Dream Journal - KHJ. Day 2.

The annoying pain in the left leg tibia.
All your songs in a big white box.
No people around.
The byte mark on the right cheek.
The obsessive dorangada in the background.
Can it get more bizarre than this? 

Dream Journal - KHJ

Finally the channels opened up. The charity setting kind of puzzled me. Your presence, of course not. I called you and you came. The power of dreams world is still... unbreakable. Though...why the comforting arms of the Prince? And the protecting blanket?
What are you trying to tell me? Your story?
What am I trying to tell you? My story?

To be continued...

Dream Journal - episode 1

I don't remember where it was. An unknown city for sure, with a mix of mountains and beaches. With a weird hotel with long corridors and tall doors, like in old high schools. Everything placed in an airplane that was going to Australia. 

Here I had lost my bag and I was supposed to speak in a seminar. And I found you waiting in a train coach. Sitting straight and without blinking. My heart skipped a bit. 

At first you refused talking to me. But then you turned toward me and knelt down. I mimicked your gesture.

And you started scolding me saying that you missed kissing me like in the past, when I rejected you (which I don't, if we remember both correctly). And then you said you left because I was taking Kathy and your mother away from you . (I wonder who Kathy is.)

I cupped your cheeks in my palms and locked my lips with yours and we started weeping. I told you that everything was a misunderstanding. A huge one. 

We hugged tight and neighbor popped out of thin air saying she needed to stay there with her child. And you left.

I woke up missing you so much. 

Special edition II

In a turn of unexpected events, which are not very clear to me and it's not in my intention to find them out, I decided to write to you, my special friend.

Forced or not, imposed or not, real or not, there are strong reasons that will separate us from now on at every possible level.
At first sight though.

Leaving aside the initial frustrations, anxiety, bewilderment, sadness, I realized that nothing would actually severe our bond. Because memories, deeds, and the incredible powerful words (but also beautiful silences) exchanged between us will always be strong.

May is the month we met. 15 years later, May is the month when a cycle ended. We enter different stages of our lives and it's all right. And if you are happy, I am happy. If you are comfortable, I am comfortable. If you are at peace, I am at peace.

Who cares about the completely opposite cardinal points? Our souls and thoughts can travel millions of miles in a blink of an eye. Whether we like it or not.

I wish you all the best my dear special friend.

As always, my first good morning will be for you.
In my mind.

As always, my last good night will be for you.
In my dreams.  

Be good, and fight hard for your happiness.
I will be here to clap.
From the distance.

Discipline

Discipline is maybe one of the hardest things to get in life. Why? Because we are lazy, we dont feel like doing something repetitive, we get bored easily, there is always something better to do, even if it's just staring at an empty wall.

What is worst is that you need to be disciplined in all sorts of things! In monthly or regular reports, in paying the bills, in going to gym, in eating healthy, in updating your Facebook profile, in taking selfies, in drinking water, in educating the kids, in visiting parents...my God. All over discipline, discipline, discipline...

I know you resent it, but I have a small challenge for ladies especially, though men will thank me too if they can go beyond prejudices.

Discipline the way you treat your skin. Yes, you heard me well. Some of us have beautiful skins, due to our genetic inheritance, but even in such cases, skin will never get younger (don't believe in exaggerated commercials).

Skin gets old like any other organ. So why don't you try for one year straight to fight with time a bit and see the results? Deal? Deal.

Well, first of all, no matter how busy, in a hurry, tired or not in the mood you are, you must follow the next regime.

Every day, in the morning and in the evening:
-clean your face (use a separate cleanser for eyes and lips)
-tone your face (with a toner, depending on what your skin feels good with, preferable without strong alcohol ingredients)
-moisturize your face (one cream for the day, one for the night)

Once a week (use it on Monday morning and you will thank me), instead of the cleanser, use a peeling product (water based and with very fine abrasive micro-particles).

Also once a week (do it on weekend, when everybody is out, or when you want to have fun with the kids), apply a mask (plenty of options in the commerce, but if you want even more fun use stuff you have in the house like honey, chocolate, eggs, yogurt, etc). Use the mask between cleansing and toning.

After one year of strict discipline, you will thank me for the good looking skin.

It will be a moment when you realize that actually discipline turned into pampering. 

"One frame. One million stories"

Lovely readers, I am going to talk about a project that insinuated slowly, but strongly into Twitter world.

To put it into a nutshell the website http://www.oneframestories.com/ uploads every Friday a frame, and people can submit a story in 99 words centered around it.
Once next Friday comes, more than 40 stories are selected and published accordingly, with a top 4 to motivate the competitive devil in each of the writers.

The Frame 8 from today consists of a gorgeous photo of a man, smoking inside a forest (click on the link above and you will understand what I am talking about). Well, I read all the stories, twice...trying to understand why this week I wasn't impressed too much.

It felt as if people couldn't see the heavy past weighing down the man or the incredible mysterious atmosphere. Instead...they focused on "the beedi", which is a thin Indian cigarette. Well, once in a while the beedi brought a nice flavor in the rhythm of the narration, but otherwise...You fill in the gaps.

The top 4 from today was a little bit puzzling for me as well. While definitely different, and well written, they couldn't wake up in me any feelings or after thoughts about what could have happened if...

When I evaluate a story, I usually focus on originality, on the unexpected idea, but which is still subtly linked to the frame, or if none of these is available, then on the classic elements of a really very short story: stasis, trigger, climax.

The next frame is very generous topic wise: a splendid moon and a bat...so go ahead people...submit your stories there and impress me. I am a very generous reader and I want to be put in the position to not know what to choose...and to spend my entire Friday, re-reading small jewels.

Good luck!    

A special Top 10

If you are not familiar with @thelistserve project, shortly put, this is an email lottery, and once you get registered, you have a daily chance to win and write an email to a growing list of subscribers.

Couple of weeks ago, after a long time of waiting, my turn came and here I was...ready to write to so many strangers. If you think it is easy, well, it's not.
Anyway, in my email, among other things, I asked those who would end up reading my lines to let me know what book they would take with them if they were going to live on Mars.

The replies I received from people all over the world were overwhelming. Besides the warm kudos and the sudden and genuine interest for my country and its history or culture, the "listservians" literary choices stunned me in a positive way.
They covered almost all literary genres and authors from all continents. I wish I could nominate all the recommended books, but I promised a top 10. For those unique picks, let me assure you, they will find their place on my Facebook page dedicated to books. Because some of those titles deserve to be known!

So...without wasting too much time, I present you below the Top 10 treasures picked by lovely people belonging to @thelisterve community.

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (totally makes sense!)
2. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (as expected, right? happy heart!)
3. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller (American satire at its best!)
4. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (I see men smirk. Don't!)
5. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (I didn't see this coming! Honestly!)
6. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (sorry Martin, you didn't make it to the top, but we love you!)
7. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (personally, not my favorite, but totally worthy of this top.)
8. Anna Kareninna - Leo Tolstoy (wow...the biggest surprise of all...wow!)
9. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling (we are all children afterall in need of fairy lands, no? so be kind!)
10. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte ( I almost clapped, when counting the votes. I am a hopeless romantic, ok? Ok.)

Comments? Agree? Disagree? Drop a line. We live in a free world. :)