wiseheart | I'm getting 50 next Monday!

It's outrageous! Schocking! Depressing! Unbelievable!

So, cheer me up! I want, just this one time in my pretty unspectacular life, to have posted a LJ entry that gets so many comments that after a while they only appear as subtitles on the comments page.

So, give me this gift. Send people my way in cyberspace. Talk to me about everything and nothing - as long as it raises the count.

lhun_dweller might remember about that dream of leaving a supermarket with a full shopping cart - just once.

Yes, it's silly, I know. But honestly, it costs you not "a weary cent", as the Germans say, and I'd like to have this so badly, just this one time. And since it's highly unlikely that I'd manage to reach my goal by posting astounding fanfic or simply interesting topics, I have to use more drastic methods.

The audience room is open till October 9, which is my 50th birthday. Come in, have a good time and talk to me!

Edit: And if you want to know what are we going to eat on the RL party on Sunday, check out my next entry. *g*

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(The comment was too long and had to be cut. So here's more rambling to reply to and add to the building replies.)

So how was it like in Hungary when you were younger? I've been rewatching old Hong Kong martial arts films that I'd seen when I was younger. I wish there were more to be found, but I can't afford to go out and buy these right now. It's interesting because I realize just what I missed when I was younger. There were even attempts to reference history, and one was about a Chinese doctor at the turn of the century fighting Westernization even as he knew that China had to assimilate to some degree to participate in the modern world. In the movie, it's like a distant history, but then I realize that this person died in 1924 and that my father was born less than a decade later in 1932. There was no running water. Could I ever imagine a life like that? It's probably the same with these horribly rich Republicans who are ruining our country and sending people off to war. It's the same as people who have never experienced discrimination and so they can't entirely imagine it or perceive it when it happens. If we ever met, it'd be a happy occasion, but maybe it'd be a surprise too. I don't know how many Asians there are in Hungary. I'm sure there are some because Hungary's in Eastern Europe, and Budapest really is a big enough city to have tourists from all over the world. But at the same time, it's different _knowing_ someone. Suddenly things become more real. Something that is a page in the history books if it's even included becomes real. No, I'm no better than these other people. How would I know about the troubles in Hungary unless you mentioned them? Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't easily have the resources. But what makes it interesting is that I know you and am interested in your life and what happens in your country. After all, I could similarly be interested in the happenings of China, whatever those are at the moment, but I don't know anyone there. I don't correspond with anyone via email. And even with Hong Kong, I knew two young girls from Hong Kong, but they were so young that there was no sense of the place. Like you say about the youths in Hungary, there's a more normalized capitalistic culture. They're watching LotR movies and worrying about their exams and how tall they are. There's no sense of place for me. I could be emailing with Romulan teenagers and the main difference would be in the pictures they send or post online. One of the books I remember you mentioning was Spock's World. Yeah, books like that help paint a picture of a place. Beleriand, Middle-earth, and Vulcan all seem more "real" to me than Hong Kong or China. I've never been there. But through reading, I can experience something so I experience a little bit of Hungary when I read your posts and your frustrations. I can imagine 3rd century China better than I can modern China because I've read literature (in translation) referencing that time period. Can you imagine that when I first joined the LotR and Silmarillion world I didn't imagine meeting so many people from so many different parts of the world? Finch sent me a calendar with pictures of Netherlands once. Suddenly, it mattered and it was interesting to me. It's the same with Hungary. When I see pictures of Budapest, I think of you. My world has grown as a result of knowing you.

There was a time when sci-fi didn't even exist, when a radio broadcast of War of the Worlds threw the country into a panic. When Tom Cruise's movie was coming out, they tried to make it out to be a big deal, saying that it would be so much better than the radio drama and that everyone only thought of that, but they never appreciated or admitted that the strength of the radio broadcast was in its effects on the past, when thousands of people really did believe that Martians were landing on earth. Hard to believe that women used to swoon in fright when they watched the old Dracula films, but they were raised in different times. Other kids used to tease me because I had short hair and so I looked like a boy. Now, girls can have short hair and it's ok, it's still feminine. Times change. Your life may seem shitty and boring and not worth talking about to you, but it's certainly interesting to me. Maybe not every day, sometimes I'm too tired to care about anything including my own life. But when I'm feeling better, I do enjoy reading your posts, good ones and bad alike.

IMO, very few remakes come even close to the original. And today's movies are all about special effects and nothing about plot. Sometimes the old black and white films had a tense atmosphere in them none of today's fancyful CGIs can top. It's the same thing as with black and white photos, I think.

I've mentioned it on LJ several times: the most impressive film of my entire life was The Gospel According to Matthew by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It was a black-and-white movie, with mostly lay actors and barely any dialogue, and what was said was quoted from the Bible by the letter. It was incredible. I saw a great deal of Bible-based movies since then, in colour and with great effects - I can't remember any of them. But when I close my eyes, I still can see the scene when Miryam, very pregnant and wordless, appears in the doorframe of the house, and simply looks at me, as if she would step out of the movie any moment.

Well, there are a lot of Chinese people living in Budapest - they even have their own, very big market on the other end of the city - although we still don't have our very own Chinatown yet.

But you are right. Countries are constantly losing the very thing that would make them special, and soon we'll all be a big happy planet, full of McDonalds and Starbucks. I find it somehow depressing, actually.

When I was younger, Hungary was very different. We didn't have all those things young people throw their money for nowadays, but I believe we were happier, more content. We weren't exactly poor, not after we'd moved to Hungary from Transylvania, but life wasn't always easy, and I've learned to make a difference between things that were truly necessary and things I simply wanted.

I'm grateful for that, because it enables me to the present day not to live beyond my true possibilities, not to be in debt and to lead a content life, even if I can't always have everything I fancy. Sounds old and boring, I know, but I think I've more in my life than all those young people who have everything I couldn't even dream of at the same age and are still discontent.

WE were kind of the same when younger. Our dad was supporting 4 kids and our mom on his rather small salary so we didn't get a lot of the things we wanted. As a result, we got teased a lot at school. I would say I did have less but I really appreciate it now because I see spoiled children and get really annoyed. My mom does still complain about our spending, but it's because a fortune teller once told her that she'd die poor so she's obsessed with this idea. In truth, richness isn't measured by material wealth alone. Guess she's not so grateful for 4 kids since we aren't married and having grandkids for her.

I feel sorry for today's spoiled children, actually. They have nothing to look forward to any longer.

They look forward to the next video game coming out.

A sad perspective for the future. Unfortunately, I'm afraid you are right.

I'm getting 50 next Monday!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject