Passionate times

January has been a cold month of hot passion. I mean politics, naturally. If the Czech presidential election has been successful in one thing, it would be involving the public. Usually, people don't care much for politics and only few want to discuss it. Every minister, PM, MP is deemed a criminal and no-one believes it can ever change. So why bother.
But in this month even those uninterested suddenly found themselves discussing who is the best candidate, what are the flaws of his opponent(s) and what should be the decisive factors. As the campaign escalated and the first round narrowed the selection to just two candidates, things really started heating up. Are you team Zeman or team Schwarzenberg?...
The election is now over and two trends have appeared - those who want harmony, avoid further discussing politics since it brings only the opposite and demand the same of others, and those who just wouldn't stop. I am a member of the second half. Maybe because I am not able to accept that Mr Schwarzenberg has lost the election. Or maybe, because being political comes natural to me and I don't think that it should be limited to the pre-election hotheadedness. I believe in a more involved society. Yes, I am aware that a significant part of people thinks that obnoxious. But I don't see why keeping your mouth shut and carrying on should be deemed virtuous.

Don't you just want to share your life with someone? Does the solitary life make you happy? Tough questions especially when the good guy combined them with the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.
Just a few years back, it was ok to do stupid stuff, make bad choices, fall for jerks and avoid relationships. But maybe, it has become a habit.
I have spent a lot of time persuading my emotions to stay hidden and to let reason decide, then I have spent a lot of time learning to listen to emotions and realizing that it's ok to act based on them, when it comes to relationships. Now, I am at square one all over again. Should I do the adult thing or let my need to start running away take over? Which is the reasonable and which is the emotional thing to do? In a time when I should (finally) start moving from childhood to adulthood in many aspects, relationships should probably be one of those aspects. I know that to make the right choices I need to answer those two questions honestly. But every time I think about them I am clueless.

People (and especially people I know) like to think that they are different than the rest. They have their unique way of thinking, their own opinions, conclusions, behaviour.. Yet from time to time, there are moments when a majority reacts in the same way with the same sentiment. It always scares me a little bit. Even those that are proud to be independent individuals become a crowd and reconfirm their opinion through the same sentiments around them. Don't get me wrong, I am probably no different. The question on my mind is: isn't it just our pride that makes us think that we are independent brainiacs, when in reality we are just a herd of sheep that has seen a wolf and we all instinctively run in the opposite direction?

Escorts with PhDs.

So, since I have been ill, I have allowed myself a few breaks during work and re-watched some episodes of the Secret Diary of a Call Girl. It is a TV show about escorting in the UK. Two things:

-it is based on a book written by a real call girl. I was surprised to find that the author actually has a PhD in forensic science and is currently a researcher. She says she needed to support herself when she wanted to become a researcher in London after finishing her PhD and escorting was the way to do it. Kinda broke the image of a prostitute one would have in mind.

-in the version I watched few years back there was a very strong scene with a great song playing in the background. I remember it, because I spent some time googling that song and consequently started listening to other music by the same singer. So imagine my surprise, when I watched the same scene and the music was completely different. I was not sure, if my memory was that bad, or if I had gotten crazy. What a mindfuck..
(I have searched for other copies of this scene and others had the song I remembered, so I am not a total nutjob.)

I thought that Christmas will be this magical time. Suddenly all my troubles would go away and all I would think about would be decorating the Christmas tree (we got a really fabulous one this year), cooking and celebrating.
Working for an NGO combined with a demanding master's studies, a high volume of lab work and a job has been taking its toll on me. So I hoped I would be able to take a step back, relax and just do nothing for a few days. I was stupid to think that. Now I'm sick (virus received with compliments from my brother), there is plenty of work to be done by the end of the year and no time to do it. Gotta love the "holidays".

It is easy to become attached to someone. Either you instantly click or you spend some time together and before you know it, you get to know and understand the goals, ideals, hopes and dreams of the other person (at least to some extent). They stop being a stranger, a part of the faceless mass, and start being a part of your world.
And yet, what matters the most and what defines everything is your motivation for getting close with someone and their motivation for getting to know you.

High school crushes

- there are those that you don't get. You can't even believe that you had them. You start considering if your hormone levels were through the roof, to the moon and out of the solar system. You decide to pretend that it never happened since you don't want to deal with such a lapse of judgement.
- then, there are those that even after so many years are not gone. Somehow, the feeling is always there, has always been there, and you wonder. Then, suddenly, out of the blue, you don't have to wonder anymore. You need to make a decision. You might not be sure if it is your residual feelings, your real feelings or just curiosity, but you can't help wanting to give it a shot. Crazy? So what?

Not that I don't have dilemmas (moral or other). Not that they aren't more visible on my face than I think they are. Not that I don't behave oddly when I think about them. But I am always startled when I find out that my view/memory/perception of an evening is so completely different, if not opposite, from what others thought I was experiencing.
Just when I thought I was finally aware of how I seem to other people, I stand corrected.

I love science

Until August, I wasn't entirely certain that I had made the right choice after high school. Was molecular biology and science in general the thing to do in life? Was it a good fit for me?
Now I know that it would have been a mistake if I had chosen anything else.
Solving little puzzles every day and hopefully solving some bigger ones in the long term is just what I need. Learning new things, trying to understand the way stuff works, combining different approaches and methods to broaden the knowledge... So far it's just my knowledge that is being broadened, but hopefully that will change sometime soon. Add a lot of coffee, a lot of time and energy and a serious lack of sleep and it basically gives you the idea about what I have been doing lately.

Prostřeno je peklo

Jak asi mnoho lidí ví, mám sklony ke kompulzivnímu sledování seriálů. You name it, I have seen it (almost). Ve chvíli slabosti jsem vygooglovala pořad Prostřeno. Babička mi o něm kdysi říkala a děsně se jí to líbilo. Tak jsem to zkusila. Ó, můj bože!
Pořad je založený na tom, že každý týden je skupina pěti lidí, kteří se navzájem navštěvují na večeři a pak se navzájem hodnotí. Pominu-li, že reálně existuje čas, kdy hosté mají "šmejdit" a hodnotit, je ten případ krásnou ukázkou lidské hlouposti.
Obzvlášť vynikající je, když se vyloženě hloupí lidé snaží najít fiktivní důvody, proč dávají jinému soutěžícímu málo bodů. Peroxidová blondýna, čtyřicítka, v domácnosti, hrdě nosící tank tops, postupně zjišťuje, že nejí vůbec nic jiného, než to, co vaří ona sama. Při střelbě ze vzduchovky trefí sama sebe. Nevyhovuje jí zábava, protože očekávala, "že bysme si mohli zahrát Člověče, nezlob se." Opilec, který má problém artikulovat, říká o dýňové polévce, že: "to čekal takové šťavnatější, že ne dýně, je normální člověk, když se postavíte, vlastně máte strašidla, takže vlastně ta polívka mi připadala jako strašidla." Ach jo..

The MBTI system

Striving to understand how human psyche works and why different people see things differently I enrolled in an MBTI course. Basically the system classifies people according to their natural preferences into 16 types. There are four basic dichotomies - extroverted/introverted, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving. The names for each of these are kind of misleading, since some come from Jung and differ from our understanding of what for example intuition is. If you would like to read more on the issue, google it:-) Wikipedia page also gives some basic idea.
Finding out what your type is should help you understand why you see things the way you do and why others might see them differently. MBTI describes just inborn preferences, one may be trained to behave like the opposite type - for example people without the natural tendency to plan may be brought up by their parents to plan extensively etc.
I am still not entirely sure how close is the MBTI to science and how much to astrology, however the results make sense and it seems logical that people can be divided into types based on how they think and what they do. Which is why I am inclined to believe the former.
It was interesting to see, how other people look at things and what may come natural to them.
Now that I know my type, what's next? Probably keeping calm and carrying on:-)

The high point of my day was when my ass got asked out. I assume that it was my ass since that was the only part of me that the guy could have seen from behind, when he started asking if he could talk to me. And he wasn't drunk or with his guy friends or anything, he was dead serious. Do people do that? Just ask someone out on the street? Most importantly, do they do it when they can't even see the person's face until they are in the middle of asking them?
Anyway it totally overshadowed the fact that I got a bachelor degree today. What is a degree compared to a handsome stranger..

A puff of smoke

Don't you sometimes just want to be a smoker?
I smoked a few cigarettes in my life, mostly in bars with drinks. Then I decided that it is a bad habit, that it matters if I smoke or I don't and I stopped. Over time, I started hating it. Not just me smoking, but people around me smoking. Smokers who don't bother to throw the cigarette butts into a dustbin, or they do, but don't put it out first. Smokers, who don't care and smoke on bus stops, in the bus, on the stairs.. Smokers, who blow the smoke into your face and don't even realize it. Sitting next to a smoker or standing next to him/her in a crowded bus.
Even so, there are times, when smoking seems like a thing to do. When you have a few minutes to kill, not enough to do something or go somewhere, but too much to just stand and wait. When you are stressed out and you are in a desperate need of something to calm you down. When you just need a break since your brain is not working anymore.
Yes, there is plenty of other stuff that one can do, but why is the image of a oh-so-cool smoker and the idea of becoming him so appealing at times, even if you always end up not doing it?

Multipolar

Our perception is a matter so complicated, so incomprehensible that no-one can really determine what makes us see, what we see. Feel, what we feel. Experience, what we experience.
Within one day I have felt the pain of the world so pressing, that I felt like I could not go on. I felt a loss and a heartbreak, all being just a cruel trick of memory. Within the exact same day I have also experienced the absolute beauty of everything around me. Every blade of grass, every ray of sunlight, every feature of every face I saw was so graceful and alluring at the same time. It seemed like everything was permanent and indestructible, destined to be perfect forever.
How can one world bear such urgency and such laziness, such heartache and such love, so much honesty and so much lies? Why do we see the same things, the same people, the same situations with different eyes every time we look at them?

When you break up with a boy, you tell other people that "you broke up." When you have an argument with a friend, you tell mere acquaintances that "you had an exchange of opinions and possibly some differences" but you do not go into details. When your supervisor does not respond to most of your questions and does not meet the deadlines that she sets out for herself, you still write a thank you into the acknowledgement section of your thesis. And then you read her assessment of your thesis saying that you should get an A, but since you did not send her a solid draft of your thesis till a day before the deadline (not true) and still expected her to make comments and remarks (definitely not true), you acted really unprofessionally and you should get a B. Then, you think about the age-old dilemma: should I take it and make my life easier or should I fight it?

A Girl Always Needs To Be Saved

So today was a big first. I knowingly manipulated a man into doing something he might not have otherwise done. I played the helpless girl in trouble. It was a minor thing. It happened when I needed to place an order on ice cream after the deadline (I had no idea that he only works till three). The universe would not have imploded if there were no ice cream tomorrow. But I pretended that it would and that only he can prevent it and save me from being in trouble. And he agreed to make sure that the ice cream is delivered. He even mentioned something about delivering it himself.
I feel dirty all over.

Gastro zážitky

No.1:
Na to, kolik jsem o vietnamské kuchyni četla na milionu food blogů, jsem ji zkusila až po velmi dlouhé době. Ne, že by se mi nechtělo. Prostě to jen nikdy nebylo zrovna příhodně po cestě. Teď už se ale můžu řadit mezi všechny gastroúchyly, neb jsem ochutnala Pho. A kdo z vás to může říct?!
Asi skoro každý..

No.2:
Cukety je zase moc. Jako každý rok. A navíc ji brácha odmítá jíst. Už jsem ale našla způsob, jak ho přechytračit: sladkou cuketovou bábovkou. Dnes otestováno a spolehlivě můžu říct, že cuketa v tom nejde cítit ani trochu. Schválně, jestli ji tam odhalí bratrovy citlivé chuťové pohárky..

No.3:
Pečená holoubata jsem sice ještě nejedla, ale představuju si, že to bude něco jako křepelka. Potěšení jsem měla včera. A dnes. A můžu konstatovat, že: a) křepelka je malá mrška, která se obtížně obírá b) když nevíte, že je v něčem nádivka, příjemně vás to překvapí c) křepelky jsou zatraceně dobré a to i ohřívané v mikrovlnce.

Když Tesco mate zákazníka

Tesco zavádí v poslední době nový trik, který jistě zmate nejednoho zákazníka. První setkání proběhlo před týdnem a pár dny v Tescu Anděl - deky v akci za polovic. Nebo to aspoň tvrdila obří cenovka nad stojanem s dekami.

Reálně ale u pokladny naúčtovali cenu o kus vyšší - 152 Kč a nějaké drobné. Při reklamaci se ale paní, jménem tuším Libuše, místo omluvy rozhodla ukázat, zač je toho loket. Zavedla nás ke stojanu a agresivním hlasem nám vysvětlovala, že "různé druhy" znamená pouze červená a fialová, že dole na stojanu jsou malé cedulky, kde jsou rozepsané ceny pro jednotlivé barvy, že se prostě na zakoupené zboží nevztahuje akce atd. atp. A mnoha dalšími způsoby z nás místo omluvy dělala voly. Wtf? Ukázalo se, že pokud by platily malé cenovky na spodní straně stojanu, nebylo by reálně jediné zboží, na které by se vztahovala horní obří cenovka. Díky neuvěřitelné vytrvalosti a odhodlání A., za které si zaslouží obdiv, Tesco paní nakonec byla nucena uznat chybu a vrátila rozdíl cen. Na omluvu byste však čekali marně.

Dalo by se říct, že se mohlo jednat o ojedinělou záležitost a optimiticky jsem měla tendenci si to myslet, dokud jsem v neděli v Tescu na Lukách nenarazila na velmi povědomou situaci.

Zde si na velké ceduli nad stojanem můžete všimnout ceny 29,9 Kč.

Zato na malých cenovkách dole je na jedné 54,9 Kč a na druhé 44,9 Kč.

Podobná situace je k vidění i zde:

Nahoře 19,9 Kč, dole 24,9 Kč.
Ani jedno ovoce jsem si nekoupila, ale optimista moc nejsem. Rozhodně už ale vím, že velkým cedulím nevěřit a pídit se po malých.
Děsí mě, že toto může být cílená a bohužel i velmi účinná strategie. Obchodník může počítat s tím, že účtenky kontroluje málokdo a že kvůli pár korunám se půjde hádat jen pár lidí. A z těch to většina vzdá, když jim bude Tesco paní dávat jednoznačně najevo, že jsou pitomci, a dělat z nich veřejně voly.
Základní poučení tedy je (a za vulgarismus se omlouvám): nenechat si srát na hlavu a bojovat s nimi o každou korunu. I když je to směšná suma, Tesco si ji nezaslouží dostat za nic.

Kupón na MHD

Při nákupu šalinkarty bývaly na výběr dvě možnosti - u okénka nebo přes internet. Od doby, co na "mé" stanici metra zrušili okénko, zbývá v podstatě jen koupě přes internet.
Pominu-li všechny další aspekty Opencard, měla jednou z jejích nesporných výhod být právě možnost jednoduchého, samoobslužného a rychlého nákupu v eshopu. Nějaký zlomyslný člověk se ale rozhodl, že se mu tento nápad nelíbí, a tak se vrhl na tvorbu webu s jinými cíly - udělat nákup co nejkomplikovanější a nejpomalejší.
Pokaždé je tak nutné se proklikat přes 13 stránek(!), při čemž tak polovina jich má nulovou informační hodnotu. Ve srovnání nákup přes eshop ČD je stránek 6, stejně jako u RegioJetu nebo třeba na asos.com.
U DPP člověk následně obdrží 4 emaily - potvrzení přijetí objednávky, potvrzení přijetí platby kartou, daňový doklad a informaci, že kupón byl doručen. Minimálně o jeden, ale spíš o dva, by se to zkrouhnout dalo, někdo v DPP je ale neukojený spammer.
DPP se asi tím vším snaží dát svým zákazníkům najevo, že by s nimi chtěl trávit více času.
Proč proboha?!

Princezna na hrášku

Ze všech možných zranění se mi vždycky daří ty nejhloupější. Jako když jsem si na střední v hodině tělocviku při kotoulu letmo vlastním kolenem zlomila nos. Nebo když jsem jako tříletá chtěla otevřít dveře mámě s kočárkem, o který jsem ovšem zakopla a rozsekla si čelo přímo uprostřed. Nebo před dvěma týdny, když jsem si nakopla malíček tak, že jsem pak týden nebyla schopná chůze. Což by ještě nebylo tak špatné, kdyby se mi to ovšem nepodařilo po cestě do Tater. Nakonec jsem to po návratu nevydržela a šla k doktorovi, který mi na to dal "náplasťovou fixaci". Nejdřív jsem si myslela, že si dělá srandu, ale kupodivu nedělal. Náplasťová fixace nejenže existuje, ale dokonce i docela výrazně pomáhala. Tedy jen do dnešního večera, kdy jsem si v rámci akrobacie ve sprchovém koutu s igelitovým pytlíkem na noze fixaci namočila (asi v důsledku špatně vybraného pytlíku). Rázem přestala lepit a tedy i fixovat..
Nechápu, že nejsem schopná si způsobit nějaké normální zranění. Třeba zlomenou nohu, nebo ruku.. To bych si ji aspoň mohla nechávat podepisovat od kamarádů. Mohla bych se tvářit, že jsem hrozný borec, neb by se mi taková zlomenina určitě podařila při zachraňování něčího života nebo tak něco.. Byla bych za hrdinu a nemusela bych vysvětlovat, proč proboha kulhám.
Vím, že si ty "pravé" zlomeniny idealizuju. Ale než skuhrat kvůli malíčku na noze (což se mi v uplynulých dvou týdnech úspěšně daří), radši bych něco, co i normálnímu člověku přijde jako úraz. Když už, tak už..