Private Memoirs of Bimbus: 2007

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Your horrible letters are very disturbing. That is not to say I wish you to stop. I must know how you are and looking for time when it will improve.

Well, I guess we're both going up and down. But this haemorrhoid stuff is enough and I'm sick of it. Can't imagine that Czech doctors are necessarily better than here. Simply a matter of snip and sow, and the body will heal the rest. My body's pretty good at healing it seems, so it should be okay. They would have to be total monkeys and leave big scissors in my butt or do such a bad sowing job that I bleed into myself. I really doubt something like that would happen. Finally got an email from VZP and they said that the southern Greek part is in the EU, so my regular insurance should work there, on the argument that I "should not have to go back to my home country for an operation like this". Made sorta friends with the Turkish doctor and am negotiating with him to write up a horrible letter than I had a plum hanging out my ass and that I really need the operation. I'll send that around, and assume I'll take that with me to Greece one weekend and get it snipped. It's been troubling me long enough and I just want some peace.

Your health is mostly important and have to be fixed and you must go through tests. Why not to drive back to
the Czech Republic which was your plan anyway and have normal doctors fix you. I am weary of
Turkey ones. Your insurance may not cover. What will it take for you to drive back and escape the heat of the summer? You
need tires and you need money for gas.

I thought I mentioned that it would cost about 50 thousand Kc to get to the
Czech Republic and back, so I think I wont bother and will just hang here for a while, laying low, and pay off all my debts. Absolute worst case scenario, I can maybe permanently park here at the university where I found free internet, so I don't have to pay out for gas (just calculated that it should be about 70$ a month to get to the beach every day) and survive on bread in the hardest times (about 70 cents a day). My internet is now free. My greatest cost now seems to be the
pirated DVDs I rent almost every day, cause I can only work so much. But I've started putting up fliers around campus that I'm willing to teach English for beers and the opportunity to meet people, so that could even save on the DVD renting. I sold our new

apartment in Vancouver and we are looking for some reno job dog house to fix up and start again. Vlad was depressed because 25 years of building business went up the smoke with Tims accident and we did not have any project, had to sell the dream house on the creek and now the apartment. But we are rid of loans and healthy enough to work for few years yet. AS you see dreams are often for dreaming and are good to have but not always work. My dream was to live in Vancouver, have a cottage at Whistler. Had some, lost some.

Well, at least you don't have the debts. You can't get another
project manager? At least you have a good base off of which you can build, so I guess a matter of time. What would life be if it did not have its ups and downs?

So back to you. This will be letter in stages as I am afraid to lose it and start again.

Like I said before, just write all your emails in Word if you have to. You can save the file as you type, so you won't lose anything even if your computer gets unplugged. When you're done, then simply paste it into your email thing, whether online or offline. You can even BCC it to yourself so that you have confirmation it was actually sent out. Once you get that confirmation, you can erase that .doc file. I usually keep mine in a directory called Erase. There's always some solution to the computer - you just need to get creative and explore options.

You have no money for food, asking Natasa for loan. Driving back with very unsafe car is crazy, muffler here, tires there, transmission over there, be stuck in the middle of Montenegro..... I will help but it will have some condition attached and you do not like that but I do not like you to be in the situation you are in. We are in Hawaii on the last moment special to think about our future because we are not distracted by anything and anybody. We have to figure out our life and now we have to figure out what to do about you. I will continue later in the day and then again and tell you what is on my mind. My biggest concern is your health and safety. xxxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooomaminka

Well, at least I got that job and figure I have about another month to survive. So I'll keep looking for customers, and maybe something will come in. That's a month at my old costs where I was paying for internet, so perhaps 1.5 months now. And I can always do the bread thing if I really get
desperate, but I assume enough work should come in to get me through this valley, and then hopefully smooth sailing upwards, once my webwork finally kicks in enough. Been getting great results on a few pages lately, so at least its working.

> You have A LOT of time on your hands :-)

Yup. But like I wrote, sitting in front of this computer all day, one needs to get their mind to something else. You can turn to people at work and chat, or you have your meetings. Imagine sitting in front of the computer at least 8 hours a day, by yourself, in a sardine can, and you can understand why I'm glad to wander off occasionally.

It is an interesting question, and its cool you asked. You're right; the work in the office is much different than what you do at the low level. I've thought of this a lot in relation to what I want to do with myself, because overall I do enjoy my work (to an extent, or rather, there exist aspects of the job that I enjoy, but others that I can't stand). I think when you're in a position of power, you have more ability to influence, to lean, to use, to make happen, and that adds to the overall feeling of contentment. What I don't like is that I'm not building wealth for my own hands. BUT, I have come to realize, that in all likelihood, I'm just not really the best guy to go and start a business. I say that as I have found that what I really excel at is setting process, making order from mess, setting direction, strategy, thinking out of the box when it comes to solution (at least in comparison to a dev audience that thinks very inline), etc. I SUCK at making initial contact, building people contact, selling (as I'm way too truthful), etc. While my goods have a few that are useful in the entrepreneur world, my cons overweigh them, at least until I am able to get over them.

Yah, I think I'm exactly the same way, otherwise I would probably be more successful by now. I always detested the idea of chasing after money when I didn't feel confident in the production end, and its easy to always find something to improve, which I enjoy more anyway. I'm trying to change that with the seo thing, which is a suitable way of finding customers for me, because I don't have to put on a suit, its technical, challenging and interesting, so it's technically a perfect way. Then perhaps pay for some ads if I'm rolling in the dough, or set up branches or something, where someone else can worry about the marketing end and I on the production end. Someone told me that successful businesses are built on partnerships (including employees) where everyone has their own strengths and they work together. So like Bill Gates and his marketing dude, who´s the second richest dude in the world. I guess Bill Gates is more into the production end and upper management or something. Or like Steve Wozniak and the other guy from Apple Computers. I guess we´re just two tech heads and maybe one reason why are partnership didn´t go so well, because we´re doubling up on things. If you ever wanted to try it again, perhaps go in with a marketing oriented partner. But personally I´m pretty allergic to the idea of partnerships. Many people I know hurt relationships with friends, and I like to be in control etc.

So not to turn this into a psychiatrist session about myself, but I think it basically comes down to being in an environment where you can excel. When you can excel, you feel good, and if its in a company like Monster, than fine, you enjoy it. The drudgery DOES happen though, and for me that shows it is time to move. I have that now in Monster, but on the other hand I'm well paid, the work is not as hard as it used to be (as I have learned) and I want to spend some time to visit other parts of my life, enjoy life a bit, etc. and think about the next step, so for right now I'm not actively pursuing climbing the ladder. Will give it some time and just continue making things work as I'm good at in the current position. Money - for now, good, though I could make far more working in sales or something. Stress level - generally, ok, but that to me is a sign that I'm not pushing myself now, which is ok per my current plan. Work hours - it was crazy first 2 months, it is getting better and I feel better. Success - people say I'm successful. I still think I could be much more. For now I just feel comfortable I guess.

So you´re more in people managing and less on the tech end? That sounds more interesting. Good you´re working less, cause balance is good. Life can´t be all work. I think your technical background is good for project management, so I´m curious to see how your skills develop in that area. Would definitely come in handy if you ever wanted to start something yourself. Just find some marketing nut and give him a good commission or something.

Hopefully that gave you a snapshot of what you were asking. I plan to get back to you at some point about visiting
Cyprus. Just too busy to get any planning done but working on it!

It´s getting toasty warm now, but still coolish at night. Was told that it gets around 45 in the summer, but that on the beach at night you still need a blanket. A lot better than Croatia, where I could barely sleep. I think by the time you get organised it will be happily toasty here so you can get a good blast of the beach and sun. Hope I can endure the summer here.

just read your email on my mobile and responding now so that you do not worry. You say you cannot reason with me, but I think this is a classic case. I believe women tend to think on emotions first, and then logic, hence a male, who often thinks more logically, has a problem reasoning with them. Your emotion would like to have me back in
Prague, so you can feel I'm safe, know which pubs I'm frequenting, have a rough idea where I am at any time, so that you can sleep well at night. And are using all possible arguments to bring out such a reality. That is not based on reason at all. I have an engineers brain with high intelligence, so of course you cannot reason with me if this is where your arguments come from. It is a nice feeling that someone out there is thinking about me and worried, but I don't want you to worry like that if it will take away your sleep and torture you. You say you can't go to sleep when facing the darkness, and I imagine that in that darkness your imagination is running wild, because you cannot imagine where I am, or what it is like here, and in your normal nature you paint the worst possible picture of my predicament, and get overly worried. Just think how worried you must have been when I decided to move back to
the
Czech Republic, comparing it to Ethiopia and North Korea. Imagining all the communists who will kidnap me when I step off the plane. This island has practically no crime rate, the people are friendly, and I'd say it is much safer here than in Prague, which I'd say is safer than your Vancouver. You say that my new lifestyle is destroying my health, but that has no logic to it at all. It is my financial situation which is forcing me to consider eating bread and nothing to do with living in a box. If I were to live in Prague now with my income, and have to pay the crazy rent there, and have a million friends tempting me for beers, I would certainly not be able to survive. Sure, food is a little bit cheaper there, but consider the rent and all the other costs. And considering I don't have all those friends tempting me to beer, I am consuming much much less, and overall I'd say my health has a much better chance on the road than in Prague, where everyone offers joints, and I have to inhale that crap air. All that exhaust, and the inversion which happens in the winter, where all the coal heated buildings and car stink coming out of old Ladas hangs in the air, until the government issues warning that in Prague 1 and 2 people should stay inside. As if the air in their apartment is supposed to be much better than outside. So you cannot reason with me because your arguments are not based on reason. Concerning Stedry, tlusty intestines would probably be something like inflated intestines. One problem I recently decided about hemeroids is that it is all jumbled up and inflated at the exit hole that the crap can´t get out so well. And if the crap can´t get out so well, it stays there, which it shouldn´t. Because the body processes the crap we eat, and the liver etc. which removes toxins from our bodies gets rid of it through or pee and through our poo. But if our poo is kinda stuck and hanging around too much, the toxins seep back into our blood stream through the intestinal walls. And if you take the typical Czech diet of tons of pork and beef, which lines and clogs the
intestines and may lead to constipation or other annoying complications, over the years of this situation in a Czech person´s hemeroids can certainly lead to cancer and other problems. But I don´t eat so much meat, and my fasts every year cleanse my system and my intestines. So I really think that an operation here will be much easier than Stedry, so there is really no need to pick out of the hat the worst case you can think of and offer to buy a plane fare and get me the best Czech hemorrhoid < surgeon. If I get into serious trouble, sending me money to supplement my bread with vegetables should be plenty, and certainly cheaper, but I hope I don´t get to that extreme. I hope I don´t even have to borrow from Natasha, as I really do not like to borrow money. You say that I said I have to go back to Czech every year. Another grasping at straws, using any argument to get me "comfortable and safe" back in Prague for your own piece of mind, but since then I´ve been enquiring and 1) I can get health insurance here 2) my normal Czech health insurance works in the Greek half of Cyprus, where I hope to go soon to get my operation, as I don´t think the AXA travel insurance will pay for it here in the Northern,
Turkey side of Cyprus (imagine your health insurance covering you in Toronto, which is probably much farther from Vancouver than Prague from Cyprus), and 3) apparently the little stickers are not such a big deal after all. You can barely see them on the licence plate, perhaps local police would not even know what they mean. Actually, considering the amount of cars I see here on the road which spit out horrible black or grey smoke, perhaps they do not even have
emissions tests here. After all, it is a small island in the Mediterranean, with cleanish breeze blowing the stink in any other direction. And if I drive into Czech, I´m told I can just say I was travelling abroad for a while and that I am working on getting the papers together. I can show them my passport. This is experience from friends who have been there and know. Friends who drive around Europe a lot. And what percentage of police in Czech even bother to look at those little stickers. Well, so at least you have my reasonable logical arguments against your unreasonable illogical fears, and hopefully you can get some sleep now. Oh yes, and the study of mice eating bread that you refer to, how long were they eating bread only? There is a lot of nutrients in bread one can survive on for a long time, but of course it does not have all the nutrients the body needs, so eventually they will die. I cannot imagine I would be eating only bread for that length of time, so once again an unreasonable argument. Well, I guess that about covers it for your letter. You´ve always tried to steer me this way and that, mostly based on illogical arguments. The last time I listened to you is when I wanted to take a year off before going to university, a very reasonable proposition, but you screamed and foamed at the mouth that the brain stops working if not in use for such a long time, and that I will not be able to get back into the regime of learning. That is about the most ridiculous argument one can ever mention. I realised following your advice then was a mistake, I ended up taking three years off, and vowed to never consider your advice with such weight again. I´m here parked on the beach, watching the sun come up over the sea and fill up my little wooden cottage this morning as I type this letter, and I look forward to another happy day in peace. The people here are relaxed and friendly, and I like it. I´m glad I´m away from Prague and the snobs and the gossip, so if you cannot share that enjoyment with me, unfortunately you will have to suffer your own worries yourself. It will not affect my peace. Of course, I hope that you will not worry, because it is potentially more health dangerous than my
hemeroids, but I will not allow it to dictate my life. I will just write this letter and try to reason with YOU, using real logic and sound arguments, to hopefully paint a picture for you that things are really not that horrid as your imagination leads you to. Should I send you some pictures of my daily safe and peaceful life so that you can look at them and feel better? On my last chapter blob you should see a picture of the beach where I am parked, and then a bunch of ruins. If you want, I can take types of pictures I never usually take just so you do not worry. Consider all my arguments, and it is truly nonsense to fly back to Prague. Where would I even stay. And I am certainly not going to go under your wing and rules, and live here or there, and get this or that job, so don´t even think of trying. You are just wasting your breath. I can certainly be a viable option, as one never knows. But in this case, if you examine all the points with a clear mind (and from my perspective, who is actually here and should know more about my surroundings), it is simply nonsense and a waste of money. Anyway, I don´t pay rent, I don´t pay for electricity, and now I don´t even have to pay for internet. This should put my costs down to about 70$ a week with my healthy eating of salads etc. If I were to resort to bread only, and not drive anywhere, I guess I could reduce that to 7 dollars a week, but I really don´t feel I will need to resort to that extreme. I am simply analysing my options. Not a reality you need to use for the horrible fantasies you are painting. Well, hopefully you will not worry anymore, and now back to my nice and peaceful day.

thanks for the offer. Didn't send the letter to you with the aim of a loan but your offer muchly appreciated. Just received a project to hold me over another month, so we'll see. But my letters to other friends and this relative are being ignored, and this from people I know to have spare cash. It is sad how selfish people seem to be. My whole life I feel I've always been eager and instinctively willing to help everyone around me, and have always been greatly
disappointed those few times I needed something, to have to listen to lame excuses why no one can lift their finger. It always angered me, and now I think I'm just outright sick. I guess it's just my nature, as a Pisces or something, so I shouldn't judge others. But perhaps I have grown a little jaded. Generally I find my instinct takes over before I can even rationally think and I automatically help when someone is in need. This is one thing I've always liked about you, because you seem to have a good and genuine heart, in a world of wolves. But perhaps I am getting more sly in my aged years, and hope to treat favours like business, and keep the friend issue separate. I guess accepting that "friend" a lot of times means someone to drink beer with and entertain each other, but not necessarily some aging concept like "through thick and thin" etc. If I were to take this personally, I doubt I'd have any friends. Anyway, thought you might have enjoyed my goofy
Czech letter, which is why I sent it. But at least I received a few projects recently. And that I am on this island and can drive the 20k to the Greek side. My costs are fairly low here, I've already started looking into local health insurance, but the only remaining problem is the little smog test stickers on the licence plate, which are due to expire around July. But I don't think the police here will really concern themselves, and I don't really have another choice anyway. The fun of living on the edge I guess. But I'll slowly start asking around what is the procedure, the law, and the potential consequence. Otherwise, I think I could stay here indefinitely! latergal

March 20

You uploaded your
Mexico movie but had some serious password security thing going on, so every time I tried to download it I got kicked off part-way through. Remember? So I actually haven't seen that one. If you still have super-security on your server, you can upload it to mine. I'll make a folder for you and give you my password (no mucking about in there!) if that helps.

Oh yah, forgot about that. I got a new ftp server program there now, so lets try again. I'll try to set it up tomorrow. If that fails, I can try to ftp it to you. Read that the youtube thing only allows a hundred megs or five minutes, unless you have some account. Was thinking of trying to torrent some stuff off my server. I got shitloads of space there. Wanna try that for your flicks?

Speaking of my website, I did a re-design of my front page. The 'eagle cam' thing is taking off again this year; most of the nests around here have at least one egg in them. Last year I got thousands and thousands of hits during the mating, nesting and fledging season. I am buying a digital camcorder ($3000, gulp. loan.)

http://www.canon.ca/english/index-

products.asp?lng=en&prodid=317&sgid=5&gid=2&ovr=1 it has approx twice as powerful a macro lens as my still camera. Now I will be going out with both, because the little 'image capture' ability of the camcorder is still not as high quality. We'd be talking $10 000 for that, but the camera is like 4X the size and weight, with all kinds of plug-ins for studio. Plus I'd basically need to take a course to run it! It's not exactly portable. So the one I"m getting is a good in-between. I will be streaming video from my blog as podcasts (need Adobe Premiere, another $900. oy!) and uploading to YouTube. This will gain me ridiculous amounts of exposure and hopefully get me some sponsorship for my efforts.

Forgot, you plan to make money off this or is this an expensive hobby?

Tell me what you think of my new *fancy* main page!
http://www.ketadesign.ca As for the screenplay, I'm almost finished. Last few pages to go. In a nutshell: they live in a barren, desolate canyon because a war on their world several generations ago caused the animals to become mamoth sized and devouring everything in sight. The canyon has been worn into the earth by an acid river, also unleashed by their enemies. In the canyon the only thing that can withstand the acid water are crystalline stallagmites which have caves worn into the top, that's where the people live. It's no longer an acid river, but rather a wall of acidic water that pours through the canyon at intervals. Our heroine, Teone, one day travels further down the canyon than anyone ever has before, stumbles across another community of people living in another group of stallagmites. They gather their resources and send an expedition to the ground surface (because their species will die out if they stay in the canyon), who manage to evade the surface beasts only to find totally forested hillsides with all kinds of food and critters living in it. Various adventures embark, some people die, others get injured, a couple fall in love, one group returns to the canyon with news while another explores further the forested hills then comes across a village of people like them except they do not speak. No language. Probably from the trauma of the war.
blah blah blah etc etc things happen eventually happy ending.

Cool story and would dig watching the movie Lord of the Rings style. Had a nice fresh fantasy feel to it. Oh yah, when I was reading the Lord of the Rings, it was kinda cool in parts, but mostly I really didn´t give a crap about this little fat shit trudging his way through this forest and that. I think I don´t dig reading so much because I guess I´m one of those visual people. Someone told me an interesting theory once how there are three types of people, but you can combine various elements of each. There´s words, feeling, and visual. I think I´m highly shifted towards visual, because I have a sort of photographic memory, and I can imagine things from start to end. The guy who told me this said he can´t imagine anything, and that´s the first time I found out that there are many people out there who simply cannot imagine things visually. It blew my mind. Then I understood why there were porno mags. It never made sense up to that time. And feeling I´m not into. Totally don´t like it when a girlfriend invades my biosphere and wants to hold my hand. So I guess that´s why I´ve just never gotten into reading, no matter how I try. Now, since there´s not much better to do, if I aint watchin a flick or working, I end up reading something useful that I can gain from. I´ve recently been calling a lot of it wiki ketchup, as in catchup on reading after a lifetime of ignorance, drinking alcohol and talking endless gibberish about nothing. But as things occur to me I´ll download various subjects from wiki or possibly the general internet and I´m expanding my scope that way. Recently I´ve even thought about dabbling into psychology 101, to get insight into mental shit, but reading literature is still totally repressively boring for me. Well, guess that´s it. Just rented and saw Freedomland. Pretty intense flick man.

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize that you do most of your work with a pocket PC/ cell phone. For me , my Yahoo account/website is fine for e-mails, just have to delete a lot of shit.

Well, I wouldn't really say I do most of my work through the ppc, but rather more often check my email through it, as I'm at the cafe a maximum of only four hours a day. Then I like to check my email about once an hour, more often if there is some project. So my offline hours are spent doing offline work on the computer, so once I hit the cafe I got pretty intensive internet stuff that I do all at once as fast as possible. Kind of piles up and swings from one extreme to another. If I need to research something, I quickly download a bunch of pages and save them to my computer, to read them at leisure offline later. Took a while to get used to, after I was used to a permanent internet connection, but once I got used to it is really isn't a big problem, although I still miss the constant internet. Without the Vanquish type system I get about a thousand spam a day, not pretty well zero, so it is a definite breather.

well, at least you know one reason why I like the internet so much. Attached is the best info I found on the subject, so perhaps some things you guys didn't know and might prove useful. At least I know certain things to avoid, and I guess I'll start taking multivitamins. And try to knock out even one cigarette a day - heard on the radio recently that even one a day can triple the chance of a heart attack. The rest I'd say I've already implemented. I mostly only use virgin olive oil for cooking, but I'll try some of the other oils. One nice addition I did to the truck recently is to make a spice rack that fits nicely in one of my closets. I can remove it for when cooking, and slowly I've been recorganising things to make cooking a greater pleasure, but I need to buy a smaller refillable propane tank for lighter meals. Otherwise, I generally don't cook at all and eat raw most of the time, which is supposed to be healthier anyway. I usually cook on a Sunday and make enough for two or three days. Usually make dal, which is assorted lentils with delicious spices. Pretty easy stuff. Today I go try the free interent at the university. WIll be great if it works, because that will save me money, I can spend much more time on the internet, and will make
Cyprus so much more an ideal place to live. I'm still worried about the heat during the day, but if I manage to find a shady spot to park and use the fans, it could be okay.

just wondering if you are in regular contact with that customer you sent me. She wrote me, and I responded twice, but she has not responded yet, so I am wondering if she got my emails. My prices are really competitive so I cannot imagine why they would not at least interest her a bit.
Desperately looking for work as usual. Have entered my annual fast and, as usual, I always try to improve on the year before. This time I tried this parasite killer, because ridding your body of parasites beforehand is supposed to make the liver and kidney cleanses much more effective. My mom sent me this stuff Paragone from Vancouver which has all the active natural ingredients to kill the parasites and which I could not find in
the
Czech Republic (various herbs etc.). I only managed to take about one third of the dose, but I guess the stuff is pretty powerful, because after the 15 day period I had the worst diarrhoea I´ve had in my life. It was coming out like runny mustard, and it was burning my butt hole. I was in great pain, so I thought I´d flush it out with a sea salt water intestinal cleanse, and ended up have the worst case of diarrhoea for the rest of the day. Even after switching to regular water. I guess I should have followed the instructions better and ate some yoghurt and other stuff with my diet, but I guess my body was getting rid of all the parasites in it. I was laying like a beach whale in pain on the beach by the waves, running into the water every time the rumbling sound came, and usually it was too late as it would just gush out without warning. Fortunately not much people were on the beach during that weekday, but the constant diarrhoea seemed to have pushed out my intestines. I was in extreme pain and had to drive standing out to the hospital, where they told me I had stage 4 haemorrhoids, so the past week has been sucky indeed, but I have to chuckle at it. Will try to use my Czech health insurance and get a thousand Euro operation, because I´m sick and tired of dealing with it. It all started when I started riding a bike in
the
Czech Republic, and starting on George´s bike and hard seat. I was so excited I wasn´t paying attention that first day I rode 40k. Oh well, shit happens I guess, ha ha. Made some advances with your greencard thing?

glad to have at least one friend who's interested in this stuff and not just 100% for themselves, as many people seem to be. Not any action for you to do here, but I plan to download the reading links and read them sometime, because reading stuff like this can make us appreciate what we have, and perhaps give us motivation to try and do more. It's a big aspiration of mine to move towards this direction more. Unfortunately, I haven't had much work since I left prague and I'm totally smouldering in poorville. But my costs are much cheaper, so once the work kicks in again, I should be in a much better position, not to mention that my system is finally set up for some serious expansion and this is the first time in my career where I can afford to look for new customers on a permanent basis (I had too much work for my capacity before to even think about it). Most of the way I look for customers is seo. So far I have managed to achieve between the top ten and twenty on google in "translation agencies", "translation resources" and "translation agency" (translatingagencies.com is mine too). I find it quite interesting work and hope to offer it as a service on day. Not sure if I'll be able to whip through
Prague in the summer, as I simply do not have the cash at the moment (calculated it would cost me at least 50 grand Czech to make it there and back, considering I have to replace the back four tires as well). But if you feel like and are able to fly over here, it's a great island and I can drive you around. Free accommodation of course. Endless beaches, great nature, a rich history and tons of ruins, nice people and quite cheap on the northern
Turkey half. Think it could make a good long term home for me, as long as the two halves don't join. Then it would be a major problem to drive to another country and extend my visa here every couple of months. have a good one dude and say hi to the folks.

this concept has been dallying in my mind constantly for the past week and each time you came to mind, so I thought I'd write to you about it. Even though I'm smouldering in the doldrums of neverending poorville, I must agree that a good thing about my job, which seems to have been the case over the past several years but with increasing measure, is that I do what "job" I feel like at any time. I found I have gotten sick of answering endless emails over the years, and tend to answer the ones I want when I want. Whenever I finish one task, I always ask myself, "hmm, what to do next". Often followed by, "Nah, I'll do that later. Hmm, this one seems interesting at the moment". So I find that, aside from my general dissatisfaction at my low income at the moment, I'm enjoying what I do whenever I'm working, and lately it has occurred to me that this must by a very rare thing on this planet, with most people having some boss behind their back telling them what they have to do at any moment, telling them when they have to work, etc. etc. Those days are so far behind me and I can hardly remember them. But I'd say you are much more successful than when I was your age. On the other hand, almost every job I've had I never had someone breathing down my neck, whether it be a dishwasher, treeplanter, bartender, or security guard. A lot of times piece work, that as long as I kept up the pace, no one would bother me and I was the king of my little corner. But certainly not successful work like you. So I'm just curious how the new job is working for you and if you are enjoying it and what is the stress level/enjoyment balance to the money/success situation like. I don't think I've ever worked in a large office
environment like you, so I'm only speculating what it might be like.

Well Kajo, that is just how it is. I had a "friend" back at the embassy, i liked her because she was fun and we used to go out together a lot.

I guess you're talking about that girl I met and we partied at your place once? Yah, I've grown tired of people's selfishness too. Decided that I will rather try to treat things often as business, and reserve my charitable nature to charity and people who deserve it, or for a higher purpose. But it seems that I'll get mad, but every time someone asks for a favour, I'll instinctively help anyway, like that if I were to decline something would die inside me and I'd be more depressed or something. So I guess me and you are blessed with the spirit of giving, in that it gives us joy to give, which I think should be more fulfilling than the joy of receiving. I once had a friend who told me he enjoys it when someone cooks for them (he said it jokingly, although I'm sure it was true as well), in response to when I said I enjoy cooking for others. Or I have one realestate friend who was going around asking people if they'd rather live in a Prague flat with a shitty facade on the outside looking out the window at a nice facade, or the other way around. He said he received interesting responses, and I guess it sheds light on a person's character. Whether it is more important the simple joys in life, or glorifying themselves and being selfish or what not. Well, guess that's it for my philosophical discussion for this morning. My blob is

Travel Europe

. I'm trying to improve the writing style as I go. You can check out most of the pics through the "gallery" links. How was Greece? Must have been a fun surprise for Juan. You got a job in Belgium yet? Wrote to Roger without a response yet, but another friend said I shouldn't worry about the little sticker, so
Cyprus could turn out to be a longer term home for me. Just found some free internet, so my costs can be extremely low if I survive a lot on bread and just park on campus instead of driving to the beach every day. Think I'll put up some ads at the university offering English lessons in exchange for beers and the opportunity to meet people. But if I can get some work, I'd rather start driving around this island and exploring a bit. Under these conditions, as long as the two halves do not join, I think I can stay here for a very long time. Now just to find out how I tolerate the warm summers, as I was recently told it can get around 44C, which for a person who wears shorts through Prague winters, can become rather intolerable. As you can imagine, everyone here is in winter clothing and I'm happy in my shorts attire. latergator

And i didnt mind a least bit to let her stay over my apartment with her boyfriends over the weekend and so on, i borrowed her money when she needed (she always paid back) but one day when i decide to leave my job there i asked her to mail me papers from HR so i didnt have to come there (she worked for HR) and all the sudden it was a big deal...this little thing, not mentioning that it was her duty anyway, well i got my pares but i havent heard from her either. I am glad that you got some job and hope that things will get better for you there. But please, let me know if you are in trouble and i will try to help. Can you please send me again the address to your blog please, i would like to read it and pictures from
Cyprus again :o) Recently i found fly ticket to Greece round trip!!! for 2078czk so i bought myself one and will go to Athens for few days (Juan will be there with business so i will surprise him). I still want to come to Cyprus this year again. Also, did you try to talk to Roger "bird's eye" ? He lives on Paxos and he is experienced iam sure with all that car permission crap you are going through now, maybe he have some solution for that matter. Anyway, i am looking forward to spring! After the warm winter we have some cold spring! Take care and keep in touch! xoxoxo)k

thanks for the offer. Didn't send the letter to you with the aim of a loan but your offer muchly appreciated. Just received a project to hold me over another month, so we'll see. But my letters to other friends and this relative are being ignored, and this from people I know to have spare cash. It is sad how selfish people seem to be. My whole life I feel I've always been eager and instinctively willing to help everyone around me, and have always been greatly
disappointed those few times I needed something, to have to listen to lame excuses why no one can lift their finger. It always angered me, and now I think I'm just outright sick. I guess it's just my nature, as a Pisces or something, so I shouldn't judge others. But perhaps I have grown a little jaded. Generally I find my instinct takes over before I can even rationally think and I automatically help when someone is in need. This is one thing I've always liked about you, because you seem to have a good and genuine heart, in a world of wolves. But perhaps I am getting more sly in my aged years, and hope to treat favours like business, and keep the friend issue separate. I guess accepting that "friend" a lot of times means someone to drink beer with and entertain each other, but not necessarily some aging concept like "through thick and thin" etc. If I were to take this personally, I doubt I'd have any friends. Anyway, thought you might have enjoyed my goofy Czech letter, which is why I sent it. But at least I received a few projects recently. And that I am on this island and can drive the 20k to the Greek side. My costs are fairly low here, I've already started looking into local health insurance, but the only remaining problem is the little smog test stickers on the licence plate, which are due to expire around July. But I don't think the police here will really concern themselves, and I don't really have another choice anyway. The fun of living on the edge I guess. But I'll slowly start asking around what is the procedure, the law, and the potential consequence. Otherwise, I think I could stay here indefinitely! latergal

Howdy, thanks for the nice words? Which page did you visit? I guess the queens.kenax.cz one? I have many of them, and right now I'm doing a lot of search engine optimisation to help me get work for my business. If in Czech I'd advise going to Cesky Raj (Czech Paradise). Not too far and my favourite part of the country:

Bohemian Paradise

For steaks the only thing I can think of is Red Hot and Blues behind Kotva, in the centre behind the Obecni Dum. Say hi to Laurie, the owner, Lili, my good buddy, and Marketa, a feisty and fun waitress. Say hi from Charlie from Cyprus. Czechs don't cook western food too well, but if you ask these people they should know where the best place to get it is in town. They're pretty good too. I'd like to sink my teeth in a good steak myself. Perhaps more now that I'm half way through my fast. Take care, Karel

I discovered your absolutely amazing site while doing some research for our upcoming visit to Praha. Our son is teaching English in Praha for this year. We will visit him next week, over Easter. He lives on Reznicka Street and we are staying on the square near to him. We are so excited to see Praha and experience life there. Your pictures are awe inspiring . You captured not only a picture..... you captured a spirit, a feeling an energy. Your writing is very engaging , interesting as well as highly informative. Your spiritual insights are most inspiring. Thanks for all of the work that you put into this. I am appreciative. Brian is a writer as well and I will forward your writing and site to him to enjoy. God Bless You!!! Robert and Ann. Omaha Nebraska (PS Brian misses his great Nebraska steaks...is there a place to get a great steak? We want to enjoy the local cuisine that he also so enjoys but would like for him to get a steak while we are there.

February 13

Yah, well I'm just trying to arrange a trip with David in the summer precisely so I can spend some time with him. When I'll be in Prague I'll have lots of friends to see so not much quality time with David, so this trip will be a good opportunity to get a once a year blast of time with him. And I invited Ilona too so that David will feel more comfortable about the idea and be more likely to say yes, but I wanted to make certain things clear to Ilona that I wouldn't want her around if she will be behaving a certain way. Long story, but basically it was nice with Ilona for a while, and then half way through our relationship it occurred to me that she wanted something more permanent, which is when I told her I wasn't interested in that. I guess North American upbringing is different than Czech. For me, it is rather normal that someone might have different girlfriends before deciding to settle down one day. Anyway, Ilona seems to live in this fantasy of home that I will somehow change my mind and settle down with her. I don't even want to talk about it, but there are many things about her personality which really irritate and which I find in a lot of Czechs and which I'm rather sick of. But I email with David about different things and am trying to break him away from her, otherwise she will slow his growth I believe. Not break away from her completely, but develop some thinking for himself, and I think it will be good for him to spend time with you. Hopefully it will work out. He needs some character police around him, and I think the only thing he learns from Ilona is laziness and mazanost. But I think my emailing with him is good, and think we can discuss heavier things if he wants to. Otherwise, I really won't have much other opportunity with him. We'll see how it works out. Ilona can be right that I am crazy, but everything is relative. We can have a long philosophical discussion on what normal is, but I believe the most general definition of normal is by uncreative people who are too scared to discover things and live an interesting life, and they all live in a little box worried what others think about them, and they all collect around some common denominator and call it normal. For me that is boring, repressive and like giving up on life. So as I age I find I am deviating further from this "normal", getting more eccentric, but each tree continue to grow according to its particular identity. Only most people don't grow that way because they are used to fitting into some accepted norm. I see the same mentality wherever I go. Everyone wears a towel around their head, or this, or that, and then one person comes from a different culture they are shocked and scared. Such little people. Anyway, I wouldn't even really talk to Ilona if it weren't for David. Nice emailing with David , which I read below. Still don't have too much work, but it comes in little spurts. And I seem to be losing motivation. Kind of hard because when I move somewhere else it takes me a while to get into a good routine. And hard to motivate myself so much when I am not very clean. Long story, but I'm adjusting to the new lifestyle, learning, and trying to improve thngs in the meantime. My project in this town where i am now is to fix up the inside and make it cleaner and more homey, finishing the carpentry and other stuff, and then I will drive to the nature peninsula and hang out there for a while. Was in the Greek part of Cyprus recently to get a stamp in my passport and met a Slovakian girl. that was nice. No big aspirations, but I think I'll drive back there on my birthday and celebrate in that bar, and then ask her if she wants to go hiking. there are a lot of nice hiking trails in the mountainous part of this island and I think she was talking about the Tatras and that she likes hiking, so it would be nice to discover the island with someone. Otherwise, I don't have any aspirations for a travel femail friend, because a very difficult position to fill. But it could get interesting at Kadir's when I get there in a month or two. Lots of backpackers go through there and I might be able to hook up with some ozzie chick. I was there a few days and already hooked up with one girl a bit, but wouldn't be interested in anything more with her. But by the end of April
Kadir's Treehouses should be in full swing and i think I'll enjoy hanging out there for a while. lateroo

HI!!!!! SO GREAT TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!! I never got any emails or sms from you recently. This is first one in few months to be honest.

cau dudess, at the internet cafe and feel like responding "live" rather than offline later. I think you missed a lot of my grill parties, and I always enjoyed organising them, although towards the end of my stay I only organised them for my close friends, rather than totally "open house" and "invite all", because it seems that a lot of people in Prague just don't really care much, maybe just show up because something is free, kind of trash my place and I'm forced to spend much of the next day cleaning everything up. But with close friends everyone brings something, or pitches in with some help, or is generally more respectful, and the atmosphere is nice and not so loud. But I look forward to being able to organise something similar while travelling, since I have everything with me for that: portable volleyball net, propane grill, kitchen stuff, super stereo and musical instruments. So it would be cool to organise some bash outside in a field, or by the beach. I rather enjoy organising them. Greek Cyrpus compared to the Turkish part is like Switzerland compared to the Czech Republic po revoluce. Turks are kinda pigs and there's garbage everywhere, but they're nice. They seemed a bit snobbish and rich when I was in the southern half of the island. Also, these "richer" countries can sometimes be more particular about a greasy van and guy like me camping for free by the ocean. Look forward to checking out the peninsula in the north east part, as it is supposed to be beautiful nature. But right now I wanna hang around this
Gazi Magusa whatever bigger town and fix up the truck a bit. Want to complete some carpentry work and make it nicer inside, so I feel more at home. But on the 23rd of this month I may dive back into Greece, to some small town Palmirini or something like that, which is about 35k from Lanarca, because when I was there last time I stumbled on some bar full of Rumanian, Bulgarian and Slavic chicks, and who else would I end up talking with all evening but a Slovakian chick. So I might go back there to celebrate my birthday, although the beer is so much more expensive. But also because I'd like to ask her if she wants to go hiking, cause I think she said she's into that and its certainly more fun with a chick than by oneself. There's supposed to be a bunch of cool hiking trails at the top of the mountain range in the middle of the island. So you got a dog eh? That bored, or practicing the baby thing, heh heh? Well, have a good one and love ya too banana.

Anyway, How have you been? I miss your parties!!! like grilling inside of your living room in February!!!! HA, so much fun. I have a puppy with me now, he travels with me all the time. I love Cyprus, I know it is a robbery to live there regarding the prices but once you figure where to go shopping and so it is ok. The northern part, i've only been to the northern part of Nicosia. I enjoyed it a lot. Last year I went 3 times. Last time i went it was before xmas. I like the climate, the food... lots of fish and vegetables and i love haloumi cheese!!! And people are nice too. Well, enjoy it there for me as well and let me know how it is going. If you are planning a trip to Larnaca anytime soon, let me please know as i may ask a favour. Thank you. Please take care and keep in touch...gotta go to feed the BEAST...his name is BOB and he is two months old welsh corgi! LuvYa, kveta

cool story dudess, and liked the pics. I think you are the only person I know who I'm jealous about what they are doing. The rest are settling into their suburban comfy and repetitive existence, basically the reason I left Canada in the first place that 15 years ago. Prague was fun for about 8 years, but then all the cool and adventurous people left and the remaining seemed to get all gossipy and settled into village life. Still more fun than a lot of cities, but I prefer my existence much more now. The biggest drag of it all is that I'm not making much money, so I have to carefully count my beer money, which hampers meeting people. Or paying gas and exploring nature more. So I tend to hang out in one place at a time and save up gas money to go elsewhere. Now I'm in Cyprus, which is a lot warmer than the mainland, so I'm happy about that. There are lots of ruins and nice nature on the island, and I can drive over to Greece to extend my stay in Turkey every time. So if I stay future winters in Europe, I think this is the place. Hanging out by some larger town, but on the outskirts on a secluded beach, and spending about a week or something buying material i can afford to fix up the truck a bit. Haven't done almost anything since I left Prague, and there's a lot of little beautification things which needs to be done. You know, like when you move into a new flat. You spend perhaps a year beautifying it until it has reached some perfect equilibrium, like that totalne zapicovany byt I used to live in on Luzicka. Then it just stays the same and stagnates for a decade or something until you unearth and make another move. Shit, I enjoy working with wood so much, if someone actually gave me enough for this clunker, I think I'd enjoy selling it and use the cash to make another one, almost making a second career out of it. But I'd need a few years with this one, until I got tired of it. On the other hand, it really was a big project to put it together, but I guess future ones would go faster, and I can unearth and enjoy variety that way. Otherwise, what concerns a backyard, unearthing and changing that requires only a quick cranking of the ignition, and I rather enjoy that sorta gypsey lifestyle. Have a good one and keep sending the pics. Reminds me of when I used to glacier and mountain hike in Alaska and the Yukon. And I got above the clouds like that a few times while treeplanting, although the chopper took care of that. Or perhaps I got as high as you in Whister BC during the summer, but the super fast gondola took care of most of that, and we just hiked the rest of the way. Have a good one.

so finally started working on the caravan truck again, and added sorta disco lights in the front cabin area. Want to add some other circuits of lights, for the closet area, and do a bit of work with wood. Depends on how much money I feel i can spend on this, and how long I want to hang around this town, but I found a nice secluded beach, and I've been wanting to work on the truck for quite some time, so we'll see. It's like beautifying a new house/flat you move into. Sometimes it just takes time. For a long time, not only did I not have the cash, but I felt psychologically drained from the experience, after rushing so much prior to my departure from Prague. But I want to make it more homey in here. Still need to put on some back windows, paint it, and all sorts of other stuff, but that will have to wait a while (already have the paint, but I need to repaint it in conjunction with changing the papers). But looking forward checking out the north east peninsula. Supposed to be really beautiful, and Turks from the city come to beach where I am now and leave all their garbage, so I´d rather be parked at a more secluded beach. And on the radio I heard something about "Cyprus´s best wifi provider", which made me think there could be wifi companies working on a national scale. Will look into it, and if it´s true, could be a better option then spending the gas money every day commuting to some internet café, where I pay by the hour. If that works out, I might find myself on a secluded beach with some wireless internet connection. That would be fantastic. I think within about five years wifi will be much more spread all over the world, so my travelling dream will be much more convenient. Anyway, the reason I´m writing this is because I was taking a second look at my online family tree. Today is Sunday, the day I force myself not to work (often rather painful) so I can read the bible and try to learn how to worship God more or something. I´ll often get ideas while reading and research them more, and today arguments were popping in my mind against Jews who feel confident they are God´s chosen people. Anyway, wanted to know how my Jewish thing is, so looked at my family tree and, according to mala Jana, my great great grandmother was a Jew. Have to admit I´m rather uncomfortable about the idea and didn´t even know I had Jewish blood in me until Jana told me. I feel uncomfortable about even mentioning it. Anyway, because Vlad was putting together a family tree, thought I´d show him how I set mine up (the Excel file), and could offer to help him with his if he likes. The advantage of such a simple Excel file is: 1) you can easily add pics, 2) link to other webpages with more information about each person, which in turn can link out to whatever 3) see the structure of the tree and add to it with ease, 4) use other sheets within the Excel file to start other trees, and link between them, so that by pressing on one link you are immediately zipped to another location, be it another cell on the same sheet, a cell on another sheet, or a cell in a sheet on a different Excel file. If you want, I can make one for Krizan if you send me pics (scanned) and a storey, as Jana did. Or make any corrections or additions to the Kosman part, although I´m sure that history won´t interest either of you. But I thought the structure of the Excel file itself might interest Vladimir. Potentially gruesome computer tech stuff for ya, but it´s definitely useful for the purpose of a family tree. At some point I want to approach all the Kosmans I find on the net and see if we are remotely related, and start expanding the history outwards. Could prove interesting. Well, adios!

Kosman family tree

before I left Prague I surfed the internet a bit looking for English speaking churches I could visit while travelling, and with moderate success, I assumed I would be able to find something while travelling. But that has not worked out, because I find myself quite busy during the week, and once Sunday rolls around, I'll just read the bible etc. So I turned to looking for
Christian reading, since I've read the bible so many times it is getting repressively boring, and I feel it is good to get different perspectives, like listening to a good preacher. To enlighten me on the meaning of some scripture which would probably not come to me if I read it a million times. Anyway, attached is the first inspiring reading I found. A challenging message, and I can send you more if you like, because I assume you too might be too busy to go to church, especially when it is so difficult to find a preacher with a powerful and inspiring message to make the exercise worthwhile. I marked in red those parts I wanted to reflect and focus on for myself, and a letter I wrote to one friend which you can ignore at the bottom. My work situation is rather frustrating. I've never had such a long dry spell. Some
Czech
translation agencies were giving me some work for a while, but stopped for various, what I consider, rather silly reasons. I've approached a bunch of Czech companies with practically negligible response, I'm approaching companies on the internet, I'm continuing with my seo work, although the results of that take time to take effect, and in between I get little spurts of work just enough to help me get by, with the exception that every few months I have to borrow from someone else. It's getting a bit depressing and sometimes I wonder if God is against me. I could go into a long explanation of how I tried this and that in Prague, but I feel I wasn't productive there and had too many temptations I wanted to get away from. Without the rent or electricity my expenses are lower, and I feel I can serve God through the internet, or to people while I'm travelling just as if I were in Prague. Anyway, Prague and Czech was simply getting too depressing for me, and I made my decision to leave. If God gave me something interesting and productive to do there, at least I would have something to consider against. Anyway, please pray for me. I'm trying hard on many fronts and don't know why it has to drag out so long like this. The company is set up for expansion and all I need is some work to get things moving. It sucks on that front, but I'm glad I have the beach and warm weather. Take careo

ahoj, the package left this aft., will take 5-9 days to arrive at the postovvice of your choice. Go and check it out often. It will probably arrive for your birthday:):):):), I know you donot care much but now when you are so much on your own you may like it that someone remembered. Also chick your bank account for a little change for good beer for your birthday.

Tankya muchly. Mostly looking forward to the salmon. Reminds me of BC and gives me happy fuzzy feelings. I like to eat it with squeezed lemon, lots and lots of diced green onions, and pepper. Nothing else, and this seems the best. Everything else doesn't seem to do it justice, and the above seems to bring out the flavour the most. Lately I've been getting into salad a lot. Easy to make, not expensive, and very healthy. I like how the veggies here are nice, robust and fresh, but dismayed that nowhere could I find juicy red tomatoes like I hoped. Maybe its just the globalisation issue, why everything has to taste like plastic. Guess I need to find a natural farmer and pay more or something, but at least tomatoes here taste almost as good as they do in Prague during the summer. Thanks for the cash. Starting to get depressed with my situation. The
seo/search engine work takes a long time to yield results, and will be good once/if I start to get a lot of hits. I am ready for expansion, after spending years setting up my new system, and now I just need some steady work so that I can continue to invest into looking for more customers.

I will send it Friday 16th so it is early for birthday but at least it will be there for the little
celebration. Tell me more about where you are, looking forward to your blobs.

Already started uploading the latest blob update, but the internet was very slow yesterday. Will try to finish it tomorrow, but I've put a whole bunch of new pages. The blob pages are starting to get near the top in some keywords, so hopefully I'll start getting good traffic for that as well. Right now in Cyprus and looking forward to leaving this beach. Tired of the Turk pigs who leave garbage everywhere. Such a beautiful beach destroyed by all this garbage. When it is not so bad I clean up the beach around where I like to park. Then on the weekends the Turks come and everywhere is cans of beer and plastic bottles. Really disgusting. Hopefully I'll find a small town with internet on the peninsula I want to go to. Or perhaps I'll be able to get wifi internet. That would be great, but its a lightly inhabited peninsula with lots of ruins and apparently nice nature, so we'll see. One day I'll meet a fisherman and ask for some tips. I've seen one person (Turks fish a lot with their families on the weekends, and bring out the bbq) with a plastic bottle with fishing line wrapped around it. They spun the lure with their right hand and then released it, and it got out pretty far from shore, so a bulky fishing rod is not necessary. Perfect for my small space. Put sand in the plastic bottle, and you can have several bottles sitting by the shore, running to the first one that starts moving. They did the same way in
Montenegro. Simple and genius. Just need to know what they use for lures. In Montenegro I think they just used chunks of bread. That will be healthy and super cheap, but not looking forward to gutting the fish.

We are leaving for Italy on SAturday 17th, be back on 24th. I will not be able to get to the internet unless I find some cafe there in the mountains. Wanted to buy a helmet but it is sooooooooo
uncomfortable and hot that I decided to be extra careful and forget the helmet. Do not plan to fall for another 15 years.

Falling is not something one can plan for, and the skull is very soft and fragile. I studied first aid for treeplanting and it is always the first thing we look at. Concussion is the most likely to lead to death. Either that or you can study Aikido and how to fall. After some Aikido a rolled out of an accident without even thinking, where naturally one will put their arms out and scrape their palms off. Ouch. You can roll out at fairly high speeds, and that way prevent your skull from smashing.

Weather here is like Vancouver but dry most of the time. 8-12 degrees but it is so dirty and smelly here that I am sick again, something is stuck in my throat and I feel like I am in the coal mines.

Heard it was supposed to be 22 tomorrow and today i was suntanning in shorts, while the Turks still fully dressed up in coats and long pants. I must have been an oddity, with my hot Canadian blood. When I get cash again, one expense is to get a decent fan for when it gets hot. Saw some marine ones that work on 12V. In
Croatia it was hell trying to sleep once it got too hot.

Looking forward to the sweet air of Vancouver.

I remember once on a ferry approaching Vancouver seeing a thick blanket of yellow smog. Cars do all that, although it seems clean once in the city. This is another reason why I left Prague, and the big cities. Heard of a Russian who slept in a forest in a little treehouse, is over a hundred and very healthy, where before he was constantly sick. There must be more than 600 chemicals in car exhaust, and I always remember how well I slept in the forest in Cesky Raj when camping on the weekend. I think I'm done with busy civilisation, and snobby cosmopolitan people. Always rushing everywhere. Rural people are so nice, relaxed and genuine. The Turks keep giving me their food and it is very nice. Looking forward to Kadir's once it warms up. Nice to party with young backpackers.

But there are not theaters, no balls and our friends are so boring and sedative and inactive that it drives us crazy. Here we drive THEM crazy
because nobody can keep up with us and our activities. But I am getting tired and
need some sleep and mountains and Italy will be perfect end of this social marathon visit. So Kajinku I think of you a lot, wish you all the best for your birthday and all your life and hope to see you soon. xxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooomamamamamama

Me too. Hopefully we can hook up somewhere in Europe and plan things. I can arrange accommodation for you guys. Starting to map out Europe like I did
Cesky Raj. Too bad you didn't go with me once there. Very nice part of Czech and my favourite. Looking forward to checking out Moravia on my way back, but not sure how long I'll be in Czech. I think sometime around June. laterama!

<<< divide page here

good to hear from ya. Just read your last mail on my mobile and felt like writing back to you right away. Just finished watching the movie Blow with Johnny Depp and had to reflect on my life, and then read your letter. Feel like a little criminal going down Depp's path, but hope I can straighten it out. Funny I read your letter and you mentioned all those invoices just as I was reflecting on all these things. Well, just for fun, because I'm here on my own in my tin box parked on a beach in
Cyprus with no one to talk to... Got tired of the
Czech
Republic government charging me through their teeth for taxes, and Czechs ripping me off at every corner, and everyone being dishonest. I think one of the reasons it has taken me so long to build up a successful agency (still not there yet) is because I'm so honest. The occasional customer doesn't pay me and I spend a year grovelling like a dog to make sure everyone after me gets paid. Not how many agencies operate. But I have a beautiful reputation on the net and all my translators love me, which is more important for me and going to sleep with a clean conscience than hoarding a bunch of doe. And every year I have to try a new accountant, and every year the new one screws me over again, leading to further delays in payment of taxes, and fines and penalties, and interest on the fines, and penalties on top of the interest. It was ridiculous. And one year I got a big gig, and they were going to pay me around
November, but if I didn't spend the money on business by the end of that year, the government was going to take sixty percent. So that was the last straw and I moved my company offshore. Beliz in fact. Corporation. I'm 'just' a director hired by this company called KENAX Corporation, in charge of controlling the bank accounts and sending myself money to different countries to some guy Karel Kosman with a Canadian passport. Nice guy in fact. So if you meet the new housemates, you can tell them to go camping and make a pleasant little bonfire with all those invoices. I'm done with
the
Czech Republic and all those criminals. Speaking of criminals, I set up a roaming account with t-mobile and they started sending me invoices for 200 Euro. On two occasions was forced to set up a local sim card in two different countries. I know how much internet data I use through that mobile and it became very obvious to me that there is some hacker in t- mobile
Czech who is thieving from me and who knows who else. Wrote the headquarters of t-mobile telling them this, and where they can place their last two invoices. A nation of thieves and I'm practically ashamed I was born in that country. The new tenants should not accept any registered mail on my behalf, but what is done is done. I'll only whip through the country once a year to reregister the vehicle (a criminal enterprise in itself) and sign in for another year of health insurance. Trying to pay up everything and come clean, but I refuse to pay the t-mobile bills. Long story, but I haven't had much work either for a long time and getting a bit depressed about it lately. So we're two old farts who lived like young bucks in the old Chapeau Rouge days, when we felt invincible and the world and women lay before us. I'm starting to feel lazy and running outa steam myself. Sports usually kept me more motivated, but without a convenient shower, I won't create a sweat. Hoping that things will change in the summer, or if I can get a hold of some tap water, which occasionally happens. Sorry to hear of your problems. You at least have a nice relationship with your kid? Hope everything turns out good for ya bud and we'll smoke a fatty when I whip through around June. Smoked only twice since I left. Maybe when I get to
Kadir's
Treehouses it'll be a bigger party. Need some work so I can enjoy myself more, but I'm happy to have escaped the cold and finally see some steady beach action in my life. If you're not busy and working when I swing through we can go on a little trip or something. Been fixing it up a bit lately, and put some cheesey flashy disco lights in the front cabin area. Good to hear from ya and hang in there bud. k

Of course its just a game U ..., but how do U e.g. call chess? Have U ever played?

Well, I've played this Nanuki icecream game starting many years ago, that's how it was introduced to me, and I'm used to calling it Pente. But I didn't study its history etc., so don't know who called it what first. Don't think there is any other name for chess than chess, unless one uses another language. Maybe Pente is the Italian name or something. I'm pretty good at chess and like the game a lot. Think I'll go to "Greece" tomorrow, for my birthday, and say hi to the Slovakian chick. Hopefully she'll be up for some hiking. Would like to check out this island more. Game attached.

Thanks for the paper - heavy duty stuff. I just read a bit and although dated, it seems to talk just the same to
Christians of today.

Yah, as I read deeper into it I realised it was getting pretty dated, but then would get back into
something more usable again. I liked the beginning, because it seemed to get deep into motivation, which I found good to reflect on. Down to the real core of things. Concerning below, for personal contact I have this marketing approach where people anywhere in the world can approach customers and they get a permanent commission on all work sent to me. Kenax can be like the engine, with the virtual office the core of everything, project managers, Czech to English translators, proofreaders and vettors etc. logging into it to exchange files and communicate with one another. Everyone working on different time zones to keep everything operating 24 hours a day. The marketing dude can set up an office and look like an agency, and just forward the files to us. They can put whatever markup they think they need or can get away with. I find my prices pretty competitive. But most people aren't interested in this commission thing and want so salary, so I guess this is something I'll get into in the future once I start getting a solid revenue stream. The important thing is that the scripts for the virtual office are developed and I can start expanding in this way. Now I am focusing on marketing, which I haven't ever, really, but it is just taking longer than I expected. I really enjoy the
seo stuff and am making slow progress. I guess it will just require time. For the God work, that's going slow too. Hard to find charities to get involved in while travelling. When I was in Prague it seemed impossible too. Not much room for volunteers and everyone seems only professional, and when I approached shelters for homeless children, because I've always enjoyed spending time with kids, everyone assumed I was a pervert or something. So I guess I'll have to stick to donating money over the web and focusing on my various web projects, and trying things occasionally on a local level. Well, thanks for the encouragement. Was getting depressed when I sent that letter, and feeling pretty
desperate. But at least my costs are pretty low at the moment. Just trying to accumulate some positive vibes.

I think it's your B-day today, right? I hope that not only today will be a special day for you but also days ahead will be filled with all good things!

Went to the Greek side, only 20km away, to where I met this Slovakian chick and partied with her a bit, but couldn't get cash out of the bank machine so only stayed a short while. She says she works seven days a week and maybe gets one day off a month, so my mission to ask her to go on hiking trips in the mountains failed, although she expressed interest in stuff like that. Got in touch with some hashers (the people who jog and drink beer), so maybe I could find some interested parties through that, otherwise I'll just go myself. It's a nice island nature wise, with lots of historical relics. The way things fall into place for me while travelling, I get strong messages that God is watching over me, but I always get nervous when the money starts running dry. I know I'm not supposed to waiver in doubt, but sometimes it just gets so
desperate I can't help but get depressed. But thanks for the encouraging words, I need them at this time. I just posted my latest travels, with lots of pictures of my drive across the southern Turkish coast. Lots of historical relics. I moved things to another location, so perhaps it will show up now on your browser.

Travel Europe

Otherwise I think I'll make a slide show movie, so I can always show you guys that. But I think the web pics are better because one can stare at the pics as long as they want. One reason why I'd like to be earning more is so that I can travel more, instead of counting pennies and feeling hunger pains in my stomach as I watch the gas meter bob its way down to zero. I enjoy checking out the varied nature, and relics are cool. Occasionally I go jogging through areas, which is nice, and decided I might get myself a paragliding thing. Seems like, if its windy enough, you can take off from the beach and go sailing around in the sky, and land where you want. So could be a great free way to explore area. When I get to Kadir's maybe I'll get some travellers to pitch into gas so we can explore Turkey together. Otherwise, I think my travel website will eventually get a lot of traffic, which will help me find fellow travellers, mostly during the summer. Take care and thanks for the encouraging words. Need them right now. lateronie

Just wanted to let you know that you are in our hearts and prayers daily... hopefully something good comes and you will be Czech to English translating again or whatever Gods wants you to do, you will do it with joy and enthusiasm .... I think you are amazing individual, going so far on your own with trust that God will provide; and He will as what Bible says, you are his child and follower. I am sure he will use you and test you. Life is not easy, only silly can think otherwise......

Things generally fine, except for a persistent lack of work. But I'm making slow progress with the seo stuff, so at least something promising. Didn't realise you were so sick of this stuff, so I'll make sure not to talk about it. Guess I find it interesting because I'm not forced to do it because someone told me to but because it is a way for me to become successful. And then I also find it interesting and how
google and the algorithms work. Anyway, I guess you didn't read the letter, but I was wondering if you had that typing program I could suggest to me translators. Or know of some free downloadable one. Where you living? Actually wanted to ask you that, or if you were still living with your parents. Is dad upset you're not helping him with rent or living with them? Guess now you can go nutso partying. Where you livin? Send me some pics? Otherwise, I should be back around Juneish. Think I'll head to the Polish coast and maybe farther north, as I don't work well in the intense
Croatia heat. And I found Croats rather snotty. Cyprus story was crazy and by far the farthest I've ever gone and most I've ever spent just to get a mobile signal. Kinda hilarious, and the ferry was expensive, but decided this is a good winter hangout because I can drive over to the Greek side to extend my 90 day limit in
Turkey. Nice nature island full of historical relics, and much warmer than the mainland, so I look forward to discovering it. Hope I can get some juicy work one of these days. Obviously to help me pay back debts and invest into expansion, but it almost sucks to be living this dream but have to be so penny pinching with gas. Almost a painful irony, but parking for a long time on a beach isn't something worth complaining about, so I guess things can't be so bad. I'd say now the temperature is almost perfect. Need to save up for gas and ferry money before it gets too hot!

I have not had time to read this document but agree with Dad on the point of personal contact. It's good advice.

cau dude, finally found an antispam system I'm happy with: www.vqme.com About 34$ a year. I need this confirmation approach, because my email addresses are all over the internet and now filter alone could suffice. I wrote dad that the personal contact approach will be handled by others, everywhere in the world, once I have enough cash to pay for that. Right now I am offering the position but commission only. In the meantime I'm doing the seo thing, and when things get rolling, I'll focus on making the machine work and seo and marketing etc. Let us call it upper management. Someone can set up a fancy office in New York, practically call it what they want, and just forward all their work to the Kenax engine. Full details here

Translations in-house jobs employment

if you'd like to read that. Finally kicked in on the seo and am 9th for "translation resources". Should hopefully only improve from here, and will keep adding more and more pages.

how are things going? You seem to be doing well, as I see your webpage all over the place. I've recently restarted seo work and am starting to see some progress. Been too busy with large projects the last seven years to look for customers, but now I have a system set up through which I can expand, externally, like through a virtual office, as I like to work on my own and not in some office with tons of people. Even one secretary annoyed me. So I've followed my big dream, moved myself and my business into a truck, and now I'm travelling freely around the world while working. I guess my details in your database should be correct, although I could not check it. Basically I'm interested in all translators and all customers.

> HEY! isn't it your birthday today??

Yah. I stopped caring a few years back. I think for 10 years I haven't told people around me, not even to get free beer. At one point I tried to stop remembering, so that I could forget my age, but that turned out futile, cause people can be annoying and they often ask, and it's quite retarded to respond "I don't know", so I was forced to abandon that aspiration. So I just don't care, but I guess i'm fortunate cause I still look young, and I'm still pretty fit, although I've been getting lazy lately. But I'm getting back into it, and mostly relies on the ability to find fresh water so I can have my portable shower. Summers are easier because beaches often have showers. Then I can jog happily in the sun, jump in the ocean and swim back with my goggles, or sweat with pushups in the truck before jumping in the ocean. But I've finally found some water here and its warm enough now to take showers outside. But before when I left Prague, I enjoyed TOTALLY kicking everyone's ass in squash, and especially the young sporty looking 21 year olds. They always marvelled how I could run so quickly from one end of the court to another. Actually, makes me not as good a player, because the better players conserve energy, but I enjoyed maxing myself out, so I would slam the ball a lot harder than strategy called for. Now i don't mind telling people my age because I like to see the surprise on their face. Or sometimes I'll do the cheesey thing and ask them to guess. Early thirties is the usual guess, but I can get away with murder in dark romantic bar lighting. Under flourescant lighting in the can it can be a bit of a horror show. Drink a double beer in my honour, because I've started a new fasting routine: starting my birthday until Easter no beer or cigarettes or meat or bad things, doing a full spring cleaning for the traditional 40ish days. I move towards a juice fast, and the near the end try the customary 8 days of water only, during which I do the various herbal cleansing things, to get rid of my kidney and liver stones and all sorts of other stuff. So I come out of it
squeaky clean like a baby. I think that helps as well. laterama

Oh hush. We shall have to stop remembering, that way I can be forever 40 and you forever 42. I think those are good numbers to stay at! Yesterday at work I was talking to a lady that was out sick for quite a while, she said she had Whooping Cough, that the old inoculations wear off and they're thinking of re-boosting everyone. I said, "You're the same age as me, arent' you?" She said, "How old are you?" I was like, " . . .. . 40." such a long pause, I couldn't even say it! She laughed. Anyways, have a good birthday. If I wasn't getting over a BRUTAL cold (hearing about your warm adventures made me somewhat jealous) I would have a beer tonight in your honour. I'm sure I'll be able to suck one down in the next couple of days though!

Hey, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! And enjoy the celebration with that Slovakian chick ... :o). Going today to the mountains, so will have time to have a look at it only later. Well. to the mountains together with Dana and Marketa. :-)

yah, you gonna make a Marty sandwich in the mountains, where your the salami slice? Was fun hanging out with the Slovakian girl, but turns out she only gets one day off a month, so there goes my aspirations of having nice company with which to explore the islands. But I've gotten in touch with some hashers (that crazy group of people who like to jog and drink beer), so maybe I'll find some coexplorers that way (although they're rarely an attractive bunch). But my back tires are getting thin and I'm starting to fear driving anywhere, as it would cost me about a thousand bucks to replace them all. Did ya send the cd yet? I'm considering relocating to another part of the island, although only a couple of hours away. The post office said they'd hold onto the cd for me, but if over a certain size, they'd charge something per day. have a good one.

didn't get a response from you the last time I asked if you could help me with my financial situation. If you sent an sms to my old t-mobile number, it probably did not get through, because their roaming services sucks, and I cancelled with them. I now have a Turkish sim card, but I'm regularly changing sim cards as I travel, until I get back to Czech and open a roaming plan with someone else. It's been crazy lately and I was forced to relocated to
Cyprus, just so that I could cross the border to another country (southern half of the island is Greek). But its a nice island and much warmer here, if you're up for a little break. Lots of cool historical relics, great nature, and friendly people. But the ferry across and other costs hit me hard, and once again I'm forced to ask around for a loan. I've been getting trickles of work here and there, usually enough to get by, and I'm managing to keep my costs low, since I don't pay for rent or electricity, thanks to the great solar panels. I'm living as modestly as I can, yet I'm running dangerously low of cash and I'd appreciate the help if you can spare it. When I don't have work, I've been busy looking for customers every possible way I can. I must admit this is the longest dryish spell I've had, but these things happen sometimes. In any case, I'm glad that I finally have the system set up to enable me to expand. I've been working on that for about five years, and now the virtual office is ready and I can hire as many people as I want externally. In the past I've had inhouse secretaries, but this is not the type of existence I want, for which reason I masterminded the virtual office (not to mention that it is essential for my new travelling existence). I've been approaching customers on the internet, offering my Czech to English translation services again, working to penetrate the Chinese market, and working on webrankings in between work. I've made some progress with the webrankings, now at 9th position for "translating resources" and 25th for "translation agency", and this is where I place much of my hope, but progress is slow. Anyway, hope you can help me out in my time of need. Take care and warm greetings from
Cyprus. I hope to swing through Czech around Junish, as I need to show up there once a year to reregister the truck and for health insurance. Maybe we can plan for some trip once back.

Yes, I use the ignum.cz filter with x.cz. It works fairly well, and there are up-days and down-days as they seem to use a product with a team that actively tries to improve it. It will never be perfect, but I get a fair amount of spam, and it successfully filters through 80-90% of it. Fair amount of spam for me now is probably 30 a day, not that much in some books. You can try it by copying all your mail through your
email address and see how it marks (I use an outlook filter on everything with five or more stars on a scale of 10 in the subject line).

thanks for the offer, but managed to find this Vanquish thing, which I believe I already wrote about. I get about a thousand spam a day, and expect more once/if I start getting a lot of hits, and into the future, so I need something that sends challenge messages to new people. Another good thing about Vanquish is "smart subjects", meaning it will let messages through and with the subject, on a permanent basis or up to a period of 14 days (I can adjust). Which is good for when I post potential jobs on the internet, as many people find these challenge emails simply too "challenging". But still hope to use the kaja address at some point, for super personal and secret emails. latermun