Toughen up

de
Nick Kenrick - Lord, give me firmness without hardness, steadfastness without dogmatism, love without weakness ... Jim Elliot

I heard this thing many years ago, it stayed with me:

  • Women open up, show vulnerability, and admit to mistakes. After they do this, other women tend to protect and care for that wound, treating it with care.
  • Men toughen up, never show vulnerability or mistakes. If they do this as an exception, other men attack and use the weakness against that person.

Initially, the person who told me about this told it in such a way that the woman’s behavior and solution are optimal. In my opinion, the optimal behavior is this:

  • Open up like women, and use the weakness against the person, like men.

I think opening up an issue and then being confronted with it, being mocked about it, seeing it repeatedly, has the option of making one more powerful. Tougher, if you want.

Citește mai departe

Jazz de colecție la Palatul Regal EUROPAfest 2025 aduce Japonia și Norvegia pe scena din București

de
Jazz de colecție la Palatul Regal EUROPAfest 2025 aduce Japonia și Norvegia pe scena din București

Biletele sunt disponibile online: iaBilet.ro

Vara începe cu muzică bună și emoție pură la Palatul Regal! Între 4 și 13 iulie 2025, EUROPAfest – festivalul care transformă Bucureștiul într-o capitală a jazzului international, propune un maraton muzical elegant, cu invitați din două lumi fascinante.

Citește mai departe

Follow-up: Eveniment cultural-artistic: Omagiu lui Eminescu (2025.06.15, Zona statuii poetului Mihai Eminescu, faleza Cazinoului din Constanța)

de
Follow-up: Eveniment cultural-artistic: Omagiu lui Eminescu (2025.06.15, Zona statuii poetului Mihai Eminescu, faleza Cazinoului din Constanța)

Pe 15 iunie 2025 a avut loc evenimentul cultural-artistic „Omagiu lui Eminescu” la statuia poetului Mihai Eminescu, amplasată pe faleza Cazinoului din Constanța.

Anul 2025 a fost declarat „Anul Mihai Eminescu” de către Academia Română și Academia de Științe a Moldovei, marcând astfel, pe ambele maluri ale Prutului, împlinirea a 175 de ani de la nașterea marelui poet.

Mai jos, imagini, audio și video de la eveniment.

Citește mai departe

On Jesus Christ Superstar Musical (Glasgow, 2024.07.29-30)

de
Jesus Christ Superstar Musical

I saw „Jesus Christ Superstar” (JCS) – musical, in Glasgow, twice: 2024.07.29 and 2024.07.30.

Feedback?

I saw the show initially in Romania in 2006 (I went to see it twice).

Since then, I have become quite a fan, listening to the songs many times, watching the movie a few times, and watching pretty much everything about JCS I could get my hands on.

I became a fan of such music. According to my Last FM profile, I have listened to music by Andrew Lloyd-Webber more than 4,000 times.

I saw The Phantom of the Opera (POTO) four times (not always in its entirety) in London, and Starlight Express once, in London.

The last time I saw POTO, it was the greatest musical I had ever seen, so my expectations for JCS were high.

What did I like about the show?

Mary’s performance. I found the songs sung by Mary very nice, I enjoyed them very much.

Some other members of the cast. I especially liked Ryan O’Donnell (Pilate) and Jordan Michael Todd (Ensemble).

The music was fine overall. I have nothing to object to; there was nothing „wrong” with it.

What would I have appreciated more?

This is quite important – people put a lot of passion into the original version. They seemed to pour their souls into singing. On the upside, they showed emotions; on the downside, they seemed quite a bit desperate. Half a century later, I found that the actors were much more relaxed in this musical, even on powerful topics. While the role of Mary in this musical suits her well with a more relaxed way of singing, the others do not. I agree, putting your soul into something has something of a desperation. But if you take that away, you also take some emotions out of the performance. I didn’t consider anything was put back on. „We take out desperation; we put nothing back.” In my opinion, what was lost in this process were the emotions. Not all performers showed this; some actors had emotions, but most were following the issue I presented here.

I found that the objects on stage were over-simplified. Perhaps having everything simple and to the point is based on some people’s tastes. I think there is such a thing as „over-simplification.” A phone with close to no physical buttons may be nice, but there’s not much I dislike more than a remote control with just a few controls. I would have preferred more objects/things on stage.

Conclusion?

I liked the show, I think it could have been much better, though.

See photos here »

PS: A quote related to helping too much, too many people:

[JESUS]
Ooo There’s too many of you; don’t push me
There’s too little of me; don’t-don’t crowd me
Mmm, don’t crowd me
Oww, Ohhh
Heal yourselves!
(via »)

PS: On the topic of JCS, in Romanian:

#1, #2, #3 (just a quote on #3).

Citește mai departe

Live videos building computers

de
New desk in new apartment!

At some point, PC Garage used to offer a service called Serviciu Asamblare video interactiva cu Iulian – PC Garage. (live PC Building)

These are videos I like:

The thing is, these are not live videos, they have been edited, cut, and so on.

Also, you can learn from the videos, the speaker gives details.

Just filming a computer being assembled is not the same thing as creating an edited video on how to assemble a computer.

It’s the same thing, but different.

Citește mai departe