Classy Halloween

It isn’t an oxymoron to have classy Halloween. Indeed, one can classy almost anything including life style. But “Classy Halloween” in here is sadly just a play on word. Classy means “In Class” or “With Class”, to be surrounded by 4 walls, 20-30 students and teacher who is trying desperately to make the topics interesting enough to make me forget that I am missing great time with my daughters.

Miss ‘M’ wants to be a Cat but as far as I know she does not have the costume. Beside she has a strap throat so she will have to have limited participation. Miss ‘I’ wants to be ‘the same every Halloween’, as criticized by Miss M often, … yes, you guessed it … Princess. And she does have the many costumes for that purpose. In any case, after the candies start floating, none of this will matter and the sugar rush will keep them awake long after I roll home at last in the shadows of the bright moon.

But don’t let me paint myself as a victim here. In addition to being school which is my choice, I do have to say that the Halloween for me just feels OK but it seems to miss something … the next day.

Being from 100% catholic country, The All Saint Days is uniquely absent in the place where I live in USA. My wife tells me in France some people also practice this day and so do some people in USA. But from what I see, it is far from what I remember from Poland … cemeteries full of candles, the smell of burning candles and whatever else kids put in them after dark …

One of these days I take my kids to Poland on November 1st so they can see it … if it is still going to be there, that is.

Just in ... one of the students came into class ... she is an angle and has hallo above her head. The teacher also put a hat on her head. Not sure what she is supposed to be but it fits her well ...

When in Rom, do as Romans.
Still, I miss the smell of the candles ...

Did God have choice? Updated

What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.

Polska Wersja http://gaworskipolak.blogspot.com/2008/02/czy-bog-mial-wybor.html
Had She? If she did, it means she is independent of the fruit of her creation. If it didn't, she can not be omni powerful, by definition.

Such as simple question, but what a depth. If you answer yes, it means that She has absolute control, which means she could have stopped Holocaust and Tsunami, but she chose not to. If she did not have a choice, then she isn't omni powerful, one is wasting the time to pray for "safety, prosperity, health" etc.

Good luck with answering the dilemma above, and you waste your time looking for any discussion about the answer to this dilemma in any church on this one of billion of trillions of rocks that She created. All you end up at the end is "God knows better" ... or something really stupid like "Collective Punishment" of God ... as some ultra right Christians would claim ... "God sent Tsunami because those people turn away from God" ...

Go figure, apparently God is such a monster that instead of flipping his thumb and making all the people who turned from him drop dead, he just choses to kill all ... and he can't find a better way but do an earthquake ...to accomplish her 'objectives'. But oh well, that is kind of his "historic" approach right, after all he also destroyed Sonoma the same way ... Does anyone actually believe there were no 1 or 2 years old babies in Sonoma? How can a baby be a "sinner"?!!!!!

PS. You may have noticed I always refer to God as She. It is not a feminist approach or anything like that. I am just tired of "Old Birded Man sitting on the cloud" ... Why does God have to be a Man?!

So see you can get closer to God by reading quote from Einstein, then from going to church every Sunday ...

"This man's God does not have to communicate with him through intercessors, ministers, or saints, or angels, but rather, through the quietness of his own mind, the beauties of his garden, the refreshing rain, the wispering breeses through the trees, the warm touch off a loved one's hand, the innocence of the questioning look of a child. This man's God is all Nature of which he is truly a part. To talk with Him, then, is to talk with himself, and be aware that God's presence is constant. To him, this is what is known as 'prayer.'"

Vacation at last. Europe here we come!

A few more days and we are going on our 2 weeks long vacation. We cannot wait. The weather may not be as good as it could be but at least the lack of air conditioning in Europe will not bother us this time. That’s for sure.

I am excited. I am going to see my mother and she will see again her granddaughters. Love is in the air. Some say because it is not “amour” or “libe dich” then it can’t possibly be as good as "love", but oh well … that’s their problem.

So in a few days we are leaving Lexington and fly to Chicago. From there to Frankfort, Germany. Final fly will end in Warsaw where we spend a day and a half with our Polish friend Carolina. Then something that should be really exciting for the kids – 4 hours real electric train ride from Warsaw to Ostrów where their grandmother and her husband will pick us up and drive (30 minutes) to Ostrzeszow.

After week in Poland, we will fly to Lille, France and spend another week there visiting us friends. We will also visit our friends in Paris, France.

It should be fun. The picture, although not us literally of course, it really does show how tired we are and despite all the effort that it will take to go on such a trip with 5 and 3.5 years old, it should be fun nevertheless.

The only bad news is that dollar lost 40% value since 6 months ago so we are going to have to watch our wallets ....

Here is the Calendar

Voting

If I was still in Poland, I would have voted over this past weekend. (And it is too dam far to Chicago) Liberal party won yesterday over “assertive foreign policy and traditional Catholic values” and “skeptical approach to the European Union”.

“Civic Platform says it will repair Poland's strained ties with Germany and other EU neighbors. It also wants strong ties with the US but Mr Tusk has vowed to withdraw 900 Polish troops from the US-led coalition force in Iraq.” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7054912.stm)

Liberal opposition to “it is my way or the highway” (sounds kind of familiar to some other little cowboy’s speeches from the past?) won and turnout was the highest recorded in Poland since communism fell in 1989.

That reminds me of my old days in Poland. That’s when I voted first and last time. I remember how annoyed my corporal was (don’t remember his name) when he had to assist “kot” (cat – that’s how they called young soldiers during basic training), the only solider who expressed willingness and desire to go and vote. I voted for Lech Walesa of course at that time. (Want to get to know how the L. Walesa happened? Watch "Strike")

Here is the only picture I have where you can see his left shoulder. Wonder what he is doing today? He wasn’t a bad person. He did what was expected from him during basic training but deep down he was good, he treated us well although I probably would have not said that a few times when I had to clean the bathroom for the 5th time at 2 a.m., and often with a toothbrush … you know, the typical basic training things.

So good luck Poland. You need the money from Germany and France, and uncle George ... well, even the conservatives do not like him anymore (and don't ask the Turks ....) so don't expect much from here. Smart move going against those who do not like Europe. And good lesson I guess that as a young new member, perhaps a bit more conciliatory tone during EU debates would be ... smarter ... and also appropriate and tactful?

Just a thought? Treat your neighbors good, live and let live?

Be Green or Die

Here is what I do to try to be green (or to save energy which means the same thing these days)

• recycle as much as I can, as provided by the city in my region
  
• made a compost pile
  
• put plastic foil all over all windows during winter
  
• insulated duck tapes underneath the house and in the attic with a "zipped blanket" over the entrance to the attic
  
• gradually switching to cars with better MPG ... 50% there (34 MPG and 20 MPG)
  
• do not use plastic bags in groceries - takes some thousands of years for them to degrade in the land fields and some barrels of oil plus 4 litters of Arab blood per million of them produced ... (my wife was instrumental in this switch)
  
• I "smartly" use wood fireplace. It can help your heating bill ... (weekends and turn off your normal heat; install blower with fireplace as specified by manufacturer of the fireplace insert)
  
• put down the thermostat to max 67 in the winter, 64 when we go to sleep
  
• in the summer we shut windows covers to block the sun from heating up the inside
  
• in the winter, I or my wife turns the thermostat 10 degrees lower before last one goes to work in the morning ... after I come back it will take around 15 minutes to get it back to comfortable levels ...
• around 80% of our lights use energy efficient light bob
  

My heating bill in the winter was 40% lower in comparison to the previous year (based on consumption shown on the bill, not price which went up slightly, 5-15%)

It is the ECONOMY stupid!

Sincerely,
Shamick Gaworski

Blog Action Day

I am supposed to write about environment in a week or so... fine with me. It is for Blog Action Day. If I can do something (in addition to strict recycling and compositing pile in my house) to save this planet from the most evil terrorists - humans - then I certainly can post something about Environment on October 15.

But what is striking is to realize how blogging (and web 2.0 in general) is changing for ever our society not just here in USA but all over the world ...

There are 5,414,281 people in the audience of what I assume must be this Google blogosphere .... 7 thousands some blogs ... and that's just this blog ... mostly English and Spanish blogs ... there are millions others ....

Kind of makes you appreciate any comment one gets ... after all ... who are you and what is so special about you to bring any of those 5 million?

So why am I and the other 7 thousands people writing? (same reason every day there must be at least a couple thousands new books published ... never know, someone may read it?)

Good question. I think it is relaxing, somewhat educational as it teaches you to put things in intelligent form .... a bit of a "hidden agenda" ... a bit of our ego ... or perhaps it is just because ... we can.

She is just too much

This is my sexy actress. I know, I am married. Hey, it is just an add for vegetarianism ... :-)
We married man can still watch advertising right?

I first saw Alicia in 'Crazy' for Aerosmith ( or was it "Crying", can't remember - both are great) - I feel so OLD :-) - this coincided with the period of my life as a student when I was dating Jennifer, my first American girlfriend ( She is "missing" me :-) somewhere in North Carolina)

Anyway, isn't Alicia Silverstone hot?


Alicia Silverstone Sexy Veggie PSA
Order a FREE vegetarian starter kit at GoVeg.com

Well not if you are Senator Craig but ... gee, go figure. How is bathroom stole comparing to the above?

And by the way, since this really is about vegetarianism or (as I see it) preventing animal cruelty - pay attention to what you eat and if you can, become vegetarian (I cannot, I have too high metabolism ... I would starve to death ... I am already thin ... )

It matters if the chicken or pig was raised in cruelty ... and if you do not think it does, the religious recipient of your religiousness "prayers" will tell you ... it does.

(Yes I indeed suggested it is a sin to eat abused animal.
As I see it, if God is the way religious people say she is, there is no way she would just agree with the same 'religious' people who say "it does not matter that the chicken never moved in its cage ... it was just there put by our creator as our "chain food chicken wings with bear")

PS. It was 'Crying' ... and, well, there is a reason that movie reminds me of those days ... but we are getting a bit too personal here :-)

Damn Wednesday

Polska Wersja
http://gaworskipolak.blogspot.com/2008/02/nie-lubie-srod.html

Sitting here, tired and it is late ...

I hate Wednesdays and my late class

How exciting can "structure of organizations" be?
(Pictures from my laptop)

Iza's Media Debut

What do you know? My youngest daughter got her media debut ...
We went to man's soccer game two weeks ago and apparently she was picked by soccer game photographer.

Her sister is going to be really really upset ...
Recently her sister had a meltdown ... because in pre-school Iza put her, mine and her mom name on paper tree they made, and she forgot to put Malina's name ...
Malina accused her of doing so "on purfase" (on purpose)

It is fun to have kids.
"I am not afraid of wild life. I have kids"

http://lexington.topsoncampus.com/foto/Fotos.php?img=8543&cat=&sub=83&id=25

Of course the vehicle that carries the star and smiles so cutely had many media exposures so there is no big news there. Here are just two recent links:

http://www.republicbank.com/site/about_care.html#central_KY07
http://www.topsinlex.com/index.php?b=see-me&show=y&id=1050&seq_id=9