My Flickr Almost Mosaic

I saw this on my friend Tina's blog and loved the idea very much. Unfortunately the last photo (which is mine) doesn't show up even though my Flickr settings allows people to see my photos...Well, I'll just post it at the end of this entry. But how does it work?

You answer 12 questions, and then use those answers to search Flickr.
1. You have to type your answer to each of the 12 questions listed below into Flickr Search.
2. Then, using only the first page of search results, pick one image.
3. Copy & paste the URL for each image into this cool mosaic maker (after adjusting it to make sure there are 12 squares).
4. You then put the photos you get as search results into a mosaic, that while are not your images (I have the credits listed for the talented photographers in a list below, as well), but kind of describe you and your life in a visual feast of a photo collage (mosaic).
1. What is your first name? (Patricia)
2. What is your favorite food? (grapes)
3. What high school did you go to? (Liceul George Calinescu, Constanta, but I had to search for Constanta cause there were no results for my high school)
4. What is your favorite color? (green)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Johnny Depp)
6. Favorite drink? (wine)
7. Dream vacation? (Peru)
8. Favorite dessert? (creme brulee)
9. What did you want to be when you grew up? (theatre actress)
10. What do you love most in life? (peace)
11. One word to describe you. (intuitive)
12. Your own photo on Flikr. (it's a photo of a small ship I took here in Constanta)

Here are the titles of the photos I chose:

1. Eyes of an Angel..., 2. seasons, 3. the wind, 4. green spar, 5. +[ Johnny Depp: drop dead gorgeous ]+, 6. Acquarello, 7. Caracara takes off, 8. day 58: creme brulee, 9. phantom of the opera, 10. Wall Of Peace, 11. E y e l a s h *, 12. Ships in Constanta

And this is the photo which does not show:

This week...last week...next week?

It is quite amazing how time flies. I know, this is such a common place, but honestly this year has passed like no other. Maybe because I’ve had more work, same worries, same people in my life, more or less…I start every week well prepared for whatever the new week has to bring but then I find myself breathing on Wednesday evenings thinking it wasn’t that hard, and then it’s Friday morning (when I am usually the happiest, by the way, and when coffee tastes magical when I come here wrapped in my blanket) and then it’s the weekend with me thinking I’ve got so much to do this weekend, generally procrastinating about it till the last minute…oh well, I can still afford it…And oh boy, I can’t complain about being bored cause being a teacher is never boring, even though to some it must seem that way…but since kids grow up under my eyes, their little lives offer my little life so many reasons for excitement…in all respects…

Anyway, I was thinking just now…how could I define my weekdays?

• Monday - uh oh the foreplay of deception
• Tuesday - er...same old...nothing out of the ordinary...
• Wednesday - already? nah, that's too soon...
• Thursday - it's getting warmer all of a sudden...
• Friday - perfect bliss...return to innocence...
• Saturday - sun, cigarettes and serendipity...
• Sunday - how soft these pillows are...;)

Can you say I'm ranting? Really? Where did you get this from?;)

European Day of Languages

Yes, I only found out the day before yesterday that such a day exists (since 2001) and that there is going to be some kind of a poster contest supervised by the modern languages teachers. I was a bit upset at first that I hadn't been notified in advance like other colleagues had been, but I think that in the two hours 5 kids and I took to create a poster we did a great job. We'd have liked to add some font colour or our fan but we didn't have any time left.

European language diversity was supposed to be celebrated and the only "clue" that these kids study Italian was that we wrote the title in Italian. Then I looked on the internet for how people say "hello" in all European languages and that's what kids wrote on the little stars...The other posters were beautiful, but...different because they posted photos of wonderful monuments and such of the countries they study the language of and quite frankly that would have been much easier...we'd have printed some photos too for that matter...I loved this one on the right, made by the colleagues who teach German, also the "French" ones, similar to this.

The important thing is kids had fun, I had fun and I needed it because I've got such busy days these days... They all won, of course, even though they were highly disappointed that no awards were given, I guess their little competitive sense is not so little anymore...:)

The first photo was supposed to be posted at the bottom of the entry, but oh well, I still haven't got Blogger...It's a funny pic of me and 6th graders who made the poster. We were saying "formaaaaaggiooooo", "cheese" that is in Italian.:)

As for blogging...I moved here because I like this format and because I know that the people I care for from my old blogs will come here to be updated about me...I'm done reposting, I only reposted a few entries from one "challenge" I used to participate in, "Writer's Block". I will probably miss "Picture Perfect", who knows? All the rest will stay on the old blogs, being rather personal, and my friends already read them anyway.

So this is a fresh new start in blogland. Cheers!

Welcome to my Wordland (October 4, 2007)

The survey my wonderful friend Tina has just posted gives me the possibility to talk about me and words, words and I...as you know, I teach languages and I work with words at all times...words are my daily bread and I am fully aware of how much power they can be endowed with...I remember having taken a PH-certified test about what is my best skill...and well...it tuned out to be linguistic...what a surprise!

They say I started to talk properly before I even walked and it seems like I only had only one twist of letters which I corrected quickly and which was pretty unusual...of course, we're talking about Romanian here so it will be a little harder to explain...I used to invert the "F" with an "S", rather unusual since these are two wholy different sounds...So instead of saying "cafea" (=coffee) I used to say "casea" and instead of saying "Ce faci?" (=how are you?) I was saying "Ce saci?"...Anyway, it seems that soon I loved to talk all of the time, I was unstoppable, but it seems like I only used to say words the meaning of which I already knew or it was deducible...

Then it seemed to me that foreign languages weren't that foreign and I chose to study those cause it was not a great effort at all...Then I started writing things, for myself, but never using meaningless words, just trying to respect them at all times...No form without meaning for me, it's too easy the other way around...

Anyway, I'd like to write more but before I'll get to bore you good people to death I'll just take this survey...my answers won't be that spectacular...first because I'll have to adapt them for English...and second, because there are so many words spinning around in my head all the time...sometimes mixing the languages...which is so funny and which is why my friends say that I'm like a TV aerial antenna reproducing foreign channels...

Oh, I watched a documentary once and they were saying that for each language that a person learns a new centre for speaking is developed by the brain and they proved it while operating on a lady's brain...and she was awake so they won't damage some important centres...That lady could speak English and Spanish and the moment they touched her speaking centre for Spanish and asked her a question in Spanish she answered in English that she couldn't understand that language...wow!

I also talk very fast but I keep that under surveillance (which is an effort) and some people might say that sometimes I talk very slow! It's just when I happen to be an interpreter...with the headphones on...you really have to be fast!

OK, my survey answers:

1. What word (or expression) do you use far too frequently?
In English it would be "just"...since I often tell people what I was "just" doing or...to soften things a bit I use expressions like...I "just" want to know..., I was "just" wondering, that's all...etc...etc...etc...Of course, being a word that I use too often, I hate it.

In Italian I use too often "allora" and my friend Sonja knows what I'm talking about here...People just (!!!!) use it all the time when they start saying something, anything...ot when they just (again!) want to inquire about everything and nothing..."Allora?"...

In Romanian...is just... "Ce faci?" (see translation above)

2. What word do you use not frequently enough?
Ah, that's an easy one...I don't use frequently enough the expression... "Sorry, can't help you" and sometimes I wished I would have.

3. What word do you use when swearing is not appropriate?
When swearing is not appropriate I don't swear...I rarely do and most often...when I drive.

4. What's the most recent new word you learned?
I'm not really aware of what exact word I've recently learnt...

5. What's a word you've invented? (alternate question: What needs a word but doesn't have one?)
In Romanian when it's a hailstorm and there are all those little ice pieces around...we don't have a word for it...we say "It's raining with hailstones"...and because in Italian one can say it with one word ("Grandina") I say "grindineste" in Romanian and people always laugh at that.

6. List five favorite words!:
In English I love all those adverbials ending in a "-ly"....really really truthfully loving them, the sound of them...then...I like the word "marvel"/"marvelous", then..."Supercalifragilisticespialidocious"...I totally adore this one...then..."espresso" pronounced by the English speakers....well...I like all words, really...

The little voice in my head is telling me (May 17, 2007)

This blog entry has been written as a result of an interesting challenge Matriculus set for us, weird sweet people on yahoo360...I actually wrote a blog entry a while ago by the title of "I've killed my little devil", in which I was "describing" the way my little voice works for me. Anyway, just when I thought this topic is dead and done with, it won in Matriculus's poll...ah, I'm not entitled to complain, I voted for it too, so...Problem is...I don't feel very creative right now...so let's just all see what happens...

One thing is certain. Little voices do exist. For real. It's not us, as psychologists want us to believe. Nooo, no, no, no!...They have a life of their own. Mine is pretty much on vacation all the time, getting a tan for all I know or catching flies or something...I guess "THEY" don't pay it enough. Hell, I'd do the same thing if I were IT. So, you see, my little voice has a pretty laid back life...maybe I'll trade with IT...hmm...
But...when IT is needed there's another tiiiiiiny little voice (they come in all shapes and colours, mine is red) that is sent to get into the head of MY little voice and whisper to it (I haven't heard of a yelling little voice yet): "Go get her! Make it a mess this time! You'll even get a raise!"
And then...then, dear readers...disasters, apocalyptical cataclysms happen...I'll always get burnt, scalded, injured...but that's nothing...sometimes I hurt people and hurt myself in the process...and my little voice says "I WAS ONLY MAKING A SUGGESTION..."
So...theoretically...we are the voices in our little voices' heads...I think...What? (Wait, I'm having a conversation with my little voice...back from the Bahamas...)
ADVICE:
1. Don't send the tiiiiiiiiiiny little voice to get YOUR little voice to get you!
2. Don't ever listen to IT, Ignore IT!