Waking II

I'm feeling more motivated today. The past days I have been writing - and while that deadly project for my religious classes still hasn't really kicked off, the creative side has been going along steadily. 

I've currently got a character called "Hariton James Zinchenko" or "Mr Zinchenko" who is pretty cool (yet a little dark), and I'm thinking of future ideas for posts for this blog, such as the numerous Taxi Driver stories I have collected over my travels, information about my monastery visit, reviews on some places to eat in both Bath and Bristol (e.g, how good Hoi Faan and Chinese dumplings are!) and a few general things I've found out in my religion classes and general research. 

I realise that I tend to go up and down on the whole 'motivated'/'inspired' axis, which frankly, is exhausting in itself. I recently told a close friend of mine that he should 'listen' and 'anaylse' if he wanted a clearer direction to go towards. I think I'll try to do that. This recklessness is not me anymore. Spontanious plans, random ideas maybe. But, recklessness just makes me go round circles. I will walk forward for now on, jaja.

Waking

I woke up late today. And while I sit on my bed and think "I will do lots of things to make this day it worth it", I find my concentration dwindling too quickly for any progress to become. On the laptop, I have the start of an essay I was meant to try and conquer a week ago. I also have a story that I've had several false starts and have struggled writing, despite liking the idea I had for it. And then comes the lectures and seminars, which I haven't really been attending. I think I'm so used to be tired, that even when I am awake, it feels like I am still half asleep.

Among many things, I've been listening to Brian Crain and his gentle piano music. He is a very good composer, if only perhaps a little too simple in some of his earlier work. It's nice to listen to in this kind of mood.

I've applied to volunteer at Action On Hearing Lost (RNID) yesterday, and funnily enough, they need a volunteer in Bath to work on Monday - the day I have off every week. If I think about it, it's quite a coincidence and luck that I know a little bit of Sign Language, and there have been occasional opportunities to learn at a church I sometimes attend. Things tend to work out better if I take advantage of these things, especially when they're right in front of me. I'll try to work harder from now on.

Bhutan

I wasn't too happy with my previous country profile post, so I will try and make this one look much more interesting.

Bhutan!

Bhutan is a landlocked South Asian country below Tibet, and has quite a few interesting points to talk about. For example, in Bhutan, the offical language is Dzongkha, which has roughly 170,000 speakers, and they write it the Tibetan script which looks like this འབྲུག་ཡུལ  (Translates as: Bhutan) Their anthem, Druk Tsendhen, means "The Thunder Dragon Kingdom." Which to be honest, kinda blows me away in coolness.

They have various festivals, the one that seem to be the most important and interesting is called Tsechu. This is held annually, and is associated with Drukpa Buddhism, or འབྲུག་པ་བཀའ་བརྒྱུད. Drukpa Buddhism is considered a new 'school' of Tibetten Buddhism. I think* Drukpa Buddhism (all these names!) is one of paths in Vajrayana Buddhism, but I am not really sure. It's supposedly Bhutan's main religion. I'll edit the blog if I can find out the differnece between Drukpa and Vajrayana, but the difference between Vajrayana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism (which shares a very large proportion of Buddhism with Therevada and Tibetten) is that Vajrayana has "empowerments" while the latter doesn't, which are apparently for Tantric rituals which is apparently is also what Vajrayana Buddhism can also be called as, as well as Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism, the Diamond Way, or the Thunderbolt Way. (Alright, I name spammed on purpose, but the info is genuine! {ish})

Tsechu

Back to the Tscehu, it seems to involve a lot of dancing, including the Cham Dance, which involves colourful costumes and masks in two-time.

Check it out.

Other Information

Bhutan recently became a constitutional monarchy.

And I think that's it for this post. I'll try to update this one if I can find anymore information later. Expect another country profile soon!

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

I started with a quick google search on this one, and according to the Telegraph, Venezula is the most violent country in South America, with a record of 21, 692 murders last year, along with a surge of kidnappings, prison riots and random shootings.

And just below that, I found various links for tourism. It just so happens, that despite the political situations and violence, Venezula is home to some beautiful world landmarks. While home to a few national parks, it also owns the stunning Angel Falls natural wonder, the longest waterfall on Earth.

Typical things to note

• Venezula is a Spanish speaking country, due to the Spanish colonising the country in the 16th century.
• It also has very, very big oil reserve, which is incredibly important to the economy, and also very much involved in the history of the country. "Petroleum and nothing else is the theme of Venezuela's contemporary history." - Arturo Uslar Pietri.
• Venezula is home to the Cuatro guitar.

And if you've seen Venezula in the news recently, it's probably about their president. Just after their elections, the prime minister had surgery in Cuba, and has not been able to return. Tension is building on his return, and the opposition are calling for a re-election.

More Information

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/venezuela/index.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/01/20/world/americas/ap-lt-venezuela-chavez.html?_r=0
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-venezuela-chavez-chatter-20130119,0,4396671.story
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/venezuela
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ve.html 

Books
- http://books.google.hu/books?id=Cq-5QRDNVDEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=venezuela&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ToL8UI-yNOmg0QWjhoGYDQ&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=venezuela&f=false
-  Venezuela: A Century of Change By Judith Ewell

War of the Arrows (Film)

After a nice three days, I decided to end tonight watching a film. Out of the choice of the Sherlock film, and a Korean archy-warchy lots of fighting-y film, I decided to watch the one that was least likely to be watched by any friends coming over.

So I put the Korean DVD in the laptop.

War of the Arrows
Choi Jong byeong gi Hwal

This is a film about heroes. The main hero, Nam Yi, goes through a very traumatic childhood, (as every main hero tends to) and trains to be an archer/hunter kinda dude. It all goes well, and he gets pretty badass, until he decides to take to the bottle, starts camping out in the forest and visiting brothels. Then he's all pretty lame, until he finds a reason to live and fight. His sister and her partner is taken away by Chinese forces and sent back to China as slaves. Time to become an archer/hunter again, and fight the Chinese army despite being completely outnumbered.

What I like about the film is how the characters develop. Each main character have a turning point of absolute bravery, and would rather die standing.

Against a sword, even Nam Yi's sister isn't lame in this pretty macho film.

The enemy is pretty cool too, with their studded leather and similar, menacing haircuts. They have stronger bows, and swords. You really feel the effort Nam Yi has to go through, and his ordeals.

There were many small things I liked about the film for example, Nam Yi's consistent inventiveness, the focus on the bow as a weapon rather than the sword, the major, major references to Korean culture as it was back then, and the sign language dude in the enemies' army. He is pretty dang funky, has a lot of lines to sign and really impressed me. It was quite unexpected in this film.

What did get to me however was at the end of the film, I was getting too much of a House of Flying Daggers feel, though I won't spoil the ending!

The Plot: +7 Points
The Quality of Drama: +10 Points
Music/Settings/Charisma of the film: +9 Points
The Characters: +10 Points
Cheese: 0 Points
Bonus Points: +2 for fighting lady,
- 2 for cliché, - 2 for ending.

This film scores 34, equivalent to 3 and a half stars!

Ting shuo / Hear Me - Taiwanese Deaf Film

It is a rare opportunity to be able to watch an entire Taiwanese film perfectly dubbed. Now imagine the luck when I found a Taiwanese deaf film called "Ting shuo", or "Hear Me", completely subbed in English, available on Youtube. Of course, being interested in the Deaf Community, I had to watch it.

The film focuses on two sisters who communicate using sign language, and a boy, also fluent in sign, who fancies the younger girl. It is a tale of romance, while addressing top issues within the deaf community and the outside world. Only parts of the film are spoken, so the emotions and signing the characters display and show are the main medium for storyline. 

As with many Taiwanese films, there is a heck of a lot of drama, and this is incredibly well done in Ting Shuo. The story is very touching, and beautiful. It manages on the whole to avoid cheese, though the extent of the guy's infatuation may seem a little creepy to other viewers. 

I would defiantly recommend this film to others.

The Plot: +10 Points

The Quality of Drama: +10 Points

Music/Settings/Charisma of the film: +10 Points

The Characters: +10 points

Cheese: - 2 Points

Bonus Points: +3 for humour, +5 for topic

This film scores 46 points! Equal to 5 stars!

Me cansada de nuevo

I probably messed up the Spanish.

I'm tired again, and find myself relaxing in my room. Somehow, it seems to be progressively tidier, though still not perfect. A pile of library books begin to stack, I am getting behind again.

Again, again, again, again.

I recently updated Tulinkei, and came back to university. I've been doing all sorts of things really, while at the same time, I've been doing nothing. Stilted progress. Two weak essays handed in - I'm ashamed. Still, I try my best - that's all I can do.

I find some interesting news today, one about a puppy being thrown at a biker gang, the other about the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival, the latter of which I might write a blog about.

I also found a friend's blog, and done a few practical things like reply to a few e-mails - "admin" kinda stuff.

And I feel pretty tired now, so I'll probably end it here, and talk about my exciting story of getting into university another time. See you.

How to "read" people - The basic basics: Do's and Don'ts

A very basic 'basics' on how to "read" people. This is written very simply, most likely for a much younger audience than perhaps, my actual readers. (Most likely, because I don't really know what I am talking about.) I guess this could be more of a simple guide to conversation rather than reading, but I enjoyed writing in the sarcasm here, so I'll just apologise now and publish.

(Perhaps I shouldn't write posts at half one in the morning...)

When reading people, don't force the Sherlock.

What I mean by this:

Don't over complicate things unnecessarily. You may notice strange habits, and want to fit a story into it, but this can be a mistake, and you may be over dramatising the situation. It can be fun using imagination - looking at the passerby on the street and wanting to guess their entire live story - but remember, you're guessing! In reality, when facts are so limited, statistically, you're never going to get it right. Which leads nicely onto the next point...

Statistics can be useful.

What I mean by this:

People are called people because a person can be quite alike with another person. People do similar things. Similar habits. Statistically, if you find one similar habit means a certain thing, or if you find when you say something, people react a similar way - you can work with that statistic. It's not foolproof, or save, but it can help.
People are individuals after all.

Leave the magnifying glass behind or Don't force the Sherlock 2

What I mean by this:

Also, when you spot certain things, think about the quality of information you have received. When your friend changes their butter from 'Utterly Butterly' to 'Clover' - by the time you've invented a nifty story about how they're feeling - they've left! And you've got zilch. Which, leads me onto another point, why the heck don't you just ask them anyway?

Talking and being direct is the best way to gain knowledge.

What I mean by this:

If you think about it, it's kind of creepy if you're just watching your friends and don't actually try to communicate with them. If you want to know something, ask. Don't presume, don't second guess, don't will them to give away a clue. Just ask. If you're friend is honest, they will tell you. If they are hiding something, then perhaps, it may possibly be for the best?
10 % of communication is done verbally. You may have heard advice from others to watch out for all that give away body language.
Actually, you're already doing that subconsciously. Sometimes, it's the words, (sometimes the slip ups!) that give you the important information. Which leads onto...

LISTEN. LISTEN. LISTEN. DANG WELL MAKE SURE TO LISTEN.

What I mean by this:

Sometimes, people need someone to talk to and they choose you. Listen. What they tell you is specifically important, and if you ever want to read or understand people - it is a given that you must listen to what they say. Listening is your best ally, and can help put you in a good advantage. It's a bit sneaky, but sometimes, listening or overhearing/watching can also be very helpful in understanding people.
Imagine a child that listens and remembers those conversations between the adults at dinner. The child catches that Aunt Pat didn't like Nanny Pauline's parsnips. In fact, Aunt Pat always complains about Pauline's food, - but not to Pauline herself, and has, on occasion, said she quite likes parsnips. So, most likely, Aunt Pat probably just doesn't really like Nanny Pauline - but not only that, there is still a feud, still an active effort to dislike Nanny Pauline. The child watches how others react to Aunt Pat. Lets say, they all sigh and move the conversation quickly - perhaps, they've had enough of Aunt Pat, and they see the feud as pointless and empty. That's a lot of information that child has gained just by watching, and listening.

Knowing when to talk and when to listen is an important key skill to have.  It is essential to practice this.

Once, when I was studying Buddhism, I happened to find myself sitting in the middle of a seminar lead by a monk. We were given the task to pair up with the rest of the students, and have one speaker, one listener. It's an interesting exercise, just to listen to someone, yet not utter a single word, not even to reassure that you are listening. Sometimes, the speakers found it difficult to talk for the allocated time, but others found it easier and enjoyed speaking. Despite the different types of speakers, each listener gained significant information from their partner, despite never meeting or speaking to them before in their lives.

To listen before talking, would probably help you know what to talk about. Try to watch when they want to say something important, sometimes, they will look for you to change the subject, or interrupt with your own views, etc. But if you focus on listening, your speaker will most likely add more detail, and thus, further your understanding, helping your "reading".

What is Druidary?

As a student studying religion, I have to sometimes look outside the frame of 'structured' or organised religion, and take a good look at other, more 'spiritual' religions. This is a very short introduction about my understanding of what is Druidary.

The issue is, there are multiple groups of people that are called the same name 'Druid' yet vary significantly. Scholars have issue in discussing about Druidary because of this, and also because contemporary Druidism found in across the world can vary from a religion, a spiritual outlook, or a philosophy.

 Dr Suzanne Owen describes contemporary Druidary as

"a British response to the land of the Britons."

However, she admits there is a problem with this, because you can find Druidary across the world. She goes further, to mention the concept of awen, the Welsh word for ‘inspiration’. Through the groups she had studied, Pagan and a few Christian, there is always awen.
Each group also had a relationship with the outside, even the Victorian groups. During the rituals the outdoors is also significant.
The eightfold calender is also important for a lot of Druids, and this is probably influenced by Pagans ideas.
There is an ambulatory towards some kind of Diety. This can be the Christian idea about God, or the a Pagan Deity, or it could even be an animist idea of a 'spirit' - which can be described as anything. The sheer vagueness helps Druidary avoid a doctrine, which can encourage members to join.

Other reasons people are influenced by Druidary is because it is not patriarchal, and it is very much an individual exploration. Some see it as an alternative to religion, (despite others call it a religion!) as they associate religion with hierarchy and institutions. Most Druids would except Druidary being known as a 'Spirituality'.

 According to Dr Suzanne Owen, there are three main threads of Druidary.
- During Victorian times there was a 'Druid' organisation that were interested in British, Nationalist interests. They were friendly societies. It was men only.

- Then Pagan roots of Druidary became altogether a different development, yet under the same name. There is a keen interest in environmentalism, and it is often quite romanticised. The ideology  questions such as haswhat has industrialisation has led to? How can we get back into nature? There a are a few links with the friendly societies, but many more differences. The main difference is that there are equal opportunities for women and men. The Pagan influence may have become popular because of it's openness, just as Wiccan had been adopted by the US by those looking for more feminist ideologies.

- There is another thread from Christian tradition. There is contemporary forms of Druids who identify themselves as Christian. These tend to be smaller groups then their Pagan cousins, and can really intergrate and share ideas between them. I personally wouldn't call these complete, seperate stands, but more like a diversity of Druidism itself. Like... the different kinds of apple you can get. These druids are both the same fruit.
 
There are other threads, such as secular Druidism too. But as with any open religion, or spiritualism with no doctorine, you'll forever find individuals who have unique backgrounds but feel they rightfully belong in a certain group, and who are we to say otherwise?

----
You can find more about what  Dr Suzanne Owen has to say about Druidary here.

Websites that may interest you:
http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/what-druidry
http://www.druidry.co.uk/
http://www.druidry.org/board/dhp/index.php?sid=989d8db616c86978694332fe33d4fe60
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/south/series3/druids.shtml
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/d/the_druids.aspx

Other blog posts:
http://matthewslater.blogspot.co.uk/2008/01/christian-druid.html
http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/other-paths/christianity-druidry

Druidary in the news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2173194.stm