“Mr Klaus and his supporters had opposed the treaty fearing it would lead to closer European integration and give too much power to Brussels.” FT.com

“Opinion polls showed most Czechs wanted their president to sign and worried that his continued resistance was harming their country’s standing in the EU.” FT.com

Finally, the Treaty is signed! pheewww things can move on. Hopefully for a better governance of the Union. Now let’s all gather and discuss the next steps, shall we? What will happen next, now that the treaty is signed? ^^

In my quest for graphic tools and gadgets I have discovered the possibility of actually buying a graphic tablet, as I am learning illustrative art and design. So today I have started reading bits and pieces of reviews. Should you have any recommendations regarding the perfect tablet for drawing, I would certainly take them into considerations. help me decide what features count most and learn how tablets have changed the way graphic design is being done! :)

First of all, about.com has an article of things one should be aware of before buying a graphic tablet. I’d say a good informative read! I learned that desired size of a tablet would be 4”, 5” even 8” for home users and hobbyists. Apparently, Wacom and Aiptek are the only manufacturers known to produce wide-format graphics tablets. The pen/stylus can offer a bunch of features too. There are more things but I will not list them all now.

Before choosing a gadget it is important to check reviews and specs. A few websites that offer a bunch of reviews of graphic tables are:

• Testseek
• Graphics tablet Reviews
• Pixmania.co.uk
• Best Tablet Review

I’ve yet to learn more and discover the features that most interest me. I’m not looking for something expensive though. Wish me luck! :)

Today I pondered a lot on my dream: to write my novel in a cottage high up in the Swiss Alps. The actual place does not matter that much, but the wish to write and feel artistic in my own way of expressing colors and sounds with a palette of words is overwhelming. Every year I plan to write a bit more. I have started my novel – maybe few of you know that. It’s hand-written in an old notebook with yellow pages – yes! they’re already yellow. It’s rather bohemian in nature, a notebook with red covers (so it used to be) – the place where my childhood has rooted phrases in my head only to gather them all later in this very notebook.

How it all started? I would really have to ponder more :) I guess it started with a book by Mihail Sadoveanu – a famous Romanian writer. A small diary also contributed with tiny pages for the poems I was writing at the time.

It feels good to remember. It feels good to know how things begin, how memories unfold. It is also a delight when I manage to put it all together – I will, in my novel.

Click here to read more about this initiative.

AND

]]> http://sunflowerluv.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/its-november-start-writing/feed/ 0 sunflowerluv http://sunflowerluv.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/on-love-and-friendship/ http://sunflowerluv.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/on-love-and-friendship/#comments Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:30:07 +0000 sunflowerluv http://sunflowerluv.wordpress.com/?p=1998 ]]>

Love comes from blindness, friendship from knowledge. -Bussy-Rabutin, Comte De

Love that comes from friendship though cannot be blind. Love that comes from friendship is deep and thoughtful, romantic and incredibly special; knowledge and friendship spice up love in a multitude of ways.

“We need to forget things before we want to remember them.”

Truth is I don’t even want to remember the possibility of some things that haven’t yet happened but are somehow bound to. External forces that steal all control and leave one powerless and with a grand soundless poke from fate. It’s complicated. I will not explain.

I sincerely like long-strapped bags because I can wear them across my body and not worry that the strap slides on my shoulder. This season they’re very trendy and Vogues likes to praise the style. Read more here.

“One of the best places for this kind of bag is at a concert,” saysVogue Fashion Writer Jane Herman, who just took her little YSL pouch to a Dodos show in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “You can clap, hold a drink, and easily keep an eye on your bag.”

I do like this bag a lot! It looks comfy, simple, special and matches my style.

A weekly meme hosted by Janet at Friday Fill-Ins

1. The crickets sing, winter is coming.

2. I am thinking of you, wherever you are.

3. I want to get far away from the noise and pollution.

4. Learning to play the guitar; this was a dream.

5. But as for me I am not always so cheerful as people believe me to be.

6. Many people want to know where I come from, because they believe I am of Hispanic origin.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to a lovely walk in the park, tomorrow my plans include conference with my friend from Guatemala and a lot of work on my thesis and Sunday, I want to visit my grandma!

Maybe many of my friends and acquaintances have been wandering. I have kept many in the dark about details or flashes of stories. I’ve been enjoying fall, though under a circumspect load of actions on my part, incessant ideas and longing for new adventures abroad. I’m getting along with my thesis and it’s going great. I’m also working at the same time on an EU Project.

And for some extra dose of novelties:

• traveled to the mountains in August

• got a Google Wave account ! the preview is quite good, there’s lots to learn about waving ;)
• got a netbook which I’m enjoying a lot

my new netbook

• worked in the garden and hand picked my fave veggies

• rediscovered autumn delights

walnuts, corn, my grandma's chickens and leafy trees

• fell in love with interior design and I wonder why I haven’t done some design and creative studies for a change
• sort of planned winter holidays (but there are details to sort out)
• traveled to Budapest for Balazs’ graduation: read more here.
• have been drinking more coffee than I used to (I’m not proud)
• have checked Facebook more often, since most of my friends are abroad and reachable this way
• have had a couple of interviews for next year and there are more to come, but focusing more on thesis now and the EU project I’m working on
• reread Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen ^^
• rediscovered a special online community –> takingITglobal

Surprisingly so, I secretly didn’t want to go to Norway for one year. It would have been totally against my/our sought-out plans. It might have indeed complicated matters and have led to a development of novel situations and exceedingly unnerving feelings. I’m not going there. And it is good to know and get my mind off things, except for those pointing me to BXL.

It’s settled. Life works when it points out the road in an old fashioned way and pokes you in the shoulder to get your attention. To me it says: “you’re on for a great adventure to BXL, the city you wanted in the first place. So, you’d better find a way to get there fast, as there’s nothing else to stop you now”.

Yes, life can be direct and can give me long speeches too.

I call it MINE.

It is a beautiful Ann Taylor dress, with simple folds and stylish appearance. And oh the color. I got it in my reader feed from a website called The bridal wishlist. But this is dress can be perfectly suited for let’s say a New Year’s party.

Dress by Ann Taylor/ via The Bridal Wishlist

I love it. I had to post it here and hear your thoughts.

And it is official: if/when I get it I have my personal photographer for the photo shoot. YAY

Now.. who wants to get this for me as a present?

Lately I seem to get inspired mostly by photos. My writings tend to become either deep self-reflections or muddily excited rants. Defining thus my constant state of apprehension for things to come, while deciding to stay firmly put and still focus on what’s happening right here/there, right now.

So to say, I have my heart at work to join the disjointed flickers of misaligned alternatives OR to put it simply –> to make sense of what I am and what I want for now and for the after now.

(via aheartaday.com)

I thought a lot about Climate Change and campaigns, sometimes being sceptical about the efficiency of word-of-mouth communication and awareness vs. real actions. There are many campaigns and they are to be applauded and supported. The end goal though is for each of these movements to trigger something in people’s behaviour: a sense of community building aiming to change. A feeling of trust in the ability of people to do something for the better and for future generations. Not leaving it to others to carry on ideals and different actions, but taking part in them too.

I assume a lot about people and I tend or wish to believe there is wish for goodness in humanity in each. Idealistic. Sometimes I doubt everyone and I refuse to believe there even is a problem like global warming. Because this “crisis” is as huge as the Earth, is humane, is real, but not perceived. It is portrayed as too large to be grasped in real life. My perception. I joined groups like change.org where it is shown how little actions like for example turning off water while your brushing your teeth instead of leaving it to flow in vain. Little actions count so much, but they are taken only by those people who understand Global Warming and such crisis in real life, at tangible level.

What can most of us do? Become aware of it, teach others, learn and take the chance of doing little things. Because combined, myriads of little actions can do wonders.

Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. Read more here.

“Love as if your heart isn’t fragile.”

Love quotes ring a tune in my mind, somehow teasing me to free thinking and borderless  choco spread on my morning pancake. Not as if I have pancakes every morning. That would be too much self-indulging for the month of October, at least. :)

I was pondering on whether to include memes in my blog, but since I update either too often or less than frequently, I wouldn’t seem to enjoy memes around here. So no to memes. ^^

Then I found the beautiful love quote, in reference to fragile “everything”. Musing back on another phrase about the passing of time and a chat about “can’t wait” ecstatics.  I guess love does come hand in hand with “I don’t like waiting”, though it becomes a paradox when it comes to doing more than you bargained for in the beginning or you thought you did. Love shouldn’t be complicated, the heart shouldn’t be fragile, yet they both are thus somehow, unless you’re blessed by chance and stomped by boldness to endure. One learns and develops – and this happens in such a wonderful state when there’s love!

Love is positive thinking. Another chat of today was about the beautiful year coming ahead: a 2010 beautified by great thoughts and special good wishes. After a 2009 of waiting and spinning around in circles (for me at least), it’s time for shiny possibilities. Right now transition for the new should begin and each person could contribute with a positive thought/wish. The more positive thoughts, the better. More love to share could be an outcome of positivity spread. Even if you start small.. with choco pancakes in the morning ;)

There’s a lot of over writing, cover writing, extra writing, copy writing..

The amount of information makes it challenging for “the new” to be expressed through words. So many flaunted apprehensions, so many beliefs in reiterations.

In my mind something new is evolving, to become magic. Actually magic is overrated. I prefer simplicity and witty logos. For the sake of winning time and re-devising fundamentals.

(via kevinrobotica)

^_^ because [she] is not me, but I’d like to be [her] because [she] can change style and shoes whenever. And [she]’s illustrated.

“]

[what I wore drawings

“Scent can bring back more emotionally intense and evocative memories than other senses, like sight or touch. You feel transported to the time and the place,” says Rachel S. Herz, Ph. D., a visiting professor of psychiatry and human behavior and psychology at Brown University and the author of The Scent of Desire.

Who hasn’t experienced this? Smell is an incredible sense, brings back feelings and memories, puts one in a state of trance even. For me various scents evoke childhood memories, first summer together with my boyfriend, home, lovely days during winter, etc. I feel my sense of smell becomes better in time, with experience of distinguishing floral from spice for example. I love cooking for this reason – being able to indulge myself in colourful scents, spices.

The scent/memory relationship is actually pretty complex. The CliffsNotes version: When odor molecules enter the nose, they’re filtered through olfactory nerve cells and go into the limbic system, the emotional center of the brain. That emotion becomes fixed to the odor memory and gets locked in your gray matter until it’s revived with a whiff. Put more simply, emotion + smell = a scent memory. more here.

I truly think Google loves the triggered butterfly effect launched by Google Wave pending invitations. It’s the word of mouth or so to say twitter, but way beyond it.

Publicity? Who needs it when GoogleWave has been a Top Trending Topic on Twitter for a few days now. Mashable has published a how to use Google Wave guide here. Scoble doesn’t really like Google Wave for some reasons. eBay UK is flooded with Wave invites. And so on. The world we live in is becoming a media race of who gets it first. Who gets it done. Who gets google wave.. endless search for invitees. Looking for one? Apply on the marketplace here. It’s worth a try, I guess.

Enjoy the process!

I’m sure the whole world will benefit from Wave at some point in the near future. It’s almost like flooding the movie theatres on premiere nights instead of waiting for the DVD release. :)

A weekly meme hosted by Janet at Friday Fill-Ins

1. I have a history of taking pictures.

2. Crocheting is something I wish I knew.

3. I’m eating (or recently ate) fruit salad.

4. Best ideas come when I’m on the road.

5. So that’s it, that’s what they call efficiency.

6. Smiles better than nothing!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to cozy time, tomorrow my plans include yoga and ordering my new netbook and Sunday, I want to try something new!

I accidentally found this online magazine while browsing issuu. The magazine Book Page seems like a good read for those who like to keep updated with what’s new and what’s on the pipeline in books.

Here’s some fall fiction to watch for..ahem!.. besides Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol :)