I am Latvian...

YOU KNOW YOU ARE LATVIAN OR HAVE BEEN IN LATVIA TOO LONG, IF:

1. You get used to explain abroad where Latvia is. [True. Once there was a guy who thought that Latvia is in Latin America.]
2. You get shocked if somebody abroad does know where Latvia is. [Yup! But it happens rarely]
3. You are proud that Latvian Lat is the most expensive currency [Yes]
4. Ice hockey has become the most important thing in your life [Partly... I watch only Olympic or Championship games]
5. Half of your friends disappear to study or work in Ireland or UK and you think that’s normal [Kinda true...]
6. You’ve learned the hard way that a triangle means women’s toilet and a triangle upside down means men’s [False... I found it out as a kid in easy way]
7. Anything goes wrong you blame the Russians [I blame government]
8. You see someone smiling in public, you think: well, a bloody foreigner [Not always, but yea...]
9. You are afraid crossing a street, especially at zebra [Not really]
10. Everything 50m above sea-level seems like a mountain [Maaaaaybe...]
11. You love the Baltic Sea and go swimming there at nearly any temperature [Always!]
12. You consider Latvia the best and worst place on earth – at the same time [Partly, I know that Africa has it worse]
13. You put an “s” or “a” at the end of foreign names, so you can conjugate them [Tempting...]
14. Hugging is reserved for sexual foreplay [Kinda. Latvians aren't too found of too much skinship]
15. You sincerely believe that LAIMA is the best chocolate in the world. [Of course it is]
16. You think it’s normal to not pay income taxes and know what is to get salary in envelope. [No]
17. You know more than 50 Janis [guys name]. [Bit less]
18. You know more than 20 Ligas, Ilzes, (each!) [girls name] [Bit less]
19. You think metal doors are a necessity. [Yes!]
20. You can’t even imagine what is gallon, farenheits, inches or pound. [Those are confusing x.x]
21. You never smile in public when you’re alone [Mostly yes]
22. You laugh at Russian jokes. [Yes]
23. You actually get these jokes. [Yes]

Seems like I am not fully Latvian, but most of those points were true for me :)

Things I want to do...

It is written is stars, that I easily get interested in things and just as easily get distracted. Seriously! I ran some star reading utility with precise date and time of my birth and it was said there. I could make a huge list of things I want to do, have tried to do and have finished... ok... without the part about having it finished...

Actually I will make that list now!
1. To learn more about other country religions - Have read only first few pages of Koran.
2. Learn Japanese - I kinda know hiragana and understand few words. Nothing more. Have tried to learn 3 times
3. Get back my French knowledge - Je ne parle pas bien le français...
4. Write a story - Countless attempts, but I have never gotten past 20 A4 pages. I lose inspiration or get distracted
5. Organise my folders and files on PC - Chaos still rules over it. I have only 1/100th of all files well organised, around half - I know where to find what, but rest is like a black hole. What ever goes in, never comes out...
6. Be active on social media - How often did I post for the last year? What about Twitter? And my Facebook is for playing games... Haven't been in draugiem.lv for months as well
7. Keep my spendings and income in check - I could do it only for 1.5months
8. Get fit - *eats a cookie*
9. Finish the list - This list is endless.....
10.

A separate list for my handcrafting attempts:
1. Weaving - finished a pouch for phone for goddaughter and got the weaving frame... and I have weaved enough material for 1/4 of bag I wanted to make
2. Knitting - Leg warmers for me and a scarf for goddaughter. Still haven't finished the hat for her...
3. Embroidery - Made a pouch for phone for myself. Pouch for sunglasses still unfinished
4. Cross-stitch embroidery - Made a decorative pillow for a friend, started to make a pouch for phone for myself... unfinished
5. Beading - made a small braclete for myself, necklece still needs to be finished. Wasted a lot of money for different beads...
6. Other crafts - Made two keychains for friends, none for myself

My gems

At university, I was studying French and since then I have quite many useful links to French self-studying.

About.com - French Language - Got to say, that About.com has quite good self-studying guides, hints, tips. One way is to sign up for their weekly studying messages. They will keep sending you words to learn, grammar, texts, tasks, which will keep getting harder and harder. The site also has quite some useful "exams". One of my favorites, even though it was lacking in area of "listening". I have a bunch of different French learning pages bookmarked from About.com

Bonjour - If About.com was lacking on listening part, then this site is only about listening and repeating.

Bonjour de France - Bookmarked it because of the French tests they are offering. But I have a feeling that they have much more to offer.

Azurlingua - Another place to test your french skills. The rest of site is about learning French in paid lessons.

Favourite bookmarks and links

After reinstalling whole system, I almost lost all my bookmarks. Almost, as I forgot to save them before reinstalling, but I had a saved version which could be dated few months before it. So the lose was quite small. At that moment, I understood, how precious these links are to me and that I should save/share them in a way, so I couldn't lose them. Problem is that I have over 300 bookmarks... kinda unorganized ones... And between lot of useless sites, there are quite many gems as well!

So let me share my "gems" with you in a way I can't lose them anymore :)

Latvian mythology

Latvian mythology is quite old and it is impossible to track to the time when it was workshiped widely. First written information about it can be tracked back to AD 98, when Roman Tacitus wrote about worship of a goddess-mother in the Baltic region. Later in 12-13th century Christianization started and forcibly Latvian mythology lost its position. Thought, got to say that many of Latvian mythology traditions mixed with Christianity. For example, Jāņi (Midsummer night, summer solstice) The festival's current date has shifted a few days from 21 June/22 June when the summer solstice actually takes place due to its somewhat incongruous association with Saint John the Baptist's feast day, which falls on 24 June. Still, traditions of Jāņi contain no reference to Christianity or any Christian symbolism.

Also many other "christian" celebrations holds "latvian" names and their traditions contains lot of references to Latvian mythology - Christmas is Ziemassvētki (Winter festival), Easter is Lieldienas (Big/Great-days).

Got to say that there aren't written religious texts for Latvian mythology, it got passed down in form of folk songs, sayings and stories. Only in 19th century all those folk songs got collected and clasified. And basing on them you can see in what and who old latvians believed. Because of that, it is hard to say which was the main deity. Some basic info about them you can find HERE. Thought I got to mention, that there is no purely evil deity in Latvian mythology. There is Velns (Devil), but he got his evil side only in the influence of christianity. Otherwise he was rather mischievous, silly, not that smart guy, who often got outwitted by Dievs (God) or his nasty plans failed. There were few evil spirits, but they were rather minor.
Very widespread was "Mothers' cult" - almost everything had Mother (Mother of the Wind, Mother of the Wood, Mother of the Souls and so on).

I must say that Latvian mythology is kind, respectful and kinda witty minded. It highly values family, work, bread. It shows high respect deceased and death. Death is never showed as evil creature. She is Mother of the Souls, who takes the souls of dead people and brings them to "After sun".
Interesting fact - reading noticed about deceaced people you will pretty much never see "died" or something like that. Mostly there will be text how XXX moved on, went to after sun, will never walk among us and so on. And probably the "grave culture" is one of the best in the world... People take care after the graves carefully. Old ladies will even refuse to move away to have easier life as then they won't be able to visit the graves.

Being lazy is something bad... Work must be done either you like it or not. And it must be done well. People who are willing to work for 120% are valued highly. Besides - no work is shameful as long as you do it honestly. Watching how other works while you lazy around... that's bad.
Bread/food - is result of other person's hard work. It is disrespectful to mistreat food, play with it or throw out.

Religions and mythologies

I have always found religions and mythologies as interesting subjects. Even though I do count as lutheran, I can't say that I am a believer. I am more realistic and practical in this matter and I like to figure out how they fit in "bigger picture". Even if we aren't very religious, it is part of our life, culture and makes us who we are. While history crafts our "nation's mentality", religion crafts our believes and values.

Even if our family isn't religious, they still teaches us to not steal, to not lie, to be kind to others, to be helpful, to not be prideful... and what does christianity teaches us? Pretty much the same. Also for Latvians there is latvian mythology... don't waste food; if you drop piece of bread, then you have to pick it up and kiss it as appology; respect elderly; don't be afraid from work...

For centuries our parents, their parents and even their parents' parents where thought values which changed only slightly. And these values doesn't change that easily, no matter how much time passes, no matter if we continue to believe or no. Latvian mythology is almost like a fairy tale now, but we are still following few rules and sayings, for example, killing spiders are bad as they bring luck to home. So if you want to understand other people, you got to know their religious background (and history). Without knowing it, you can't say that you understand them.

New browsers

Seems I need to add a tab for computers after all :)

Yesterday with Windows Update I got IE9 and I ended up upgrading my Firefox to 4th version as well. Seems like I will start to compare them as lately I was getting really displeased with the browsers I had. Firefox was eating too much of ram, Chrome was eating too much of physical memory, IE.... IE is just.... IE (slow, unsafe, bothersome).
I don't know if Chrome has a newer version out, but I actually don't care as I am not going back to it.

I will inform you about my observations over both of them. I must say that both new versions left really nice impression on me... and IE9 isn't that slow either!

Rainy day with blank aftertaste

You have a long awaited interview planed for today. You have tried to get hold of this person for a month and at last, just few days ago you managed to get his private phone number, call him and arrange a meeting. It is at 12.30, but you have to be in the town at 10.00 am already as you need to borrow a recorder. Meaning you have to get up at 8.30 am.

But lately you have had quite stressful time, so for more than week you are having restless sleep with lot of small nightmares and nasty dreams. Also you don't want to be late for the meeting at 10.00am as you have made that person to wait before and you know that he will need the recorder on the same day. That is kinda making you uneasy... and that's the least you need... You wake up on 5.30am, then on 7.00am, 7.30am, 8.ooam, 8.15am and last 15min you spend staring in the ceiling.

Cause of all the restless sleep you have lost all appetite as well. You eat a sandwich for breakfast and then spend 20min slowly drinking coffee to wash away that nauseating feeling you get after eating lately. And suddenly you understand that you have only 10min left to get ready and leave! So you quickly get ready, rush out and the tram stop understand that it has left just bit ago, so you will have to wait for next one and might be late. Damn! Well... at least weather is nice. Cloudy, but rather warm and pleasant.

At the end meeting place gets changed by him and you even have to wait on him. So it is all good. You decide to meet at 2.00pm and if you finish earlier, then just bring the recorder to the concert hall.

As you watch him leave, you understand that you have 2.5hrs to waste till the interview. So you decide to walk around the old town, go to some shops. But you aren't allowed to buy anything big as you can't go to interview with big bags, right? You get some bit fancy dark chocolate for the person who got you the phone number of the person you needed to interview. He used to be your professor and your bothered him in his free time, so least you can do is to bring him a small thank-you gift (10.12am). You remember about the mall nearby and decide to go look there for some calming tea. You get some red african tea called "African passion". The shop keeper told it has calming effect.

10.33am - you are out of mall. 10.45 - you get bored from walking around the old town and decide to get the your pass to the house of Parliament. 11.00 - they haven't ordered one for you yet, but after a call you still get yours made. At 11.20 it starts to rain.... Till 12.15 you go from one shop to another, go twice back to the same mall, get on nerves of some shopkeepers with "I am just looking" and you wonder how come you aren't bored to death yet. 12.25 - you are back at house of Parliament and get told by assistant that you will have to wait till 12.40 for him. At 12.50 assistant gets an sms from him asking if there is a possibility to move interview to hour later (1.40pm).

You can't be sure that you will be able to give back the recorder on time, so you decide to take a risk and use your phone for recording. You go to french cafe nearby and test your phone's abilities to record while you have some cup of coffee and chocolate cake. Afterwards you go give back recorder and slowly go back to Parliament house while it is still raining. He comes on time but while he is talking you notice that he doesn't have too deep knowledge about the matter you are asking. While moving hands he kinda sneaks a peak at his clock. Means he wants this to get finished sooner. You try to ask him questions you need and to which he could answer. At some cases he asks his assistant for some details, you get given some notes. Soon you part your ways. Interview lasted only for 13min. The amount of information you need is really small. You sigh as you leave and wonder what was the point to try to get him to answer few questions... Was there a point to get stressed overs this matter, if it was kinda useless anyway?

Well at least it is done and with kinda blank and wasted aftertaste you go home....

Your results of this day: Calming tea which doesn't seem to have any effect, New headset with slightly too short cord, Interview which doesn't tell anything much....

Troubles with computers 2

My headset died... Talk about bad luck with computers.
So within 2 weeks I will have changed ram, upgraded hard drive, changed video card and changed headset.
What will be next? Mouse? or my beloved keyboard.

It is ergonomic, but not way too much which actually makes them uncomfortable then.
Keys are rather sensitive, so I can type lightly and quick without using too much force on them. And in the result it is quite silent as well! Only Space is loud compared to other keys. I often stay up quite late when everyone is sleeping, so it is perfect that I can type quietly without disturbing anyone.
Another great feature it is Split-Resistant. Sounds funny, but it is really useful. I am slightly clumsy with my hands - I have split lemonade and coffee on my keyboard. But it never got inside, it stayed on the surface so I could easily and quickly wipe it away without damaging it.

As for Special Hotkeys... I don't really use them. In all these years I have it, I can count on my fingers how many times I used them. Actually I once did try to get used to multimedia hotkeys, but it wasn't natural for me. Only Hotkey I often use is shortcut to Calculator.

This is a perfect keyboard for me! When I was looking for a new keyboard, I had a few things I wanted for it - to be quiet, ergonomic, simple. Now if I looked for a new one, I would also add Split-Resistance! (Actually price did matter too... it was cheap as well :P)

Troubles with computers

I probably got one of the worst 1st april day jokes ever. My pc played it with me - video card crashed. After few days it got fixed and I was able to use my pc again, but at that moment I didn't really feel like laughing.

Then I started to think... I get small problems with computers too often...

~My flash kinda died on the day I had to hand in one of my papers at uni. I got the IT guys help me. They worked for hour with my flash and recovered the file I needed. I was really thankful to them, but as they told me it isn't their job to do something like this, I never came back...

~At some point my video card's coolers started to die. First change lasted for half a year, but every next one lasted less and less. Last one lasted longer... but that was rather big fan put on weird construction... luckily it lasted till the card died

~I learned that pulling wires/cards out and putting them back in can make computer work again, even if it refused before. I learned how pc is built cause of that....

~Ctrl+Alt+Delete - solves most of messed up things

~When your screen starts to turn pink, then you don't think it is cute. You know it is time to change monitor's cord/wire.

~I changed 4-5 headsets with in half a year and the shortest time one of them lasted was few days. 1st one - died one side of it, 2nd - mic died, 3rd - I suddenly stood up and quickly left, while I still had them on ears so it got split into two parts, 4th - I am still using and it has showed some defects already.....