"I shall be so brief that I have already finished" Salvador Dali

The last IT class has passed and so comes the end of this blog. It shall cease to exist sometime soon, but I just figured I'd give you, dear readers, the last chance to comment. ;) Feel free to share your opinions, thoughts, ideas, or insights since for many of you this may be the last opportunity to say anything you like to my humble person. ;>

"You can map your life through your favorite movies, and no two people's maps will be the same." Mary Schmich

I had some difficulty selecting my favorite movies, but in the end I've created a list of top 22 (this being my favorite number). :) Let the countdown begin. :)

22. What's Eating Gilbert Grape - the best movie with Johnny Depp, in my opinion; also, retarded Leonardo DiCaprio is a priceless sight :)

21. Willow - as a big fantasy fan I had to have a movie from this genre on my list, and this one is a must-see classic

20. Waking Life - a film about lucid dreaming with amazing dialogues and an interesting combination of animation and old-school acting :)

19. Rain Man - Dustin Hoffman rules here :) and even though I don't like Tom Cruise as an actor, I have to admit he's pretty good here as well

18. Forrest Gump - 5 words for ya: Tom Hanks at his best :)

17. Monty Python and the Holy Grail - "And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.'" :)

16. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai - Forest Whitaker as a modern samurai living in NYC; this movie beautifully defines friendship as far as I'm concerned ;)

15. The Straight Story - David Lynch less weird than usual but still intriguing, and surprisingly touching ;)

14. Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick's futuristic movie of violence, crime, and human nature (not for the faint of heart) ;) with an amazing performance by Malcolm McDowell

13. 2001: A Space Odyssey - another of Kubrick's masterpieces; thought-provoking to say the least

12. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Jack Nicholson in a psychiatric ward... do I need to say more? :)

11. Fiddler on the Roof - I'm not a big fan of musicals, but this one is a work of art - flawless

10. The Big Kahuna - three guys (Danny de Vito, Kevin Spacey and Peter Facinelli) in a hotel suite talking away... absolutely superb dialogs

9. Dangerous Liaisons - the title says it all ;) plus beautiful Michelle Pffeiffer :)

8. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring - a feast for the mind and the eye... Buddhist wisdom in a breathtaking scenery

7. Lost Highway - no words to describe it, you have to see it; and don't try to understand it :)

6. The Silence of the Lambs - a psychological thriller starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster... what more could one want? :)

5. The Name of the Rose - Sean Connery playing the role of a detective-monk ;) mysteries, murders and Scottish accent all in one :)

4. Enter the Dragon - I know it's not a good movie as far as plot (sic!) or acting (sic!) is concerned, but it certainly is a classic martial arts film with realistic (not those fancy Matrix-like) fights; Bruce Lee just kicks some serious butt (and not only) :)

3. Leon - an emotionless solitary assassin (Jean Reno) who is learning to feel thanks to a little girl (Natalie Portman); no wonder this movie made it to my top 3 :)

2. Trois couleurs: Bleu - I like Kieslowski's trilogy as a whole, but Blue is definitely my favorite; the word 'masterpiece' doesn't give it justice :)

1. Dead Poets' Society - "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I have not lived." Henry David Thoreau

"Belief means not wanting to know what is true." Friedrich Nietzsche

It is hard for me to say that I believe in something (or in anything, for that matter). Why? Because I follow the philosophy of Rene Descartes: "Dubito, ergo cogito; cogito, ergo sum." I doubt and question, and there is little room for beliefs when searching for truths. However, I do have some beliefs, but as they are quite personal, I shall not share them here.

For all of you who have their own beliefs, here’s a couple of interesting belief related quotes:

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."
– Buddha

"Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around."
- Henry David Thoreau

"Any belief worth having must survive doubt."
- Anonymous

"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
- Bertrand Russell

"These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact."
- William James

It's alive! It's alive! ;)

Yes, that's me not long after I was born. Did I look like a monster or what?. ;)

And I'm proud of it! :D
From the very first day I was born I’ve already been an exception to a rule - in this case, the rule that 'all babies are cute'. ;)

Was I sick? Was there something wrong with me? Nope. I was a perfectly healthy baby (at least as far as any doctors could judge). ;)

I think my developing personality can be seen even in the above picture (just look at the eyes) ;), but I’ll put another one (I was probably about 2 years old then) to give you a better idea. :)

P.S. Pictures brought to you by Marta’s Scanning Service. ;)

"I would rather be poor in a cottage full of books than a king without the desire to read." T.B. Macaulay

I do not really have any inspirations as far as educational thoughts are concerned, but the task we've been given recently (to write about our first book in English) got me thinking in more general terms about reading books - my favorite pastime. To be more precise, about a certain type of books that I fancy - fantasy. :)
My adventure with this genre started with Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and I've read it twice in Polish before attempting the English version (you can read more about this encounter in the previous post). I've read it for the first time in Polish when I was in the 7th grade and it immediately became my favorite book. Back then I appreciated it more for the adventurous plot than for anything else (e.g. the beautiful and detailed descriptions), and skimmed through some of the more boring descriptive parts, but enjoyed it immensely nonetheless. About two years later I read it again in Polish, and this time I took in all the minute details with great pleasure. I have also read it twice in the original, but I will not get into the particulars and move on to other fantasy works that I've read.
My next encounter with fantasy was the Dragonlance saga. It now consists of over 120 books (and still growing). The first Dragonlance books have been written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, but since then other authors joined in as well. I will not mention their names, nor will I enumerate all the books (too many of both), but let me just say that I myself have read about 20 of them, and greatly enjoyed every single one. As a fantasy connoisseur I consider Dragonlance one of the best fantasy series.
Later on I've read all kinds of different fantasy writings, from a little bit rough and action-based Wiedźmin series by Sapkowski, through Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles that combine in an interesting way our own world with the fantasy one, Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga with its extremely intricate and constantly surprising plot, to Stephen King's The Dark Tower, which adds a new dimension to fantasy. Let us also not forget about Harry Potter, whose adventures in Hogwarts become darker and more interesting with every book.
But there is one author that I would like to mention in particular - Terry Pratchett. :) His books are satirical in nature and highly humorous, and will have you rolling on the floor laughing. I devour his writings just like Obelix devours roast boar, because I've read almost all of them (41 down and only 3 to go) and I can't get enough. ;) Pratchett's witty humor is amazing and I think that even if you're depressed, it will put a smile on your face in the least; and if you're more sensitive to funny witticisms, you'll be laughing out loud (just be careful when you read his books in public). :)
I could write about fantasy books a lot more as I am a big fan of this genre, but since tastes differ I urge you to read any of the abovementioned books and see for yourselves whether you like them. I'll just leave you off with a quote from Pratchett to give you a glimpse at his style:
"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty.
The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: 'What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!
And at the other end of the bar the world is full of the other type of person, who has a broken glass, or a glass that has been carelessly knocked over (usually by one of the people calling for a larger glass), or who had no glass at all, because they were at the back of the crowd and had failed to catch the barman's eye."

"[T]o crooked eyes truth may wear a wry face." John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

The first book that I’ve read in English was The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. It must have been sometime during my sophomore year in high school. I cannot really recall the circumstances in which I’ve read it, but I surely remember the impression it left me with – I loved it. :) I have read it twice in Polish already before finally reading it in the original. Although I knew it quite well I still read it very carefully and not missing a word. It was a little tough at first since professor Tolkien is a man of incredible eloquence, but I did not bother myself with checking every unknown word, especially when I understood what was meant from the context. The language used in the book made for an exquisite linguistic experience ;), and even though I’ve read over a hundred books in English since then, I still consider it one of the best written ones. :)

"When asked, 'How do you write?' I invariably answer, 'one word at a time.'" Stephen King

Somewhere among my old document files I have found a story that has been written by yours truly as a homework assignment in the good ol' days of high school. :) The topic was - "Write a story that begins with the following words: 'It was a very dark night, even the moon was obscured by heavy clouds…'", and the story was to be approximately 500 words long. It seemed a perfect introductory sentence for a scary tale, so that's exactly what I wrote, as you may have already suspected from the quote in the title of this post. :) It's funny reading it now and that's why I decided to put it up here. ;) While reading, please keep in mind that it was written by me back in the days when my command of English was not as good as it is now. ;)

It was a very dark night, even the moon was obscured by heavy clouds. It was somewhere around two in the morning and I was just coming back from a pub. In a little town like mine by that hour everything was as tightly locked up as a safe. I was walking down Main Street slowly, because there was a soft breeze in the air - a nice refreshment after six hours of sitting in a stuffy pub with dozens of people smoking all around you. The streetlights threw circles of white light on the sidewalk and the fronts of the business buildings, making downtown look like a deserted stage-set. Suddenly all the streetlights started flickering and went off. I stopped. Goosebumps crept up my spine and I looked around nervously. I could hardly see anything, and a deadly silence filled the air. Then I looked at the sky with its heavy clouds and sighed with relief. There was probably a storm coming, and very often there was a power shortage connected with it. I smiled to myself. What was I thinking, that some zombies will start walking down the street or maybe a killer car will show up? I got to stop watching that many horrors, they can make you paranoiac. I was just about to continue walking home when a car came up Ford Street and stopped at the crossing with Main Street about a hundred meters ahead. I was facing its passenger’s side. All the fears came back at once and my heart sank. Who in a sane mind would drive a car in the middle of the night in a small town like this? This time a chill went through my whole body and I didn’t appreciate the refreshing breeze any more. I could hear the engine running, sounding like a growling dog. The car turned in my direction and was advancing slowly, and somehow it reminded me of a stalking tiger. I found myself unable to move. My heart was pounding faster and faster as the car was getting closer. I couldn’t take my eyes of the approaching lights - bright blinding lights like the eyes of a hypnotist. I felt like a character from Stephen King’s book, standing there paralyzed by fear. The only problem was that it was not fiction but cruel reality. When the car came to a halt next to me and the window started opening I decided that I couldn’t stand there waiting. Just when I was going to start running as if I wanted to beat the world record a voice from the car spoke.
"Hey, Brian. What are you doing here so late? Need a lift?"
It was the voice of the Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Elvigan. It must have looked really stupid when I let out a huge sigh, but I couldn’t help it. Jeffrey laughed. He probably knew that he scared the hell out of me, but I was so relieved that I didn’t even bother to act like I’m angry with him. I just got in his cruiser and he dropped me of at my house. Now I know that there are some sane people driving around in the middle of the night - policemen.

And since my little story cannot even match the horror of Stephen King's books, here's a nice quote by the very man. :)
"People think that I must be a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk."