This is when my buzzer goes

Sometimes I dream that I'm awake. Sometimes I'm awake and dream. Sometimes I forget the source of what I think. Was it in my dreams? Was it during daytime? Or was it in the time in between? In between sleeping, dreaming and waking up in the morning ... vaguely remembering images and words.

A few days ago I thought for a few hours that in portuguese 'sonho' is the word for both 'dream' and 'cloud'. I was wondering how the connection was ever born. What a great image: a dream as a cloud! I had questions like:

• When was this connection born? 12th century? Context?
• Influence of Roman, Christian and Muslim worldview?
• Is this image (partly) shifted since we are able to fly?

Stop! I checked out in a dictionary. The portuguese word for 'dream' is 'sonho'. And 'nuvem' for 'cloud'. I wasn't able to find (better: refind) any connection. In retrospect I must have dreamed it. Influenced by a song - which one?

Today another dream was shattered. Progress? Progress since species 'homo sapiens' went farming and settled? Progress since our Neolithic Revolution 10,000  years ago? Really? All the Hot, New, Cool and Wow Stuff of Today  are Extensions. The car and airplane are an extension of legs. Phone of the ear. TV of the eye. The computer of the brain. A machine gun with dumdum bullets an extension of our ancestors sticks and stones. None of these extensions ever succeeded - to my knowledge - in changing human nature. People behave as ever (non-limited list): ambitious, in love, greedy and selfish.

This weekend a lonely New "Knight Templar" went on Crusade in Norway. Fighting against the multi-cultural society and Islam. I thought it was "real" in a bad dream. But when I woke up it was still there.

Dulce Maria Cardoso. Inventory of her Books

Today I checked out portuguese writer Dulce Maria Cardoso (born 1964) on internet. Hardly anything interesting to find about or from her - accept her books. She did win in 2009 the European Union Prize for Liturature. There is a short wikipedia lemma on her in German.

She wrote 4 books:

• 'Campo de Sangue' (2002)
• Translations: 'Coeurs arrachés' (french) and 'Campo de Sangre' (spanish). Translated in english too as 'Field of Blood'? 
• What's it about? It's a story about 4 woman who wait in a room together. They will testify about a man accused of murder. A man they all know personally.
• 'Os meus Sentimentos' (2005)
• Translations: 'Les anges' (french) and 'Violeta en de engelen' (dutch)
• What's it about? Car accident. Violeta is dying and thinking of her life in retrospect. Her life that changed because of Angola. The brutal quest for love by a fat girl. Review (@sharonhagenbeek's)  on this book. 
• 'Até Nós' (2008)
• Translations: -
• What's it about? "You, reader come with me on the side of the road. The light will reveal crimes and loves we know." Often without knowing that we know.
• 'O Chão dos Pardais' (2009)
• Translation: - 
• In progress. Translation (by Harrie Lemmers) in dutch 'Keerzijde'. Book will be published around 15 September, 2011. Source
• What's it about? Alfonso is a very powerful man. Unattainable. Except for getting older. Alfonso's familiy is a house in ruin. But everthing is perfect in celebration of sixty years of Alfonso.

I'm eager to read her book 'Keerzijde'. She said "I love just let time pass by". That's exactly how life feels for me. Just read a little. Write a little. Tweet a little. Look out the window a little. Watch a movie a little. Think of you a little … just let time pass by.

Two years blogging. Checkup

It's All About You. Every wednesday I write a private letter to you.  And when I talk about you - who else - I talk about me too.

This week I'll be blogging exactly two years. Every wednesday I write one letter - in a public blog - to you about what's puzzling me. A book. One sentence. A song. The clouds up in the sky. Saudade. Sharing a memory, good quote or poem. A picture. An image. Sometimes ancient images. Mostly in a historical context.

My blog is thoughtful and light. Above all it's sharing the love for living life. My life. Our lives. Down to Earth. With respect. Doing it my way. Against the flow of superficiality. I want you to puzzle, wonder, smile or cry. I want to walk, with the two of us, in our chinese garden. More

For today I did a checkup of my 'Live life! - wednesdayblog'. This is the score I have given myself:

Adaptations following checkup:

• #2 and #3 Change title of blog to 'Wednesday. Letter to You'. It's more exact the focus or niche what I'm pointing at with my blog.
• #8 Is it all about me? I'll ask you. 
• #18 Collaborating with other bloggers. I've to focus more on my blog community.
• # 20 and #21 Skip this. I'll not focus on keyword-rich titles and search engine optimization. Not interested.

The first year was tough. My second year of blogging was easy. For me it's all about routine. Just sharing me with you for us once a week on wednesday. It's out of love :)

Question: What do You Think of the Useability of My Blog? Is it Useful, Interesting or Entertaining?

Limes

Is it a coincidence that the titles of the House of Orange-Nassau fit almost perfectly to the Ancient Roman 'limes' in the Netherlands?

Read for 'title' the possessions the House of Orange-Nassau - Monarch of the Netherlands since 1815 - had hunderds of years ago. At this present day only it's titles remain. Hardly any physical possession is left for them.

Limes? It's the ancient border defense system of Ancient Rome. The Netherlands was, between 83 and 260 AD, devided in a part that was inside and outside the Limes Germanicus. Beyond the border (latin 'limes) lived the others, the enemy.

Around 400 AD the Romans left the Netherlands. And what was left? Castella! Places where civilians and soldiers protected themselves against the "enemy". Somehow the "most important" (?) castella must have come into possession of the House of Orange-Nassau. Somehow. Step by step.

Source. Picture (left): B. Colenbrander, 'Limes Atlas' (2005) p.83. Picture (right): U. Buys, 'Enz. enz. enz.', p.8-9.

From a Distance

It's a mysterious song. Don't you think so too? Music: 'Brian Eno - By This River'. Play it loud!

Here we are 

Stuck by this river, 

You and I 

Underneath a sky that's ever falling down, down, down 

Ever falling down.

Through the day 

As if on an ocean 

Waiting here, 

Always failing to remember why we came, came, came: 

I wonder why we came. 

You talk to me 

as if from a distance 

And I reply 

With impressions chosen from another time, time, time, 

From another time.

Is it sad music? What's it about? Why did [we] came: breakfast, see the sun going down, commit suicide or ...?

At first sight it's lyrics seem not in sync with the music. They are! According to me this song is about [Me] who becomes One with the Universe.  Moment of Eternal Now.  For a few seconds - that seem to last forever - Everything is Quiet and One. [You] are distant and not part of what I Feel Now. It's a moment of Enlightenment frozen, stuck or hidden in a song.

More on This from me: Aswan, Aerial, THAT, Ordinary fieldstones or Cooling down.