To tchochke or not to tchochke...

The idea of moving is very intriguing, I like change, I easily get bored with the same apartment. As a child, different circumstances have resulted in me moving a lot, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. It's not that I have commitment issues… ask chocolate and coffee, I'm forever fully committed to them! I experience change as something refreshing. I don't really move around just for fun, but I do from time to time re-arrange the furniture. Once, I did it in the middle of the night, cause I couldn't go to sleep (Okay, maaaaybe I've done that more than once). Normal people would watch a movie or read, I of course, take on the entire interior of my apartment as a project.
Of course, being an architect student means I find interest in the plan itself. And I don't think it's wrong. A singer loves to experience new studios, new producers, new songs, a fashionista loves to wear new clothing, a technician loves to experience new technology, so it only makes sense that I would enjoy "new architecture".

My favorite part of moving, is when everything is at its place, everything is clean and fresh, you go to sleep in your new room, and then it comes… The morning, when you first open your eyes, and there's that tiny nanosecond where you have no idea where you are, until it hits you. I love that feeling. Getting up and making your first coffee in the new kitchen.

Recently, it occurred to me that lately I have been moving in a pattern. The two-year pattern. In 2006, I moved back to Sweden (Helsingborg). In 2008, I moved to Kävlinge. And in 2010, I moved to Lund. And yes, I will be moving in 2012. Where? We'll see about that one.
But despite the creepy coincidence(?) of my two-year pattern, I realized another thing. I HAVE A LOT OF SHIT!!! It is absolutely amazing the amount of stuff one person can accumulate over the years. Boxes and boxes of inane, useless things I probably never had any use from. Am I a tchotchke person? Tchotchke is a term used mainly used by Jewish Americans in New York City, meaning small things, gewgaws, knickknacks, baubles, or even called kitsch. We albanians call it takravate.

I have always enjoyed buying and having or collecting small things to put around my house, at the same time I have always enjoyed a clean, spacious place with as little things collecting dust as possible. How those two have coincided over the years I have no idea. But that's me.
What about you? Have you ever thought about it? Are you a tchotchke person? If you answer 'No', then look around you! Does your answer reflect what you see, or do you suddenly realize you've accumulated enough tchotchke to open up a small boutique?
And if so, is it wrong? Is it meaningless for people to spend hard earn money (especially in this economy, and especially with more and more people becoming poor and barely making ends meet) or is it something we instinctively do as human beings, to suffice for our need of creating a home. Tchotchke does not a home make, my friend! Or does it? What do you think?

If you aren't a tchotchke person, that is fine! If you are, then tchotchke on… and tomorrow is a new ba-log day!

Monday - One day, Tuesday - Two day...

This, my friends, might be the most pointless blog you will ever read, and I love that fact!

But here's the thing, weekdays are a complete joke, aren't they? Who are the fools that invented them, I want names!! Why is time measured as it is? Were there important Neanderthals sitting in a conference room ages ago, in a cave with stale bagels and disgusting coffee going 'What if each time i blink we could call it a measure of time? It is the exact amount of time i need to seclude an almond, so let's call it a sec-ond!' Neanderthal across the table: 'But that's a lot of seconds until the sun goes down, shouldn't we group a number of them and call it something else?'. Neanderthal next to him: 'Well, it takes my wife about sixty seconds to miniaturize a dispute.. We could call it a min-ute!' And so on and so on, all the time quotients were established!

Okay, I'm not really that air-headed. I am aware of the lunar system and how time is mathematically derived, but it's fun to play a dumb american now and then (prejudice party, table for one!).

Anywho, it's interesting to me how moods differ depending on which day of the week it is. I see days very differently (at least i used to, before I started architecture school, now the whole week is just one long day, the exact day is just a technicality).

Let's start with Monday! Monday is like that bad outfit you wore years ago, that still to this day keeps haunting you, showing up in pictures everywhere, mentioned by people all the time. You just can't shake it off. One of my quirky little pleasures is coming up with quotes, and I once quoted "Why does Monday keep coming back? It's so last week!" And it's true. No matter what you did during the week, no matter how fun the weekend was, Monday is always around the corner just waiting to remind you that you have a million things to get done, and you might as well just start right away, cause the day will last FOREVER!

Tuesday is like the witty middle child, often being neutral, but from time to time cracks a joke to ease things up. I know, that's a weird metaphor, you'd have to be in my head to fully understand what I mean.

Wednesday is like the boring cousin named Bert, with zero personality, and is just a pathetic excuse of a participant. Wednesday is like the big sign smacked in front of you saying 'Oh no, don't get all excited yet! You are only almost halfway through the week, and I sure as hell ain't gonna be quick and painless, I'm gonna take my precious time!' and then carries on to eat a doughnut at a slower pace than the 98 year old ex biology teacher neighbor that tries to explain that the prismatic layers of a mollusk consists of calcite or aragonite.

Thursday. I have a hard time defining Thursday. Most of the people I've discussed this with (Yes, I have actually brought up this subject to people) see Thursday as a dull day. I however, for no apparent reason find Thursday quite refreshing. I think it is an excellent alternative to Wednesday. And for some reason, Thursdays have always included an acceptable schedule. I don't know, I like Thursday.

And then there was Friday. There is something about Friday that makes people all delirious and start jumping up and down in excitement screaming "TGIF!!!". I do not understand that and think those people should wear an extra pair of socks and increase their citrus intake. To me, Friday is serene. It is the nice old man at the bookstore you pass by everyday, smiling, wishing you a pleasant day. It is my favorite day. I just wish the hype around it could be normalized.

Saturday. Oh, Saturday. Saturday is the cool kid that keeps up with the hotspots, the up-to-date, successful and satisfied spinster that makes people awe in admiration. It is the day when we remodel the upstairs bathroom, or spruce up the patio. Our alternative to regular choirs.

Sunday at last. To many, including God, the day of relaxation. To me Sunday has nothing to do with relaxation. It is the ticking bomb where the BOOM in the end goes ..3,2,1, MONDAY!!! It is for me the day for preparation and recuperation for the inevitable ubiquity of tomorrow!

That is my very meaningless recap of the days of the week. I realize that so far my ba-logs have been pointless ramblings with sophistication at a concerning level, but the time will come. Depth and sophistication is ordered and on its way, just thought I'd ease into this blogging-thing lightly with a little harmless chitchat.

Enjoy the rest of this particular weekday, and tomorrow is a new ba-log day!

Oh...

…I've changed my mind (again) about my blogs. At first, some complained they were too long to read, so I decided to make them shorter. With that announcement, some complained that they liked the long posts!

So, I guess I'll just write whatever comes to mind, if it turns out to be too long to read, then I guess it's not for you, don't read it and find another blog.

Peace, coffee, and tomorrow is another ba-log day!

Half year down, half year to go!

2010 calls for busy times! Since my last blog…sorry, ba-log - on March 29, life has been eventful, in a myriad of ways! Let's do a quick month to month re-cap.

April: "The definer of rest of the year"

It started with me going on a study trip to New York City. Me and a friend went there on April 4, three days earlier than the rest of the group, which gave us a chance to settle in and embark the city on our own terms.

New York was everything I had expected! A city of that excellence deserves a separate blog dedicated to it, as will I do.

So with that being held off for another blog, let's talk volcanoes! Yeah, volcanoes is what I wrote! Last day in New York, pretty sad, most of us wanted to stay, but made the most out of it, partly by spending what we had left. As the evening slowly approaches with its evil plans, we are informed of a certain eruption of a certain volcano, in a certain country, and the ashes are heading a certain way. That's right! Iceland decided to finally make itself visible and noticeable, by stranding thousands of travelers and stopping most of the air transportation system of the northern hemisphere with the eruption of the oh-so-unpronounceable Eyjafjallajokull volcano, in Iceland! Airports became riot central, hotels across Europe doubled their prices for the poor stranded people, and the ash clouds were predicted to fade out and rescind within 1 week to 14 months! I know, that was my reaction too! From 1 week to 14 months??? What the hell kind of a prediction is that?!?! That's like going to the doctor cause your finger hurts, and the doctor 'predicts' that it could be anything from a simple spasm to deadly cancer! How about you do those tests, doc, and find out for real?!

But anyway, there we are, in the middle of Manhattan, mind you we had just checked out of the hotel, barely any money left, and ready to go home, when the news hit us. An internal passive panic started taking over but I quickly got into problem-solving mode! And here we are again, what life is all about - family! I called my sister and had the whole "..1 week to 14 months! I KNOW, right???"-talk, and they saved my ass by transferring greens. Our university stood for hotel expenses. So the sleeping part and the economic part was covered. Now remained the I'm-in-New-York-free-to-do-whatever-I-want-and-it's-a-part-of-my-education part! And if you're gonna be stuck somewhere, there are worse places than Manhattan!!

We ended up staying for 10 extra days, rounding our total stay in America to 23 days.

We returned back home on April 26. Along came May…

May: "Chaos central"

May has been the most stressful month of this year so far. With all the delays and being stranded here and there, my schedule for the rest of the semester completely derailed. I had everything scheduled and planned out, and now had to start over with the same amount of things to do, but almost two weeks less time to do it. Scary shizzle. And this is the ending of my bachelor year in college, so we're talking the Bachelor Project, not just some random project in school.

This drastic turn of events called for drastic cuts and change in plans. I had to drop EVERYTHING I was doing outside of school to finish the project and get my diploma, including dancing, my editing deals, my help in the architectural studio in Copenhagen, and all my side activities and endeavors. It was tough to just let everything go, but sacrifices are inevitable in life. So after dropping everything I was doing to focus on school, I had to encounter everything and everyone this affected. I was supported, understood, hated, helped, banned, cheered, and everything in between. But at the end of the day, what really mattered was achieving my goal, and not failing my education due to other activities. And I did. I am now a Bachelor of Architecture.

Along came June…

June: "Post-war resuscitation"

After the stress mayhem of the spring, in front of me awaited summer! June showed its face. I could finally rewind. I took on my previously dropped activities again, and was able to make up for lost time/work with those who were patient enough to wait for my school stuff to end.

All in all, it turned out to be yet another crazy-but-worthwhile semester. Next up, I flew back home to Macedonia, cause my sister was getting married.

As I was enjoying the warm climate and relaxation, I also managed to get work done. Out of nowhere, I got my first architectural job. I designed and planned a house. Our neighbor was tearing down her old house, and building a new one. She needed an architect. Enter - me! An intensive week of drawing plans, discussing her options, re-drawing everything, meeting with the engineers, her house was complete, and is now under construction.

On the side of my first architectural job, I also upgraded my other fields of work, including video editing. Through a dear friend, I got a professional editing program, and started studying it thoroughly. The result was a successful video, and a start to a whole new world of experimenting with programs. Another boost is my photography, which seems to be going well.

My sister's wedding was nothing but perfection, everything went beautifully.

Next up, July…

July: "Sculpturing what's to come"

Coming back to Sweden, along with my sister and cousin (who were staying with me for about a month), I could sit back and enjoy life.

Everything is organized for next semester. I start my studies again - masters degree in architecture, so two more years of school.

Aside from that, I also got my dancing back on track and will get private classes, looking forward to that.

August: "Stay tuned"

So we're tapping into August. I'm anxiously awaiting next semester, and passing my time with friends and some work. Mostly photography, also some videos.

Now here we are, August 2, I am sitting in a coffeeshop, having my jolt of caffeine and writing a blog to re-cap what's been going on for the last 4 or so months.

Now that that's cleared out, I can go on to more exciting subjects for my upcoming blogs.

So stay tuned, stay focused, and tomorrow is another ba-log day!

Reclaim your kingdom!

Okay, so, hi! It's been forever and two days since I last wrote a blog. I've now realized that no matter how eager you are to share a story or write about a recent happening worth sharing, a blog doesn't write itself on share wish fulfillment, you gotta get your lazy ass up (and fingers) and start typing.

So here I am, lazy no more. Updates frequently and variety promised. Another thing I realized is that people's attention-span is completely shot. A human being's attention-span today is approximately 3 seconds. Thats it! If you start yapping on and on about your grandmas delicious guacamole recipe, people WILL doze off after the word 'guacamole' and start replacing your words with the words 'bla bla blaaa…', and if you're dealing with an aggressive person (basically everyone, today), you WILL get beaten up, out of boredom! With that said, I realize that no one has the extra brain cells to invest in reading a five gazillion words long blog. So even though i tend to get carried away and write a russian novel every time I start writing a blog, I promise to keep them short(er) and peppy! I will install a gadget thingie on my laptop that will electrocute me once i hit more than 200 words!

Good to be back. Enjoy the rest of your probably non-productive day, and tomorrow is a new ba-log day!

The glass is stupid!

Okay, short one today! I wanted to talk about complaining, as our most natural way of expression (at least to some). Ever had the term "Is the glass half full or half empty?" thrown at your face? To all the cave people out there, the expression is a way to define a persons attitude towards something. Seeing the glass as half full means you are a positive human being, appreciating what is there, and seeing it as half empty means you focus on life's faults and see the negative side of the situation.

Now, most people that know me, know that I'm Mr.Positivity almost all the time (I know, it can be annoying). But even I, very often, despite my quirky take on life, complain about things. Sometimes with no logic backing up my theories. In order to clarify what I mean, I would say that I don't care if the glass is half full or half empty, I just sometimes think the glass itself is ugly!

Considering all the horrifying stories you hear about people and animals all over the world, isn't it just a tad wrong for me, a person with nothing missing in life, to complain about little things, unimportant, meaningless little things, that we could easily oversee without it having an impact on our daily life? Yes, it is, and I should be ashamed! But then the other mini-me, on my left shoulder, the one with the horns, said WHY NOT? Why shouldn't we complain? Complaining doesn't mean we don't care about those less privileged than us. It doesn't mean we are bad people, it just means we've reached a standard to the point where we aim for an even higher one.

Now, i completely agree with the mini-me on my right shoulder, the one with the halo. But I gave that one the rest of the day off, cause the mini-me with the horns had an interesting debate here.

Sure pessimism is bad for your health, but complaining and whining and venting has clinically been proven to lower stress level. Think about it! Complaining is like lifting a giant brick off your chest. You have to get it out. It's a cathartic experience and we all unquestionably do it, wether we vocalize it or not. A quick example, we see someone wearing an awful sweater, we think it.. in our heads we say 'My God, woman! The person that sold that thing to you should be imprisoned and that sweater should be burned and never revealed on the face of this world again!', but we don't actually make a squeak to the person. Complaining is a part of us, dude, it's a vital tool in our emotional survival kit, and I sure have it ready in a whip!

Bottom line here, complaining bad! But complaining good!! So complain away, my good people. Cause if there were no complaints, there would be no improvement.

However, this doesn't mean you should start complaining to me, I don't have time for it. Get a cat, or buy a plant or something!

Go and complain, and tomorrow is a new ba-log day!

Thou shall not sleep

Okay, so I wanted to sit down and write my next ba-log! It is the perfect time! It's really late. It's so late, I'm wondering wether it has passed onto too early. Where does the line cross from night to morning? We say 4.30 in the morning, but if someone calls us at 4.30 in the morning, we say 'Why the hell are you calling me in the middle of the night?'. Nonetheless, it's very late, or very early, even the chickens and hens are asleep. The roosters of the world will soon get up and sing their morning solo operas, which has got to be a curse from God, cause the ability (rather disability) to actually produce that soul-cringing noise from the poor roosters' own vocal chords has to be natures way of punishing them somehow (don't even get me started on crows, or sea-gulls). But anyway, I think what I'm trying to say to you, is that it's late, which is always the best time for me to be creative, especially when it comes to writing.

I have always written when it's been late, in the middle of the night and I feel as if everyone on Earth is sleeping, and I have the whole world quietly to myself, to emancipate my mind and just let the words flow. It's how I've written all my essays, all my poems and songs, all my personal letters to people, and so on. There is something about this time of the day that is completely fascinating. Sleep is overrated! Sure, it's satisfying, there's nothing like that comforting feeling of when you realize that you're a half of a second away from falling asleep and you're in a full state of calm. So don't get me wrong, sleep is awesome. But for me, it goes both ways. I can manage with just a couple of hours of sleep. And I really also want to use this time-period to create. I've designed one of my most positively critiqued buildings at this time. And I once wrote a story at this time, which made half of the audience I read it to, cry, and my literature teacher make a copy of it and read it in all of his other classes. I heard that it is still used as an example in some schools for story-writing assignments. In other words, this particular time of the day has helped me achieve some of my highlight moments of my academic and personal work.

I doubt that I will ever cease working at night. It is my source of inspiration and my loophole to another world.

Did you know that a person spends a third of her life sleeping?! If you live to be 90, that is 27 years of your life. TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS! Imagine you're 90 years old and could've in total had at least an extra 12 years in your youth to live and do things, if you just slept less. That would be a devastating thing to realize at that point.

We get more tired as we grow older, so naturally I'll sleep more when I'm older, which means I should really use this time efficiently.

Sorry if you're reading this just before you were about to go to bed. This is an individual thing. This is what works for me. Others maybe work at their best only if they had a goodnight sleep and need a solid 8 hours to reach their peak of efficiency during the day. I am so curious to learn about other people. I want to know how other people live. How they experience things, how they look at things. Learning about how other people work, is a pure way of learning about yourself. By comparing how other people function, you become more aware of how you work, and that's important. I think I'm gonna make that a quote. "To get to know others, is the perfect way to get to know yourself." - Bekim Aliji. "Comparison is the key to self-awareness." - Bekim Aliji.

It's a shame blogging isn't as reciprocating as YouTube, where thousands of people comment every minute, everyday, with their thoughts on theories, issues or questions of the subject. Blogging means giving up the chance for a myriad of response from people out the in the world, but, so be it. Video-blogging is really not for me. I like the entertaining aspect of it, but blogging is to me a more satisfying outlet of getting your opinion out there. I show myself through my words. It's the same reason I love photography. Sure, I love doing photoshoots of me, but get more satisfaction being behind the camera. Showing myself through photographing other things.

I am really eager to discover good blogs. By good I mean genuine, serious, vigorous blogs, that show depth without necessarily having to be deep. Geoff Manaugh's blog is one that astounds me. A genius mind that never ceases to amaze me. Having luckily met Geoff Manaugh in person, and listening to him talk, just made his credibility more powerful. No wonder his blog turned into a published book.

Although, I also enjoy more minuscule personal blogs. I like reading about someone else's life events and their daily activities, even if it doesn't entail a fascinating story, as long as it's sensible. I cannot handle blogs that include postings of the outfit of the day, the comparing of this celebrities hotness to that celebrities, the top 5 dos and don'ts on a date, or how today that friend totally betrayed the person, by going out with his or her ex. If I read another juvenile blog from an incompetent moron like that, I may have to shave my head!

An example of a delightful personal blog, is my friend Li's blog. It's a light, quick, peppy, and funny blog that reflects her personality in a realistic manner.

If you read this and have a dignified blog, where the 'b' doesn't stand for 'bimbo' or 'bogus', please let me know, I would love to expand my blog affiliation.

Now go, sleep, or don't sleep, whatever works for you, and tomorrow is another ba-log day!

2009 reminiscence

This morning, as I was eating breakfast and looking around, I stopped to think… and forgot to start again! But moments later I got back on track, and I started to think about last year and everything I did, saw, met, achieved, ate, bought, and so on and so on. At first it seemed as though not much had really happened, but when I went through the year month by month, I realized the plethora of events that occurred in 2009.

Just to name a few - spent the first weeks of the year in Macedonia with my family, where I also got a terrible cold and a sore throat that lasted for days; I had an unforgettably wonderful birthday celebration with my two best friends; experienced my fourth earthquake; went on a study tour to Croatia; planned an entire hotel from the structure to the doorknobs; had my first performance with The Hip Drop DC at Stapelbäddsparken; finished my sophomore year in college; attended for the first time the Copenhagen Streetdance Camp; interned for architect David Garcia: saw Britney Spears; went to Macedonia for summer holidays; went to Alanya, Turkey on a second vacation, made new friends; had a stomach-ache that lasted for 12 days; started my bachelor year in college; had a workshop with Drura Parrish; attended my third annual ASAE Symposium; became an assistant at The Hip Drop Dance Complex; attended a workshop with Michael Jackson's dancers; got robbed; joined a dance crew; performed at the 5 year anniversary event for T.H.D.D.C; attended a workshop with the S**t Kingz - now some of my favorite people in the world; got the swine-flu shot; met Cody; performed with my dance crew on national television; planned a 1500m2 museum; made wonderful new friends; was part of a flashmob dance raid in Copenhagen; moved to Lund.

And that's only what I remembered at the moment! So many memories, so many experiences, all the people I've met, talked to, dated, worked with. It's amazing how blessed I am to live the life I'm living, for nothing in return. I don't have to sacrifice a goat to the oracles, or anything!

Can you believe that it has now been 10 years since 2000?! I'm curious to know if my fellow peers feel as I do. I was born in the late 80's, and grew up in the 90's, so those are the years that I consider "the past". When 2000 hit, it was sort of like a new chapter, it was the new event, it became the partition that divided time into 'the past', and 'the recent'. And ever since, when I've talked about 2001 or 2004 it always seemed to me as if it was oh just a couple of years ago, you know, recently. Well I turn my head for one second, it seems, and it is now 2010, a decade since the Y2K freakout! I will repeat myself, a DECADE! Imagine future kids, perhaps my grandkids, that are gonna be born in, i don't know, 2047? When I tell them I was born 1988 they're gonna think I'm prehistoric! My nickname will be grandpa Pitecantropus Erectus!

Okay, so I am now in my third decade of this lifetime, the most important one yet. The first decade I was in the inevitable process of growing up. The second decade I chose a path. Now comes the third one, the result of the experiment, the review after a play, the part where everything I've done shows results. I am on the verge of finishing my education, only two more years until my hopes and dreams are shattered the minute I graduate as I face what we call the real world. And then what? That's the exciting part! What will I do then? Will I immediately hunt for my dream job, will I accept one of the many offers I've received so far, will I travel to see where I'm best suited? Will I be the kind of person who sits in the back of the bus and does little in life, or will I be the kind of person who takes charge, throws himself out there and actually does something? What are the odds that I might change someones life? Save someones life? Or will I contribute with absolutely nothing to this world, more than wasting the Earth's oxygen? Who will I meet? Who will turn out to be a long-life friend? Who will fade away and become a mere memory? So. Many. Freaking. Questions! And I can't wait to get out there and answer them!

Okay okay, philosophy class dismissed! You may now wake up from the trance I put you in and go about your business!

Take a second and think back on last year and everything you've done, and tomorrow is another ba-log day!