Information overload

The other day I shared a video with my aunt. I watch this funny online review of the weeks three most popular/funny/interesting videos, along with the humorous comments from the host (if you know Russian, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/user/ThisIsHorosho). I had to pause and explain stuff, (unfortunately, if you have to explain it, it stops being funny), that’s when I realized: I have accumulated immense quantity of knowledge, without even knowing it and maybe this is why it is getting increasingly harder to remember new things—we are putting so much info in our head, we are overloaded. In order to understand one issue of the video review (six minutes total), I had to know, actually know, not only recognize, the following things
1. How to operate youtube channels
2. Russian
3. English
4. Star Wars
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
6. One Russian Rock Band
7. American and Russian slang words
8. Internet slang (meme and such)
9. Pedobear
10. References to earlier videos I have seen on this video channel
11. Many other random stuff
Contrary to what I thought, this info did not get into my head accidentally; I spend time acquiring it. Once, hubby and I watched a video that contained a song combining most of the internet memes. We did not know some of them. We went online to renew our knowldege and watched videos of: Nyan Cat, rainbow puke, trololo, numa numa, some girl with celery…. We already knew the following: Rebecca Black, trolls, pedobear, badgers and such. And that’s not even specific information. Those are the things we know to speak the same language that the world speaks. Can you imagine all the things younger kids know?
If we need to know so much just to get a modern joke, just think for a moment how much you’ve learned in your professional field! What if you have several professions (my hubby for example majored in business administration and finances). What about your hobbies, likes, interests? I believe I can talk for an hour, unprepared, about some topics like, amateur cooking, film history, Nobel prize winners in literature, structure of different types of formal debates, bases of creative and academic writing, foreign TV series, amateur interior design, amateur photography, maybe fashion history of 19th-20th century (received a wonderful enormous book on the subject for my birthday), why Cannabis is better than alcohol on neurological level. I can explain on a stupid level what is a queer theory, how to distinguish a bad poster from a good one and why global warming is more likely a reality than a myth—not because I actually understand anything in these subjects, but because I know very competent people in this field, who sometimes share their knowledge with me. I also know who Justin Bieber and Rebecca Black are, solely for the purpose of making fun of them. Oh, and did you know that Benedict in Sherlock wears a Belstaff coat that costs 1500 Euro? That if a giant panda gives birth to twin baby pandas, one of the babies die because it is so hard to raise even one? That a whole shipload of cat mummies exported from Egypt was melted down in the beginning of the 19th century to make soap? O.K. this probably seems like I am bragging but I just wanted to write down stuff that comes to my head without any research or preparation. The very scary thing is that I do not really know much. What I have just listed, it is nothing, it is stuff I remember, because I like it, or stuff I remember with no effort, pop culture, the internet. And when I do need to remember things, when I need to remember what I wrote in a report last week and when I can’t remember where exactly in my computer I saved that document—I can’t! Out of this massive information, there are probably only one or two topics I can actually be proud of to know, that required purposeful intelligence.
Think about it, think about all the things you know, start listing them in your head, are you scared, are you in panic? Is it overwhelming, is it too much? At the same time, aren’t most of those things essential for us to keep on going with our everyday activities, our lifestyle?
So what? Should we stop shoveling new info into our exploding heads and become old-fashioned dinosaurs, or should we attempt to learn as much as we can and burn out?
Damn it, the more I learn, the more I realize that I don’t know anything!
p.s. this here is nyan cat. now u know.

Oh, Love...

I’ve written about Georgia and not-Georgia, I’ve written about sex and absence of such, I’ve written about what’s on my mind, what’s on others’ mind, what’s in the air, what’s hidden under the rugs…but I haven’t written about what’s important.
Last week, 4 years passed since we got married. 4 years! 4!!!!!!!4!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And whenever I want to write about it, post becomes cheesy. Now, if I were heartbroken and alone, I am sure you’d hear it every week. But since I am happy, hubby doesn’t get mentioned. And that is not fair.
I hope you don’t get mad, I hope you don’t think I am bragging, let me tell you why I am happy.
Whenever he brings flowers, he makes the bouquet himself – that is he picks the flowers and tells flower girl how to arrange them. I love flowers.
Whenever he wakes up earlier during the weekend, he crawls from the bed carefully, not to awake me. He comes back in couple of hours with breakfast.
Whenever we travel, we sit down and plan our trip together and include stuff both of us want to do.
Whenever we want to do something, it almost always coincides.
Whenever it does not coincide, we try to understand what is it that attracts the other one in this particular case. He got me watch Game of Thrones. I got him watch Sex and the City. We both liked each others’ shows (he probably won’t admit it). Hell, he even made me watch Star Wars and the new Star Trek (and if any of you watch Big Bang Theory, I share the sentiment of Penny, as she answers the question, what is the difference—there is absolutely no difference!) He even knows who Benedict Cumberbatch is. And that right there tells you how confident he is: my hubby is not afraid of competition! Not even from a weird-looking British actor I will probably never see in real life.
Along the same line, whenever I post pics of my nude back in my blog, whenever I dress pretty and maybe a bit too daring, whenever he is put in a situation where those unpleasant-to-me Georgian dudes would punch someone without good reason, he doesn’t mind. Because he knows, I am with him. Always.
Also? He knows infinitely more about music, so whenever my i-pod list gets old, I just give it to him and he magically fills it up with cool stuff, stuff I’ve heard of, stuff that is old and forgotten, stuff that I had no idea existed…which reminds me, I’ve listened to the last album he put in my player for too many times now...
He helps me calm gadgets I am fighting, brings law and order to my chaotic excel spreadsheets, likes cooking with me, hates sports with me, pets our cute kitten aka kutten with me and generally either does things with me or for me. Now that I think about it, do I ever do anything for him?
I should probably write those down or after this post, he might get snobby. And stop petting kutten with me.
P.S. the flowers he threw together for our anniversary. They looked alot better week and a half ago, but they are still pretty?

TV or No Tv--is that even a question?

This week, please see my other PIK blog for complaining about geo TV.
Here is the beginning:
I get obsessed with things. Films, music, actors. If something shakes me up, I tend to cling to it. This time, it is BBC series Sherlock and the brilliant leading actor, Benedict Cumberbatch. Yes, I am that obsessed--I can actually spell and pronounce that name correctly.
The first time I heard that BBC plans to adapt Sherlock Holmes to be set in a modern-time London, I got worried; I thought they would ruin the beloved classic. But these series are so well-written, witty, classy, and the 2nd season was…oh…
In the middle of my Sherlock frenzy, I understood that I am a liar. I kept telling everyone that I don’t watch TV: my hubby and I stopped paying for Ayety, since we seldom turned it on. Like a snob, I walked around declaring that I am above TV, that I am way too smart to spend my time on something so tasteless. But all this Holmes talk made me realize that I actually watch a lot of TV. Just because I don’t watch TV series on TV—I download them on the Internet—does not mean I am not wasting my time on something so tasteless.
for the rest please check out:
http://pik.tv/en/blogs/barabadze/30543-why-i-dont-watch-georgian-tv
P.S. this is not yet another post about sherlock, I promise. It is about Tv.

Windows, Projects and Desperate Hope

I’d like to write of hope and future and all that is precious and all that is light. I’d like to write about these things accumulating, these things I need to do but never have time to do. These ongoing projects.
For example, the windows project. I’ve been taking pics of windows for around 4 years now. Windows are peculiar, they help us look outside, but they also allow the outside look at us…it’s like a passage from our safe refuge to the world out there. What can be more interesting than walking around, looking into somebody’s windows, sort of like a stalker, but really, all I want is to get a glimpse of others’ stories, that’s all.
When I was little, I was fascinated with the apartments I could see from the street, imagining what it would be like to live in them. For many nights, I stayed up, staring at windows in the opposite house, the ones that had lights on, until they would fade out, one by one.
Anyway, now I have this massive amount of the window pics, waiting to be sorted; some of them are on film, they need to be scanned and god knows where the rest of them are stored…windows in mountains, in Tbilisi, in NY and in Hague…and I solemnly swear that I will produce one wonderful album of these fucking windows and torture people into seeing them.
Let’s see, the other project is to finish building a bar in our house, so that my hubby can put all of his earthly possessions (different kinds of alcohol) in one place and marvel at them. That project has already started so congrats to us, we are actually working on something.
Another project is to watch all the films that I’ve underlined in this pretty comprehensive book on film history. I want to take my amateur film knowledge a little further and actually see obscure thing like Birth of a Nation. I am tempted to skip first 30 years of film, but damn it, I will go through the silent film era, no matter how much I want to just conquer the 70s.
The ever ongoing child project was paused due to the trip to Netherlands (I have to be sure that my future fetus has healthy environment, aka my blood is not poisoned), and of course I will spare you the details, but it’s constantly on my mind.
Finally, when we got married, hubby and I decided to print out two separate lists of countries we want to visit and put it on our fridge--when we’d have a fridge. We could then look at these countries as an inspiration. Hubby did acquire this weird-colored goldenish fridge, but for several years now, we have not pinned a freakin list to it. This week, I swear, this week, the fridge will have its due list.
So, from windows to countries, I have heady things to do, and I just don’t do them and then I lament about how boring my life is.
And you too, shake yourself up, go out, dance, sing, write something, do something!!!Right now, get up and do something, so there can be at least two of us pushing the boundaries of our mundane existence!
P.S. Mysterious window in Netherlands, at dusk.

Case of Mondays or Existential Thoughts Before Birthday

“I know it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do, get jobs in offices and wake-up for the morning commute?”, Ironically I usually listen to this song, MGMT’s Time to Pretend in marshurtka, on my way to work.
I asked my hubby yesterday, why was it that some people didn’t have to live this way? I had this song in mind. Being an awesome hubby he is, he guessed exactly what I meant and answered: “yes, but they die young”. Funny, the same song contains lyrics: “this is our decision to live fast and die young”, though hubby didn’t know it. Sometimes, the world communicates with us in a weird way.
This is an outline of my week: Monday –I am energetic and recharged after the weekend. The first half of the day I do more than I do in next two days combined. Tuesday—least favorite day of the week. Weekend energy wore off, I am stuck doing stupid things. Bored and tired, can’t wait to go to bed. Wednesday--it gets better, only two days left till the weekend. Stay up late watching shit on my comp. Thursday—I just have to live through today and tomorrow, today and tomorrow, today and tomorrow. Friday—if I work a lot, the day will end sooner. If I party on Friday evening, weekend gets longer. Saturday—I wake up at 1 P.M. stay in bed till 2. I can kill anyone who gets between me and my sleep. I feel like myself, doesn’t matter what I do, host guests, go out, spend all day in bed watching movies, clean the house, see my family, this is me, I identify with myself. Sunday—trying to do everything I’ve planned during the week but never got to do. Spend some time on FB, see what people are up to. After 6 I begin to feel depressed, I know that my freedom ends soon. I start little auto training… it’s going to be O.K., it’s going to be fine, I will live through it. I have case of Mondays on Sunday evening. Then I fight with sleep as long as I can, I go to sleep at 2, 3, maybe even 4, because if I fall asleep, the weekend is over.
This is how I live my life, day after day, I lose track of time, I feel like we had New Year just now, I can hardly believe that a whole month has passed and that it is my birthday already. I told hubby, ”do you understand that we spend 5 days out of 7 looking forward to the weekend?” He sighted. And he has a lot better job than I do.
The world does have funny way of communicating. I opened my friend’s blog today and he wrote about his existential crises too. My other friend commented on it, sharing her pain. Are we all drifting in this town, unhappy?
Often, I ask myself, did I gain more than I’ve lost at my job? Is it worth it?
It is; this extra income helps us be happy. We can afford New Year trips to Europe. We can change windows in our houses. We can install bar in our apartment. I swear, the one week I spent in Turkey last summer and in Europe this winter was worth all the frustration. For two weeks, we got to live fast without dying young.
So here I am, losing my college knowledge and enduring through mandatory bad years, in order to advance in my career. It is Thursday, just three hours left today and a whole day tomorrow, but when it’s over, god, when it’s over, I will have so much fun, cause this Saturday, I am having a spa day + posh nigh with my girlfriends and this Sunday, I am gathering my family. Cause it’s my birthday.
P.S. post written last Thursday. I had a wonderful weekend after this post. Here’s my Birthday Awards acceptance speech: thanx to my family for lovely chat over khinkali, thanx to my closest girls for being tolerant to each other’s cellulites-covered, not-yet-ready-for-the-summer bodies (we celebrated my aging in Turkish baths), and finally, the most important actor, the hubby, you made these two days beautiful, thanx 4 walking on thin ice with me (we literally walked on frozen Lisi Lake that weekend).
Oh, and there were 4 fb pages of b.d. wishes from digital friends. U guys are cool!
P.S.S. the pic: and yes, I am that old now.

USA2Georgia

I am in a happy place so I write about happy things. Last week it was Sherlock. This week, it is shipment.
Some things are impossible to get here: they are unavailable or too expensive. Online shopping should be a solution. However, since the Georgian post service is apparently our version of a Soviet Occupation Museum—it reminds us how it used to be in the soviet time (offices, employees, service, months of shipment, parcel delivery time), since mailing things via UPS and FedEx is very expensive, finally, since you are never sure that you will actually receive what you’ve ordered (“they” have lost my shipment twice), we refrain from shopping online.
When I travelled to U.S. often, I used to bring a lot of stuff from the states. Shoes, clothing, make-up, books, even pans and Ziplocs (we didn’t have them back then). But many of those things are getting old and have to be replaced. Plus, new items that we need, for example, electronic devices (camera, Nook, media player) are considerably more expensive here.
For a while now, I’ve been shopping online. Every time I come to pick up my order, I promise to write about the experience. I have stumbled upon one of the rare cases when Georgian business actually works: the whole process from shipment to pick up is perfect, web-site is easy to manage, payment—reasonable and staff--quick.
I am of course, talking about USA2Georgia. If you have never used it, then you are way behind the rest of civilized Tbilisians 
This is how it works: you register at USA2Georgia.com; the website is user-friendly; it has all the info, discussion forums and other useful things. After registration, you are assigned a room number. You then go online and shop for something fabulous. For the shipping address you write the USA address given to you by the USA2Georgia. Your item gets shipped there. Once it arrives, you get an E-mail and a message on your account. You are notified about the arrival and asked to declare it for the customs purposes. You choose the category of your item (like clothing, electronics, etc.), write how much it costs and choose to have it sent: 1. in original box (larger, heavier and costs more) 2. repackaged (if your item is not fragile, you should totally do that); after around a week, you get an E-mail and a message that your shipment is here. You take your ID with you, go to Kavatardze 27, pay the amount of shipment through an electronic paybox (you will need to know your room number to do that), stand in a queue like a normal person, sign a receipt, and receive your item. You then proceed into tearing the wrapping off and putting on new shoes right there…sorry, I got carried away.
It is a bit complicated the first time you do it, but after doing it several times, you get used to the system. It does not change and makes sense.
I wonder how long they will keep the excellent service. Too often businesses in Georgia start very well and then fail to maintain costumers. Let’s hope this is a lucky exception!
P.S. They should probably give me a gift card for advertising their business 
P.P.S. What hubby and I usually order online…

SherLOCKED--Please Join the Club

You know how sometimes you fall in love with the character of a film or a book and you get excited and then the mere fact that you are excited about it excites you even more? How you then research the character, research the actor, discover some hidden jewels along the way, even secretly try to imagine different plotlines, endings? That’s where I am now.
For some reason, last several years have been productive in terms of good-quality TV and some series tackled the challenge of being short, engaging, well…serial, but still retain the eminence of a film and pack a lot of character and story development in a short period of one episode.
Recently, I was pleasantly surprised by BBC’s “Sherlock”; last year, when my hubby offered to watch a modern British adaptation of Sir Conan Doyle’s work, I was reluctant; I could not imagine this project done tastefully. We started watching the first episode and though I instantly loved Dr. Watson, an image of young Sherlock was harder to stomach (though his age is exactly the same as in the books; we have been fed an old Sherlock in other adaptations). The plot was excellent, with so much nerdy references to the original that it got hubby and me squeaking with delight. Each episode is 90 minutes long, so we could not just watch it tired, after work, thus it took us a while to watch all three episodes of the season 1. By the end, I was completely hooked and could not imagine any other Sherlock. As a result, I started appreciating the story again--after all, I’ve read “Sherlock Holmes” sometime in 6th grade and seldom went back to it.
Very short review: I value this fresh duo of John and Sherlock, the fact that the former has some personality and is not just a dumb story-writer, and the depth given to the characters of Mrs. Hudson, Lestrade, Mycroft and, most importantly, Moriarty. Actually, Moriarty deserves a separate post...The creators of the film have stated, that they aim to show Sherlock as he was perceived in his age—innovative, using modern technologies, intelligent, but at the same time, very classical and Byron-esque—not hidden under the set of Victorian decorations, outdated, a creature of the past.
Along came the season two, and if season one succeeded in building this super-human, super-intelligent, I would say Aspergerish Sherlock, season two exposed a human, fallible side of his character and accomplished the impossible—proved to be better than the first season! Of course, the importance of human emotion on Sherlock’s usually grim face would never be appreciated without the first season, but watching the second season is twice, thrice as satisfying! All, absolutely all of the actors perform so well, watching them is a treat.
Back to my exited self: This whole week I have been reading “Sherlock” press reviews from all over the world; watching interviews with the actors and creators of the film; reading history of Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle; reading reviews of theatre work that Benedict Cumberbatch—the actor who plays Sherlock—performs well and consequently, collects awards; watching some of his films; and learning how to pronounce his name (sounds like BATCH of cuCUMBERs). I have gathered a ton of information about film, theatre, British actors in general and of course, all things Sherlock. I’ve written two posts on this theme (one will soon appear on my other blog), and spent some time looking through Cumberbatch’s pics (let’s hope my hubby won’t read this post). Hence, I can proudly declare that I have found something exiting to get excited about and I have been absolutely and irrevocably SherLOCKED. And maybe (just maybe) I am the first official Georgian Cumberbitch—a slightly disturbing twitter term describing quickly-spreading Cumberbatch fan hysteria.
Come on, watch it, get hooked!!! What else do you have to do this weekend?!
P.S. I have not taken this pic (I wish!!), I’ve copied it from : http://www.notzombies.com/tv/the-bbcs-sherlock-review/