mention she's a sweetheart and always made me smile with her great personality.) Hummm... weird, I thought. Maybe a blogger problem? I find out later though another blog I love, Ange's blog, that Kimdonesia had left Islam. My jaw dropped. What did I miss in less than 8 hours? I go to one of my favorite youtube channels, thevintagegoth's channel (a munaqqabah convert girl from Kansas. Another sweet funny girl, very smart with personality to spare), and she posted a video about Kim that was a very good one. I was worried about Kim, but after the video I thought everything was fine. So, I go to school, have classes, come back, teach, tra la la, eat lunch, go to the internet relax before studying. All of thevintagegoth videos were gone. I thought “what's going on?”. A little later on The vintage goth posts an emotional video without her hijab or her niqab on talking about, in her own way, why she removed her videos. Silly me, I wrote her the longest message, must have creeped her out LOL It's all my fault, I should have contacted them a lot sooner, now it's a little late. So I decided to write this post in English – which you might have noticed by now, it's not my first language – about my feelings and why I care about these two young ladies and why I identify with them in some way.

First, let me tell you a little about my interest in Islam. I'll jump it to 2003 and tell you other things in the future, hopefully, so this doesn't get too long and boring. So, in 2003 when I started a project about Islam in my first university (I'm a Film making major) I began going to the mosque, making Muslim friends (some are my close friends until this very day), wearing hijab while there – it just felt comfortable – and reading a lot etc. I stopped drinking and eating pork as well. Everybody thought I was going to convert. Everyone. Even I did. But it never happened. Why?

Erin, the vintage goth, said in her second video something that exactly expresses. I couldn't have come up with that. I'm in love with Islam, but I don't believe in it (she actually said she doesn't know. I'm the one who doesn't believe). It might not make sense to Muslims or non-Muslims. But for me it's exactly that. I love Islam as I love all religions. I love Muslims as I love every human on this planet. But I don't believe in it. I respect it a lot and know how misunderstood it is, especially since Muslims are the “enemies du jour”, probably the first ones of the internet era. Really tough.

I've had many issues with religion. For a long time I was a devout Catholic. When I tell this to people that have been known me for years but not that long, they can't believe it. But, yes. I was the most Catholic little girl you could have met. My mom is very spiritual, but not really so Catholic oriented. But I was more Catholic than my grandparents were. It all ended when I was only 10. I realized I didn't really believe in any of that, despite the fact I respected a lot. So I left Christianity, because I didn't believe in it. I never stopped believing in God or praying my own way. I just didn't believe in that interpretation of God.

And that's where I can feel an identification to Erin and Kim. I understand that feeling. Ok, it's completely different for each individual, but still: At age 15 I joined another religion which I won't tell you which one :P I was REALLY into it. Really. I read a lot, practiced a lot, swallowed every bit of criticism, cried at home when Baptist Christians (funnily enough, here in Brazil the protestant Christians are the most conservative of the bunch) thought I had the demon in me, defended myself and made everything to protect my believes, brought others to the faith etc. Then one day I realized... as many years before with Catholicism... I also didn't believe in it. It was a crisis for my heart. I was so sure, why I didn't believe anymore? What happened? I didn't even think was wrong and I still have a lot of care for that religion. I still remember when I left. People of the community were shocked. Me of all people left. Many tried to persuade me to please come back while some even cursed me – yes, friends... they are in EVERY community. But I knew it was not right for me. It made me happy and gave my soul relieve for a time. But not anymore. So I left. It was tough and painful... More than 7 years of my life I spent believing in that religion. Again, I still have a lot of respect and care for it, I just don't tell you which one for personal reasons.

I will make a comparison with vegetarianism. I know it will sound crazy. But hear me out. I have some friends who became vegetarians and their lives just improved! Their health was better, they looked better etc. Vegetarianism was for them. However, I had other friends in which happened the opposite. Their health declined, their appearance was awful, they were always tired. And yes, they went to vegetarian nutritionists and doctors. It didn't improve, although some kept at it. Vegetarianism wasn't for them. Religion is a bit like that. I do believe in God. But I also believe there are so many ways to acknowledge God. If people think they found the truth, that's the truth for them. Maybe for a period or maybe for the rest of their lives. As long as they are good and happy.

Kim entered Islam for all the right reasons and left it for all the right reasons. (Wrong reasons would be maybe... for a guy and leaving because of that guy?) So, I would like people to stop judging Erin and Kim for their videos as each person has their path. It doesn't make them bad... I don't think people should judge others so much. For some it almost looks like some kind of hobby.

I'm happy both didn't disappear and will keep spreading light and smiles across the globe to people they never met. I wish you strength and I wish I had talked sooner and wouldn't sound now like a stalker! lol ^ ^.

I had a lot more to say, but it would become almost like a book. So, I might talk about some topics these past days made me think about sometime in the future.

Let's build a better world.

p.s.: It's not because some left Islam or Christianity that they will start drinking and partying. I don't enjoy drinking and partying and I have no religion. So there.

p.s.2: I do have my own beliefs... I just don't have other's to share them with... ;_; It's a lonely religion, but it has been working for me so far. ^ ^


A side note: I just realized how many people are being so disrespectful towards Kim's decision! I won't give you their pages, blog or youtube channels, I won't five them traffic. I'm just appalled! And I came accross these as I wasn't even looking for anything. I can't believe in people sometimes. Seriously. They make everything about them. Guess what? It's not about you! Go find some hobbies! Will do you some good.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Frustration

So... this blog has also been abandoned. I'm sad about it. I do want (need?) to reactivate it. And I will. I feel I need it...

I have a serious research paper due to December 2nd. I feel like I can't. But I have to make and I will... I hope this will end soon.

By the way, thank you to all the bloggers, specially the Muslimah bloggers for their lovely blogs. They made me smile many times I thought I just couldn't. I know you won't read this hehehe but it's from the bottom of my heart and I hope this nice feeling I have that comes from your writting will get to you somehow. ^^

Monday, November 16, 2009

Ladysh's Soyu

And so, I've basically abandoned this blog. No! I'll be back. Circumstances drove me away, but I plan a comeback and I'm preparing some stuff to post here. I'm very busy with studying and work right now, but maybe in about two weeks it will be official. I also want to change the template.

Meanwhile, I found the lyrics for Ladysh's song I talked about in another post. As I did with “Tugan yak”, I'll put it in both Cyrillic and Roman letters. The transliteration is mine, so please tell me with it's bad.

If you forgot about it, here is the clip.



NOTE: This song is spelled in many different ways. I've seen siu, sju, syu, soju, soyu... so I don't know how it is really called. Well...

Ландыш нигмэтжанова

СөЮ

Кузлэремэ ул карый
Килеп хэлемне сырый
Яратмыйм бит мин аны
Ник ул шуны анламый
Куземнэн яшьлэр тама
Ерэгем уттай яна
Тилмерэм уйлыйм кетэм
Мин бит башканы соям

Эллэ язмыш келэме
Эллэ гаеп миндэме
Сойгэнем миннэн читтэ
Соймэгэн мине кетэ

Кара ялкынлы кузлэрне
Эзлим мин бар жирдэндэ
Зэнгэр караш монсу гына
Хэрчак мина тобэлгэн
Хэсрэт тулы союэмнэн
Ерэк тилегэ эйлэнгэнэ
Яратмыйча яратулар
Бигрэклэ авыр икэн!!!
Landysh Nigmetcanova

Soyu

Kuzlereme ul karıy
Kilep xelemne sırıy
Yapratmıym bit min anı
Nik ul şunı anlamıy
Kuzemnen yaş'ler tama
Eregem uttay yana
Tilmerem uylıym ketem
Min bit başkanı soyam

Elle jazmış keleme
Elle gaep mindeme
Soygenem minnen çitte
Soymegen mine kete

Kara yakınlı kuzlerne
Ezlim min bar jirdende
Zenger karaş monsu gına
Xerçak mina tobelgen
Xespet tulı soyuemnen
Erek tijege eylengene
Yaratmıyça yaratular
Bigrekle avır iken!!!


Now that I've finish transliterating, I'm thinking that “э” might be actually “ә” and that the letter “ө” might be missing. But I don't speak Tatar, so, please, help me fix it with you can.

~**~


Hope to be back soon.
Have a great day!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Distraction needed: Literal Video Version

Of course I haven't been in the greatest mood lately. I'm not going out, meeting friends or even staying long after class in the University. When a close relative is in the ICU, it's very hard to get your head and heart away from it. However, it's very important to try to relax or focus on something else in order to not get crazy.
I have been studying a lot lately, it really helps. But, one must also relax from its duties, right? I have many hobbies which help me relax a little, tough when I need distraction at its prime I need something light. Recently a friend showed me something I think it's totally genius. It's called “Literal Video Version”. The idea is to make a parody of a music video which actually match it. Ok, my poor English can't really explain this, so you should check it out:



There are many of those out there now. It's said that the user DustoMcNeato is the genius behind it. Not all those creations are good, but some are very fun and very smart too. Some are just plain silly, but still enjoyable. These have cheered me up (thank you, guys!):







My favorite is still the version for Head over Hells. I didn't even know the song before and now I like the original one a lot also.

Well, literal video version is a new distraction. But an older one has always been ANTM. That's right. I love that show! I think it's very funny and interesting. I also like to see the photo shoots a lot, some of them are very creative. Since I want to be in the “audiovisual” business, it's very interesting to me : )

(post will be completed post soon.)

Friday, April 3, 2009

Living as much as one can

So... it was carnival. I don't know if any of you heard of Brazilian carnival before, but here in Rio it is something huge. It's really not for me at all, although I do find it beautiful. Some friends of mine feel the same and we ended up going to Petropolis. My family and I had left Petropolis roughly a week before and my grandpa was making incredible progress . He was walking alone, eating by himself... we were all very happy and so was he.

Well, my friends and I went to Petropolis and had a wonderful time, it was really one of those bonding moments. We are all very different from each other and yet we have so many other things in common. It was a terrific experience. As I came back, in an absolute good mood, I learned that my grandpa had a heart attack. O_o Yes, a heart attack. He was in intensive care and was very weak. My grandma was so sad and disturbed, we all were. Very soon we became the biggest crow that hospital had ever seen. His brothers and sisters were there and so were the nephews and nieces, not to mention us and his friends. All there supporting him. So many prayers from so many different believes... it's true. These hard times to bring people together, do show us who our friends are...

I think all the prayer, support and positive energy has being working. No doctor believed he would survive an Angioplasty and he did! He is doing so much better. He wants to live, he never complains that it hurts or something like that, he only says “tomorrow I'm going back home and taking you all to dinner”. The intensive care unit is kind of a sad place. Only one person can get there at a time, visiting time is so restricted... but we pray he will be transferred to the bedroom soon.

What has been bugging me is some people's reactions to all this. Some are not close to their families, so they can't understand why I'm so worried about my grandfather. We are very close and he practically helped raise me. I was always there at my grandparent's home and they are very present in my life. Another thing is that some people just think that, if you reached 80, why would you want to live more? Some talk in a way as if you don't have the right to live more. He has lived a life of giving, a generous life. If he wasn't a good person, then so many people wouldn't be so worried and wouldn't be going there to see him. Why can't he live as much as he can or as much as God allows? I don't get it. So, I reach 80 than suddenly “oh, you have already enjoyed your life” O_o No!!! I'll live as long as God allows me to live with or without medicine! My neighbor is 90 and she doesn't look like she wants to go anywhere soon! And ten years is a great deal of time! Some people have being acting like we shouldn't even pray or have any hope. Jeez...

But there are people who are supporting us greatly, even my atheist friends say they are thinking positively for him – does one believe in positive energy when an atheist? I don't know... at least it is support =D. So we have Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Candomble and Umbanda practitioners and others supporting us in prayer. Even people with no religion, such as myself, have been helping. I hope he can stay with us. If he has to go... we'll be sad, but that's how it should have been. I still prefer he gets better tough. : )

Thank you to all those who have given us your support. Thank you really. ^^

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Tugan yak - Туган як

Before I hit the road to Petropolis again - By the way, my grandfather is doing much better, thanks :) - I'll add here the lyrics for the Tatar song Tugan yak (Туган як) sang by Fättaxova (Фэттахова) and mentioned in my last post. I'll write it in Cyrillic and in the Latin alphabet, however, the Latin transliteration was done by me following the rules in Wikipedia*. Hope they are not horribly inaccurate, if they are, please let me know. :)

Here is the video so you can try singing along like I do. Enjoy, I love this song:




Туган як
(Вәсилә Фәттахова)

Туган якка юл тотамын, туган як, туган як
Иң гузял газиз якка, туган як, туган як;
Җир җилякляре пешкян чак, туган як, туган як
Ашыгам каенлыка, туган як, туган як.

Chorus:
Талпына күнел, талпына, ашкына,
Ярсуына түз, түз генә;
Каенлыкта җиләк пешкән
Тиз үрелеп өз генә.

Чәчәкләрнең ниндие юк, туган як, туган як
Хуш исле аллы гөлле, туган як, туган як;
Бу якларга беркайдада, туган як, туган як
Хич тиңнәр булмас төсле, туган як, туган як

Chorus.

Каенлыкта сайрый кошлар, сайрый, сайрый кошлар,
Бер туктамый өздереп, өздереп, өздерп;
Озакламам кайтырмын мин кайтырмын, кайтырмын
Тороп булмас көттереп көтереп, көттереп.

Chorus.
---

Tugan yak
(Väsilä Fättaxoba)

Tugan yakka yul totamın, tugan yak, tugan yak
Iñ guzyal gaziz yakka, tugan yak, tugan yak
Cir cilyaklyare peşkyan yak, tugan yak, tugan yak
Aşıgam kaenlıka, tugan yak, tugan yak.

Chorus:
Talpına kunel, talpına, aşkına,
Yarsuına tuz, tuz genä;
Kaenlıkta ciläk peşkän
Tiz urelep öz genä.

Çäçäklärneñ inidne yuk, tugan yak, tugan yak
Xuş isle allı gölle, tugan yak, tugan yak
Bu yaklarga berkaydada, tugan yak, tugan yak
Xiç tinnär bulmas tösle, tugan yak, tugan yak

Chorus.

Kaenlıkta sayrıy koşlar, sayrıy, sayrıy koşlar,
Ber tuktamıy özderep, özderep, özderp;
Ozaklamam kaytırmın min kaytırmın, kaytırmın
Torop bulmas kötterep köterep, köterep.

Chorus.


*~*

I know translations are tricky, but if anyone could provide one, it would be highly appreciated. Thanks :)


A nice week to all of you ^^




*apparently ә should be transliterated now as really ә instead of ä. The letter ә is also present in the spelling of the Azeri language in the Latin alphabet, which, like Tatar, belongs to the Turkic language family. However, it's much easier for me to type ä than ә, if you find this too bad, also let me know. We also have "ç" in Portuguese, by the way :)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Tatar fever

Last events prevented from making a less “oh, the world is annoying me” post. I still have to post and re-write some of the events that took place before the New Year. Some conversations I had with people which really made me think.

But I'm not going to talk about that. I am going to talk about my recent obsession with Tatarstan, a republic of the Russian Federation, and Tatar culture and language in general.

It all started when I was doing some research about patriotic songs. I went to Youtube and found a patriotic song from Tatarstan. I was touched by it and found it very beautiful. I have a problem with patriotic things in general as well as with nationalism etc. But this one was really nice. I did mention it in my post about songs.

Well, after adding it to my favorites, Youtube put in my "recommendations" box, a song by Landysh Nigmetzhanova (Ландыш Нигметжанова) called “Siu” (Cию.)*. It's extremly "pop-dancing-in-the-nightclub" kinda thing. But I couldn't stop listening to it O_o. Now I'm even trying to sing along. Of course it is pathetic, since I don't speak Tatar and don't even have the lyrics. Well, my shower doesn't know that.



After that, there was another link to another Tatar song. At first I wasn't thrilled by the song itself, but by the video. It is very well done, looks like a short movie which tells the stories of various characters only through images. Really nice and as a wannabe filmmaker I thought “I wish I had made that”. The singers are Färidä (Фәридә) and Alsu (Алсу), the song is called Èz oem (Єз оем)*. I won't spoil it for you. You can check here:



Afterwards, I started liking the song a lot too. That's how it happens with me sometimes, I need some time. I really like this music video a lot. I think it's great.

Anyways, soon I saw the link to another song, this time by Fättaxova (Фэттахова)* called Tugan yak (Туган як). Now, that one was really surprising to me because I heard it before. Yep, I heard it, I don't remember where was it, but I think it was quite a while ago. So it was a very pleasant reunion. The video posted in Youtube is of bad quality, but there is another one which has the same song as background which the quality is better.

The singer's video:



And the song, although I really had some restrictions to this movie. Well, whatever, the sound is good:



(Note: there is a girl by the end of the video who looks so Brazilian, it is almost weird to me. She even has hair like mine... maybe she's my lost cousin O_o)

So, that is how the Tatar fever started. After that I started reading about Tatarstan and Tatar culture. I also discovered that Tartar sauce, while delicious, is not Tatar. And Brazilian waxing is not popular in Brazil at all. I don't even know why people give things names which suggest a false origin like French kiss, Russian dressing, French fries, Persian pastry etc. Actually, I do have a clue, but I don't really want to talk about it.

Back to Tatarstan. I really got into it. So much that if you asked right now “Would you like to go to Chennai or Kazan?”. I would have to stop to think. I would probably pick Chennai, because Tamilnadu is an old love. But I would pause. Well, that's why God invented “Google Earth” where I can fake a trip to Kazan. It was very nice. :)

Because I said that I won't be writing about annoying things (although I did almost start with the Tartar sauce thing...), I won't talk about how irritating some of those silly youtube comments can be. If it is not an Western European / North American pop song or something in English people already start with some sort of ridiculous pseudo-ethnic / anthropological / sociological political superficial discussion. It's pathetic! But, as I said, I won't talk about it now. Hehehe...


Enjoy my Tatar fever and if you are Tatar or know a lot about Tatar culture, please help me with some lyrics, songs, culture, you name it. Pretty please




Well, best regards to all.

*My transliteration following Wikipedia. Hope it's an ok transliteration. :)

P.S.: I REALLY want to change this blog's template... I just don't know how to do that right, since I like blogger's gadget system. Can any of you help me? :)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

What a start...

Remember when I said that 2009 was not starting that great? Well, I was more right than I wanted to be. It's not only in a global level now, but also in a personal.

My grandfather had a stroke last Sunday while he was in their home near Petropolis, which is about an hour and a half from where I live. He just turned 80, but he is beloved by family and friends and it came as a shock to all of us. My aunt, my mom and I came to stay in Petropolis with my grandma and give her support, since the three of us are on vacation now. He is much better now, although he still is in the ICU and a little confused and disoriented. We believe he is out of danger, but he won't be the same again. My grandma is suffering the most. They have been in love ever since they met at a carnival party 54 years ago.

~**~








Now, for the global level. Well, folks... let's start with something I wrote on December 29th and never had the chance to finish. Yes, ironically, I was also in Petropolis the weekend when it all started:

“I came back yesterday from a very nice weekend in a historical town, called Petropolis, with my friends. We had a wonderful time there and had a lot of fun. We didn't watch TV or accessed the internet. So, I come back and start going online tra la la reading my favorites blogs tra la la... what?!? Then I go to the living room, get the newspaper and my jaw dropped. Israel what?!? Are you serious?

What in the world are you doing? I mean... really!

I don't even know why I was in shock, Should I be? Nevertheless I started reading any thing I came accross, of course, always with that classic suspicion. I just can't believe this is happening.”

Everyday I read the papers and think “oh, God...”. I have to say that I'm surprised that Brazilian mainstream media has been, generally and superficially speaking, against the attacks and showing a lot of the atrocities Israel has been committing. Our Foreign minister said that Israel is committing “State terrorism”. Very impressed. Not that anyone cares, well, I do, and I'm happy. We also send a big donation to Gaza and made some demonstrations. We should have done more... oh, well.



People who know me know that I'm actually against Zionism and I'm pro-Judaism, as well as pro religion in general. I have many Jewish friends who oppose the way Israel have been “handling the situation”, for the lack of a better expression. I read a very nice article called “Judaism is a religion, not an ethnicity”, which I lost the link, sorry :( when I find it I'll put it here. Well, I've been reading a lot about Jews against the State of Israel, some even pose with Palestinian flags. People say they are a minority. Maybe they are. But some of these groups are organized and need our support. I'm putting here some links for you guys to check out their arguments and think about them. I know you “I'm so secular, I'm modern”* people will not take some of those arguments, however they are good to think about. Remember, being a Zionist is not being a Jew. Let's differentiate these things and not blame the Jews for what is going on in the Middle East. Let's blame Zionism, Imperialism – I'm talking about that old one, although you can blame the new one as well, if you don't forget the old one – and the 19th century, always blame the 19th century**. You hate something? It probably started in the 19th century. Works for me.




Here are some links and articles:

Jewish opposition to Zionism

Jews not Zionists

“Jews against Zionism” a book by Thomas A. Kolsky

Jews against Zionism

Jews against Israel

IJAN – International Anti-Zionist Network

Neturei Karta – Jews against Zionism

“Today I end my support of Israel”



Let's support the Palestinians, let's support Peace, let's support Humanity.

Will 2009 get better? I hope so.

Best regards to all of you.






*, **: talk about it better later... maybe.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Happy 2009!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU!!


I know that, generally speaking, 2008 didn´t end well and 2009 didn´t start that great either. However, since I believe that anything can happen, I still have hopes for this new year. I´m looking forward to read and listen to what we will think about it in a year time.

So, let´s all think positively and do our part!

HAPPY 2009!!


Saturday, January 3, 2009