Alqualaure

So...
On Monday I came back from a 10-day trip to Huntsville, Alabama. It would take me too long to describe how amazing it was. It was _THE BEST_ trip in my life. We spent a week in the USSRC (United States Space and Rocket Center - yes, the name is a bit of fail). We were supposed to learn how to launch and land a shuttle (well, a bit late for that, they won't be used anymore next year), some space science, history and technology, some engineering solutions, but first of all we were meant had fun. And we did, oh yes
Although our day started at 6:30 am and finished after 11:00 pm, no one complained. We never knew what we would be doing on that day - whether it will be physical and team-building exercises in Area 51 (like two people tied together with a rope, climbing a wall), Aviation Challenge - only pilots, including me, did this one - it was basically flying and dog fighting on a plane, and the Centerfuge, or the missions. Yes, the missions.
We had 4 missions that lasted for an hour. In the first one I was the commander, and it was my job to land the shuttle safely. Guess what? No one knew how I managed to land it on its side. Twice But these missions were just a training for the 6-hour-long one. Now, this was a challenge. The commander died of heart attack in the first 10 minutes of the flight, most of the orbiter crew had their legs broken, because they stood up before main engine cut off (I didn't, a-ha!). Once we were on the International Space Station, we had a fire, a meteor shower, and a radioactive spider. Oh, and the mission control got evacuated because of tornado. We also had a few problems with oxygen and cooling gases. Someone started quoting "Apollo 13", the movie, but even they did not have so much problems. Of course, none of these problems were real, but it was so much fun to pretend that they were.
Back to the orbiter, I got duct taped to a wall, Matt got a narcolepsy attack whenever someone said "mission control", and we had an epidemic of headaches (at the same time, I think, three people in the mission control died of severe pollen allergy). And, in the end, the commander died just after she landed the orbiter - it was because of her old age and nothing could be done about it (very funny, you spaceghosts...).

After graduation we spent two days in a hotel, mainly on shopping. All I got was a Hammerfall CD, and a present to i-cant-draw-but-hey and TriggyJ. I'm the last person you would want to go shopping with, for sure.
We came back on Monday, around midday. Soon after that Mum came here (=one more trip to an airport, Luton this time, after I spent almost 10 hours on a plane). After that I could just sleep, and sleep, and sleep, until 2 pm yesterday .
As Mum is here, of course she had to drag me out to go shopping. Nothing interesting there, except for the fact that in Waterstone's I found Kuroshitsuji. The first volume
So, allow me to sink back into this manga, will you?

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So...
1. I just finished trying to play Bard's Song on guitar. It's going bad.
2. I have this guitar for a week or so; it's my mum's old German guitar... and I got this strange idea of trying to play it.
3. I’m in Poland now, in Białystok, and it’s way too hot here (over 30 degrees).
4. I’m 163 cm tall and I’m blonde.
5. I love woods, either walking or cycling there, or just sitting on a stone and reading a book.
6. I’m slightly crazy about books. And maths. Maths RULES!
7. Here, I have a dog. Her name is Jaffacake, and she is a grey schnauzer with ADHD.
8. I used to have a tortoise. It was so cool… I’d like to have another one. Or a snake. Either corn snake or Russian ratsnake.
9. I usually wear knee-length skirts. And I really do NOT care about fashion.
10. I never do manicure or pedicure. Really. And I AM a girl.

Now, I tag:

Right, I ran out of people to tag (as most of those whom I know, were already tagged). That will do.

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So… the guitar
I’m so happy with it. It’s a very typical classical guitar with nylon strings. Mum got it from Berlin back in 1986 or so, and she played it for some time, but the last some 15 years the guitar spent in a wardrobe in my grandparents’ flat. Now it has new strings and it works.
It all started when we met in Radom, with Niuchaczus, Ominously and Rangerdunedain who brought his acoustic guitar. (He got it in spring time – I remember when we were going through all the music shops in Białystok looking for a decent guitar that was black.) He taught me a few songs, and then I remembered my mum’s old guitar. It was surprisingly easy to convince her to get it from my grandparents.
Mum tried to teach me how to play it with chords, but as I’m really bad at singing, she gave up I mean, I just cannot sing to chord, because I either mistake the rhythm in singing or playing. And playing classical guitar is much more fun.
I got out my old sheet music which I used when I was learning to play piano (some childish lullabies, songs like that). It WORKSSSSS Then I tried something that would be maybe grade 3 on piano (Haydn’s Andante, Mozart’s Alla Turca…) right, maybe grade 2. It sounds good, anyway.
And now I’m trying to play “The Bard’s Song”. I’m ok with the intro, which I have played in Radom, but then… Yeah, I know it’s supposed to be played by two guitars, but I’m trying to play the melody and it’s not that easy as it sounds, but I’ll get there eventually. I’m very surprised that mum has not got some ear defenders already.

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Some reflections over „The Pianist”
So I was watching this amazing film today, and then I started a discussion with a friend of mine. Personally for me the most interesting character is not Szpilman (who always relied on other people’s help), but Wilm Hosenfeld – the German officer that saved his life. He not only decided to disobey orders, and help a Jewish person, but he managed to reach out to Szpilman who after four years of occupation learnt to hate Germans, who humiliated Jews and had killed all members of Szpilman’s family. I think it is impressive, that despite the pressure caused by the authorities, the people around him and the time and environment he lived in, Hosenfeld listened to his conscience and did the right thing.
But is it not surprising that in schools we never learn about such people? I find it quite annoying that whenever someone sees a person behaving like that, they always think of the film, not the history. There are many other examples of similar people, but we never hear about them.
Many people surely recall Hermann Göring, a military leader and a leading member of the Nazi Party: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_… , but how many of you have heard of his younger brother Albert? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_G… How many know anything about Karl Plagge? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Pla… Wilm Hosenfeld was not a person made up by Polanski or Szpilman, he did exist. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilm_Hos…
Oscar Schindler en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Sc… is better known because of the film “Schindler’s List”, but still i just cannot stop thinking how many people treat this story as the producer’s imagination?
There are many other people who helped the oppressed, but their names are forgotten now.  In Ancient Egypt one of the worst punishments was “death by forgetting” – erasing a person’s name from all statues and records, as if the person never existed. Now we forget about heroes. Great reward to them, I must say.

“The Pianist” may be seen on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkYpIb…

I couldn't refuse to go to the Bisley Shooting Ranges for a course organized by North London Rifle Club, despite the amount of coursework I have to do over the weekend. I simply could not That was kind of once-in-a-lfetime opportunity, I think. And it was GREAT.
We started with black powder pistols - smoke, fire and noise (and yeah, that's mainly the reason I'm watching a Western now ) I got 46 in 12 shots, which is not that bad. It was much easier than I expected. Now I'm not as impressed with the shooting they do on the films, as I was before.
Then we went onto 200 yrds range - sniper's rifle shoot to a target that appears for 3 seconds in different places over a small area. I got 21/25... wow. 3 seconds seemed much longer than you may think... On the same range we tried the Martini-Henry rifle, famous from the battle of Rorke's Drift in 1879. It gives you a nice kick on the shoulder. It's meant to be shoot for at most 100 yrds, and we were shooting at 200, but I hit the target all three times Again, nice smoke and bang
After lunch we were shooting a normal rifle to a small target at a short distance, which I failed completely. We were meant to shoot one bullet at each of the 15 snooker balls on the target. I got 15 holes on my target (and two holes on a few balls - which means substracting points). But I'm quite sure I shot three bullets at a target next to mine... XD
The last shot was at 900 yrds. It was a lot, and the wind picked up. But I managed to hit one bull's eye on this. I was so happy, until they told me that the bull's eye is 2 feet across, and the targets are 12...
The pistol and Martini-Henry were most fun. When I finish school I may start shooting rifles more often (of course, I will not forget about archery...), but restoring and repairing old weapons also seems fun.
Do I sound like a crazyman?


Stolen from
[x] You have screamed at an inanimate object for "hurting you".
[x] You have ran into a glass/screen door. (yeah, once, when we had glass door on the terrace... and a few times in a labirynth made of Venesian glass - does that count?)
[ ] You have jumped out of a moving vehicle. (sounds fun...)
[x] You have thought of something funny and laughed, then people gave you weird looks. (oh yes, it does happen all the time)
[x] You have run into a tree/bush. (...and rode into it on a bike, because riding bike in forest after sunset, and without any light is FUN)
[x] You have been called a blonde.
Total: 5


[x] You know that it IS possible to lick your elbow.
[x] You just tried to lick your elbow.
[x] You never knew that the "Alphabet Song" and "Twinkle Little Star" had the same melody.
[ ]You just sang them to make sure. (I don't even know the words of "Twinkle Little Star... XD)
[x] You have tripped on your own feet and fallen. (Last time was on Wednesday, while fencing...)
[ ] You have choked on your own spit.

Total: 4


[ ] You have seen the Matrix and still don't get it.
[ ] You type with 3 fingers or less.
[x] You have accidentally caught something on fire. (I may be spending too much time with i-cant-draw-but-hey
[ ] You tried to drink out of a straw, but it went into your nose.
[ ] You have caught yourself drooling.

Total: 1


[ ] You have fallen asleep in class.
[x] Sometimes you just stop thinking. (oh, yes)
[x] Sometimes when you are telling a story you forget what you are talking about.
[x] People often shake their heads and walk away from you.
[ ] You are often told to use your "inside voice".
Total: 3


[ ] You use your fingers to do simple math. (ME?!)
[x] You have eaten a bug accidentally.
[x] You're taking this test when you should be doing something more important. (Of course... art, for example)
[x] You have put your clothes on backwards or inside out, and didn't realize it.
[x] You’ve looked all over for something that was in your hand/pocket the whole time. (that is often the case with the Pen)
Total: 4


[ ] You posted bulletins because you were scared what they say'll happen if you don't.
[x] You break a lot of things. (Breaking things is fun...?)
[ ] You tilt your head when you're confused. (No, I think I frown)
[x] You have fallen out of your chair before.
[x] When you're lying in bed, you try to find pictures in the texture on the ceiling. (and all I find is a stormy sea)
[x] The word "Um" is used frequently.
[ ] You don't know what "Um" means.
[x] You say "What" and "Huh" a lot.
[ ] You plan to use a calculator to multiply your score for this bulletin.
Total: 5

I am 61% mentally ill.
(I really did expect a higher result )

Half term, at last
Tomorrow I'm off to Poland (which means getting up at 4:30 am, but it's worth it). I may be able to get access to internet during the weekend, I may not, so anyway:
I will spend five days, from Monday to Friday, counting mooses It is organised every year by the University of Bialystok, and the students from the biology courses set out to the forests around Biebrza river to count how many mooses live in that area (quite a lot).
I'm not entirely sure what it looks like. From what I heard, I can guess it will be some kind of a battue, with people standing along three sides of a square (with a side of around 800m, and some other people will run towards them, thus pushing all the animals in their direction, so they can count those (not only mooses), and note down their observations.
I'm not a student, but as my mother works on the university as a teacher, she convinced me it will be fun, and I can join. And I really think it will be fun
About the weather - well, it's not that cold, just around -5 to -10 (it is not cold compared to what temperatures there were this winter - up to -34), but there is quite a lot of snow, and snow always means more fun

I'm really looking foward to it

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Tallinte is my new stock account. It is not very big, but I'll be working on it. I intend to collect there stock images (and perhaps tutorials? especially for calligraphy) related to historical warfare (I started with some photos of bows, and I'll try to get you some more of those), maybe fantasy or other history themes as well - e.g. old-fashioned objects, perhaps clothes; I'll see.
You are very welcome to use this stock