Gooey

I was watching Red, Bruce Willies latest film, when I heard this word.

In this movie the main characters are all CIA agents, and Bruce is obviously their leader. He is the usual tough guy who can kill a person without blinking.

So he is talking to one of the female characters and she tells her that he has always been "gooey". This is the first time I ever heard this word so it caught my attention at once.

Here's the meaning:

1. sticky, soft, and often sweet
2. oversweet and sentimental

It also has some funny meanings that you are free to check out here.

It's a nice contrast they make with this cahracter, a hitman with a heart.
I think it's a nice word, it even listens funny!

Every Cloud Has a Sliver Lining

Someone told me a time ago I should change the dialogue I keep with my own life. This person noticed that I tend to express my thoughts using negative statements instead of using positive ones. Also it was pointed out to me that I usually relate to what happens to me in a negative way by focusing blindly on the downsides of any given situation.

When I heard this, a skeptical look appeared on my face, the idea of a dialogue with life seemed like crazy talk to me. But when I gave it a second thought, it made perfect sense. The idea is that we should relate positively to what happens to us, no matter how difficult or bad that thing is. Focusing on the negative sides only makes us lose sight of what the possible solutions are.

I've been trying to change my ways, and it hasn't been easy. Those who know me well, can tell that I'm a proffesional complainer and that I even get certain pleasure from putting all my rage out there. What's more, I used to think that complaining was some sort of release. After this new point of view, grumbling just seems useless. I'm not saying I won't do it again, but at least I'm trying to complain less.

It's not easy either looking at the bright side. We tend, by nature, to focus on what's going wrong with us and what we are missing instead of concentrating on what we are doing right and on what we do have. The idea is breaking free from that instinct for negativeness and start enjoying all that's good in our life, that surely is a lot.

We have the quality of life we want. Positive thoughts and positive views may help us improve our life.

Builders

Builders at home are always problematic. While I can take the dust and the mess quite well, there's a characteristic common to all that really gets on my nerves.

I have never met such unpunctual people, "I'll be here at 8 tomorrow" they say. So you go to bed early, knowing that you will have to wake up at 7 to get yourself decent. So the alarm clocks rings and you get up, in the worst of moods, because it was your "late-in-bed day". You get out of your PJs, make yourself a cup of coffee to shake the sleepyness away, and sit confortably waiting for the bell to ring. It's ten to eight and you try to enjoy the last ten minutes of silence you will have for the rest of day. You look at the clock again, 8 sharp, no one at the door. He must be on his way, you think. 8.15, you have finished your coffee, and the beautiful silence is now annoying irresponsability. "I have to be on my way after lunch, he'd better finishes before that because..."  and you start planning all the things you are going to say to him when he comes, he will have a piece of your mind the instant you open the door.

8.30 and finally the knock on the door. You open it, ready to fire when you encounter his smilie face apologising for the delay. "It's OK" you say, swallowing all your words. And the hammering starts. Oh the hammering! "Why on earth I deciced to open that wall?" You breath in, and put up with the mess; after all you called the builder because it was absolutely necessary.

August Rush

I saw this movie last weekend, apart from being absolutely sweet and tender, it has a great soundtrack that I'm sure you'll enjoy.
What called my attention here is the play on words in its name. A play that you come to understand after you have watched the movie.
The word rush has many meanings, let's have a look at some of them:

• a sudden surge towards someone or something
• a sudden surge of sensation, esp produced by a drug
• a sudden forward motion.
• surging emotion: a rush of shame.
• an anxious and eager movement to get to or from a place

These are, for me, the ones that are related to the movie in one or another way. Since the child feel this rush to find his father, and the idea of emotions and feelings apperaring and increasing suddenly is seen throughout the movie.

Drawn

I don't generally like video games. I never had the coordination needed to play them, too many buttons to be pushed at the same time. It was frustrating for me when thr little man on the screen didn't do what I wanted him to do. So I retired from the video games world until resently, when I found the right kind of game for me: hidden objects games.

My last discovery is one called "Drawn". It is a story based game, in which you have to help a little girl save her world by restoring paintings. It is a game in which observation and deduction are fundamental to solve the many puzzles and riddles you find along the way. I can assure you that you are completely "drawn" into it.
Another one of my favourites is "Dream Chronicles", a saga in which you have to save different characters by solving intricated puzzles. In these two games you are required to find objects in the scenes which are necessary to do some other task. They are not easy though, since their graphics are relly good, and findig what's missing can take you a while.

So if you are bored, and don't know what to do, try one of these games. You'll find them most entertaining while at the same time. challenging.

Horizons

When I hear the word “horizon” I can’t help thinking in an orange sunset, by the sea. That far away line telling us our world is finite. But as you know, the horizon can never be reached, one step closer you take, one step further you are. Here is a paradox, a limit that can’t be reached.


Now, when we talk about Horizons, we are not referring to that “physical limit” but to the limit of our ideas, knowledge, and experience – the paradox again. The word Horizons includes all the aspects related to the development of a person as a rational being. Has somebody set a limit for your intellectual growth? Is there someone telling you “this is as far as you can go”? Well, the answer is YES. Yourself. You are the one that decides what, when and how. Everyday, there’s a whole range of new experiences to be lived, of ideas to be discovered, of knowledge to be gained. What you get from this world, what you are ready to take in and make yours is entirely up to you.


So, I’m sure you have heard the expression “expand you horizons” many times before. And one question comes to my mind, How? How do we expand our horizons? Easier said than done? Not really. Expanding our horizons is a simple thing to do.


Acquiring new knowledge allows us to form opinions, to give sound arguments, and to reconsider what we’ve taken for granted. What better way to gain knowledge than reading? Reading is way of broadening our horizons. The first thing that comes to my mind is books, but we are growing reluctant to books. Thanks God we live in the XXI c. Technology has made access to knowledge a whole lot easier for us. Anything, from recipes to quantum theory, can be found online these days. It’s just one click away. Search engines save time and effort when looking for that new thing that caught our eye or ear. What’s great of this, is the amount of information they offer, we have the chance to read about that topic from various sources, in only one afternoon. Sure we need time, but we can make ourselves some time to read every now and then.


Life is made up of experiences. And these experiences, whether good or bad, are great opportunities to grow. It’s not just a matter of accumulating anecdotes; if we are to grow from what happens to us, we should always look back and reflect on our successes and failures. Sometimes, we feel like nothing ever happens to us, that our life is monotonous and boring. If this is the case, then we should break the routine. Opening to life is also a great way of expanding our horizons. Life is what we make of it, the decisions we take. Thinking out the box and breaking behaviour patterns might prove effective when trying to change our daily life. Exposing ourselves to the unknown, getting out of our comfort zone is the only way of proving how capable and strong we are. Maybe a good starting point is simply doing all those things we are always too busy to do or too scared to do. Make the most of every situation and take chances!


Relating to people is another way in which we can increase our knowledge and develop new ideas, especially if these people are different from us. Reality is subjective and each person perceives it in a different way. Everything is relative they say – and it is. What I accept as a clear truth, may not be so clear for someone else. When our values and beliefs are questioned, and confronted to the values and beliefs of somebody else, we are in the need to look for the perfect argument that would prove us right. Sometimes, we find it easily, sometimes, we struggle. In both cases, we are given the chance to find out what we really think of any given topic, which help us to figure out who we are.


It may also be the case that we start seeing things in a new light because of the people we relate with. What seemed absolutely crazy and nonsensical turns to something completely obvious and rational. Other people influence on what we believe, whether by questioning our opinion or by helping us change our point of view. It takes a lot of humility to acknowledge somebody else’s opinion as valid, and a lot of courage to stand for what we believe in. I think that we should strike a balance here, keeping an open mind to other people’s ideas while at the same time holding on to our own opinion.


We usually relate to people who are similar to us, same tastes in music, clothes, or career choice. Not that doing this is wrong, but if we are looking for new perspectives, a good idea is to relate with people different from who we are. Some times we are not as bold as that, and making friends with someone new is not that easy, especially in a face to face situation. As you know, as we grow older, making new relations is a difficult thing to do. Again technology is working wonders in bringing people together, no matter how shy you are. Thanks to social networks and online communities we are able to meet people from all over the world, getting to know new cultures and lifestyles. Going on line and chatting with someone on the other side of the world is priceless when it comes down to broadening horizons, especially for those of us who can’t afford travelling.


If we are really to make the most of our lives in order to expand our minds, we should always be critical, we should never accept anything as an absolute truth; we should question everything before jumping to conclusions. Don’t take anything at face value. Get out there, life is there to be lived, and remember that it is you who gets to decide how far to go. As I said in the beginning, expanding your horizons is entirely up to you. Sky is the limit, they say.

TV, my way of relaxing

Many people may argue that TV nowadays is not what it used to be. And contradicting that opinion is not easy, especially if you look at  the content of our television. Argentinian shows can be described as shallow, low quality programmes that can't even meet their key obejective: entertain. Our TV is basically a collection of gossip shows, in which a bunch of characters parade just to get their moments in the limelight. Fiction is not usually better. Soap operas' plots have been repeated for years, so much so that you can tell how it is going to end after watching it for a week. Plots are so unnecessarily intricated that bore the audience to death. There are, however, great pieces of work in this area, but they are never given the prime time, which makes them go practically unnoticed.

Anyway, I love watching television, I could spend hours in front of the so called stupid box. But as you can imagine, national TV is not my first choice. I love watching American sitcoms and series, not that I believe everything they do is excellent, because they can and they have produced many bad shows, but in general I find their TV programmes much more interesting and well developed. It still amazes me how they can make shows run for years. I've been following shows for over 6 years now, without losing interest for a second.

Whether national or American, TV is there to entertain; I have to admit that it's sheer pleasure what I get from watching TV, just a few hours of complete and absolutely abstraction: no responsibilities, no problems, no nothing. It's a simple way of shaking a stressful day off.