Greetings, and welcome to an open thread offered up for sacrifice to the Street Prophets group.
I thought I'd share an article that caught my eye. The whole nasty situation surrounding Crimea, Russia and Ukraine has many people more than a little nervous. Earlier today the Czech President and Prime Minister offered their opinions on how we should be handling the tense situation in Ukraine.
Czech President Miloš Zeman offered this:
I'm for effective and very decisive, in many cases even preventative action, because prevention is always cheaper than later extinguishing a fire. I believe that the EU and NATO will find the courage to engage in what's sometimes called "deterrence"-- precisely in order that history will not be repeated and the beginning of a chain reaction will be blocked.
With the article adding that Zeman said that "Crimea is lost."
He goes on to refuse the idea of sanctions against Russia invoking the ineffectiveness of the sanctions against Cuba in toppling the regime of Fidel Castro and further stating:
To give empty, meaningless declarations of the boo boo boo, you you you type, and nothing more, would mean the discrediting of the EU.
In contrast, the Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka commented, "The situation in Ukraine has no military solution." Further stating that he's against threatening Russia for the sake of Ukraine.
In the case of a further escalation of tensions he'd tighten sanctions against Russia. "I don't think that we should be rattling sabres, that now is the time for the beating of war drums," said Sobotka who doesn't want to see the rise of another Iron Curtain and a new Cold War.
Banner hanging from the Church of the Holy Savior near the east end of Charles Bridge in Prague: "HANDS OFF UKRAINE PUTIN! BĚŽ DOMŮ IVANE [translation: Run Home, Ivan]" -- It's perhaps good to note that the Church of the Holy Savior is part of the Klementinum which is the heart of Charles University. Those students love their banners.
Under the orange hairball this week you'll just find my usual personal blithering. You're welcome to skip to the comment section for cookies and soothing beverages. There's only so much worrying about Putin's overcompensation for his inadequacies as a man that a werelynx can struggle with before needing a cup of coffee.
A few peas rattling around in my pod this week:
It's been colder this week. We've had sun, we've had rain but mostly what we haven't had is frost. Where are those treacherous Spring frosts? The birches and willows are already showing off bright new leaves. Doesn't look like I'll even be able to cut any willow branches still flexible enough for braiding into the traditional Easter pomlázka-- I'm afraid that the rapidly aging women in my life will have to go without their rejuvenating lashes.
'Course, I do have some wheat growing on the table, so there is that at least.
Grassy, green and growing. I'm already imagining transplanting it and harvesting it at the end of Summer.
There were tiny tulips to be found blooming in the parks this week:
And whatever this is:
I think I got this drawing to the point where I'm calling it finished:
Just need to scan it and make sure it's cleaned up properly. Well, maybe a bit darker over in that...
It never ends until it's finally time to move on to new things.
I managed to find myself logged out of a site that I use as one of my online portfolios. Somebody must have updated something, a cookie was tossed, or some similar tragedy. The problem was I didn't remember my password. Spent a couple of days playing tag with their tech support team before they scrounged up the right link for me and all is well again. I'm slowly updating. Getting new work posted and deciding what of the old stuff I'd still like to show people.
For fun I've decided to create a business Facebook profile for myself as an artist. At this point I've collected about a dozen followers on my personal profile garnered from folks who've seen my work posted about the place or just want to introduce themselves and share their photos with me if I'll befriend them and their pouty, pouty lips and gravity defying anatomy. I rather wish I'd thought to create this separate profile before I'd joined so many art and advertising groups. Putting in a new request to join their ranks seems a bit like sockpuppetry to me. As it is, I haven't done the obvious thing and invited my entire 'friends' list to visit my new profile. I'm sitting back wondering if it will ever take off by itself. I'm not good at self-promotion. This is actually the first time I've ever written about it to anyone.
I also made a few inquiries about joining a site that would give me space to post some comics-- they'd get to post their ads of course; can't expect much for free.
A bit of work was done on a short story. Finally actually making some decisions about an actual plot. It had been all character, an opening scene and a stray thought for a closer. Now it seems to not only have a place to stand and a destination, but also a series of stepping stones to help it get there.
Thinking about my garden this week. I have a few wheezing hot pepper plants struggling along in assorted, yet uniformly pathetic, stages of development:
Been mostly too cold for them. Then there was the day I made a makeshift greenhouse for them out of plastic and the hottest day so far this year managed to wilt and shrivel them as if I'd popped them into a pressure cooker. A few unhappy survivors and two attempts to replant later, and the results are pretty depressing. I remain hopeful though. It's still early.
Parent-teacher conferences continued this week with #2 son having his turn. There never seems to be any bad news with this lad. Not that I'm complaining or anything...
I learned that there were rumors of drug use after school by some of the kids in the year ahead of #2 Son. Marijuana was mentioned specifically and I thought about the parents who had seemed shocked to learn that 9th graders were perhaps smoking marijuana and relieved that nothing had been confirmed in our class.
I tried to remember when I was first tempted by the demon marijuana-- probably around 5th or 6th grade. Some friend at a birthday party dragging out a matchbox containing a tiny scrap of seeds and stems-- adorably ridiculous. I think we tried to roll a joint with it. Seems to me cigarette paper burns pretty quickly if you roll it into a tube and set fire to it. I don't remember actually being tempted. I don't think I was. I don't remember the conflagration even reaching me. I think most of us recognized the pathetic and humorous sides of the situation even if we were also stunned, thrilled and awed by the presence of illegal contraband in our midst.
It's interesting to see the changes in public policy toward marijuana use in the United States. I was never much of a user, never purchased it, never felt the need for it-- although I did join in marches and rallies for its legalization back in the 1980's. At the time it seemed like legalization was just around the corner. You can get a distorted view of the world growing up in a college town.
So far my kids seem to be handling their adolescence a heckuva lot better than I did. What dark secrets are they hiding?
It's just jealousy. You understand.
I should work harder to deserve all this. There will be a bit of rushed graphic design work on a concert program sometime in the next two weeks, a smidgen of web design work yet to get done this weekend, a couple hours of English tutoring-- not really managing to pay the bills with this line up. Wondering what my options are going forward. Keeping an eye on the classifieds.
And thinking about dinner-- my Favorite Female called to ask what she needs to pick up on her way home and to discuss our dinner plans. It's going to be a combination of leftovers and crepes.
Saturday we'll get out to do a bit of grocery shopping. I may start some seeds for pickling cucumbers and perhaps pumpkins and zucchini.
Sunday we'll probably be spending most of our day running around downtown. The daughter of a friend of my step-mother is going to be in town and we've offered to meet her and perhaps show her some of the lesser known attractions of this fair city. Been awhile since I've played tour guide.
Well, enough of my blithering don't you think? I may enjoy these fluffy little trains of thought, but they sure wreak havoc on the tags.
I think I'll just call all this, "Blithering" and save wear and tear on the tag cloud.
See you in the comments,
Marko