哎呀！今天呢，我的好友呱呱叫，說背痛。
我們嘗試找捷克共和國布拉格Myslikova街道171 /31 號的北京同仁堂，可是，人家的網站去不了，電話 +420 720 979 830 也打不通。唉啊。不知道發生什麼事了。人家不幹啦？
Today, we have been unsuccessful, in our various attempts to get hold of Tong Reng Tang Prague over the phone, and their website is not working either. I don’t know what happened- they decided to shut?
My friend is seeking a cure for back pain.
Out there on the internet, there are all sorts of random, obscure, quite bizarre freelance jobs, random ad-hoc jobs, for people. And, that includes artificial intelligence (AI) tasks. Woe.
We are wondering if that’s even worth the effort.
They got their principles of operating.
Sod it, AI. How might we conceptualise ‘intent’?
Intent: rob some treasure, on the open sea, like a pirate,
Intent: bury the box of treasure, somewhere logical
Intent: write a letter of confession concerning the deeds or misdeeds
Intent: sit at the campfire and roast meat
Intent: seduce a mermaid in the sea
Intent: hire some fishermen
Intent: hire a dude to repair the broken fish net
Intent: kidnap for ransom
Is that AI stuff supposed to be purposeful activity? Or just nonsense and chaos! We are skeptical.
Concerning Zolotas, Greece
[繁體中文字：] 唔唔。那麼，我在網上看到了 Zolotas 有賣珠寶首飾的。雖然我不知道他們 CREAID 有什麼事兒了，但是我覺得人家 Zolotas 的設計精美呢！呵呵！我看到了人家希臘設計師的設計，令我感到開心!
[简体中文字：] 唔唔。那么，我在网上看到了 Zolotas 有卖珠宝首饰的。虽然我不知道他们 CREAID 有什么事儿了，但是我觉得人家Zolotas 的设计精美呢！呵呵！我看到了人家希腊设计师的设计，令我感到开心!
[In the English language:] About the brand ‘Zolotas’, which is apparently from Greece, they seem to have some sort of a ‘Byzantine Empire’ collection of jewellery. I’m starting to look at that, a little bit, and wondering whether those absolutely hard-core academics who work with the history of the Byzantine Empire (perhaps at Oxford University, perhaps at Cambridge University) would admire Zolatas’ artistic and creative endeavour. Or, would they disapprove of what they do, in any way? Would they feel ambivalent about the creative endeavours, for a myriad of reasons? I would have to contact the academics/ authors, to ask them, what they think, if anything. And, does the absolutely average person in the general human population know anything at all about the Byzantine Empire anyway? Perhaps not. Perhaps, nothing.
The question for me is, then, how can anything from the Byzantine Empire speak to my heart, mind, and soul? What is that saying to me? What has the Byzantine Empire got, to show me, as a human being? Would I want to see that? What is the legacy of the Byzantine Empire? The ‘Zolotas’ designers, what’s going on in their heads as they design the jewellery? What is going on in their minds, hearts, and souls? What’s even going on across their hands, and all that?
I cannot deny that their Byzantine Empire collection of jewellery items is full of intricate beauty that is uplifting to the human spirit, my heart and soul- dare I say it.
[Traditional Chinese] 我在網上看到 Ileana Makri 在賣珠寶的。啊啊，價格算是高昂啊。光顧她，買結婚戒指，怎麼樣？豪華的奢侈品呢！
大家有沒有特別喜歡蛇啦? 這一家 Ileana Makri 有許多蛇蛇首飾呢！
[Simplified Chinese] 我在网上看到 Ileana Makri 在卖珠宝的。啊啊，价格算是高昂啊。光顾她，买结婚戒指，怎么样？豪华的奢侈品呢！
大家有没有特别喜欢蛇啦? 这一家 Ileana Makri 有许多蛇蛇首饰呢！
[English language] As far as their (presumably) Greek fashion modelling goes, I seem to see the one face, prominently, of a Greek-looking lady with a dark complexion, featured across the website of Ileana Makri. Then, I seem to be in some sort of a fantasy world, of dazzling diamonds. Oh, am I going to indulge, one of these days? Various products that they offer seem to have such fancy names, such as Wisdom Eternity Flower Earrings, Aura Smooth Pendant Crystal, Galaxy Cuff, and Astra Citrine Pendant. Shall I salute those jewellery designers, then?
咦！啊！那麼，我們在看一看這個事兒。
有一個公司，名叫 Trueside s.r.o. 。
網站好看啦！看得舒服！
Their English is fantastic, and their business seems to make sense.
There are warnings about Adonis Philippousis- the nature of this person’s activities.
We have encountered allegations that:
Please, do not buy anything from this guy (I wish someone had warned me). In September 2021, he made us prepay 5 000 euros for a product he never delivered and he doesn’t pick up our lawyer’s call. BEWARE!
He takes your money and disappears. And I only post this here because everything is written, you don’t have to trust my (verbal) word.
Please, be careful, don’t make the mistake we made. We trusted him because he claimed he’d made the gate at the French Embassy (whether it was true or not, I don’t know)
This is such a ghastly story. While we were not there when such activities allegedly took place, we feel desperately sad and devastated for the victim’s losses. It appears that the woman was defrauded by Adonis Philippousis, who cruelly cheated her out of a huge sum of money. Basically, he is a criminal, and the victims are currently making the police of Greece pay attention to the scam, the acts of Adonis Philippousis to use false pretenses of performing upcoming services to illegally cheat money out of victims, promising to build something only to take money and disappear. That’s despicable. It seems that he deserves to sit in prison for a long time. At the very least, he ought to be prosecuted for these alleged financial crimes.
For numerous parents across the world, managing the academic, emotional, and psychological lives of teenagers at home can be so demanding, potentially difficult, sensitive, and tricky. Among so many problems, issues, challenges and difficulties that teenagers may face in their tumultuous lives, many middle-aged parents find themselves facing a broken-hearted teenage girl at home, after she has gone on one, perhaps two romantic dates with a boy. Mothers, fathers, and siblings often-times want to show their support, encouragement, understanding, and nurturing sides at such a difficult time, but may feel unsure about exactly what to do with this sensitive situation.
Teenage girls, and also undoubtedly older women, may find themselves to be romantically involved, entangled, and drawn to a guy, sucked into a romance sooner than they expect to- and things may progress far more rapidly than they themselves anticipated. A girl, with a tender heart, may have all sorts of tender, personal feelings. She may or may not have a close relationship with siblings and parents, to be able to confide in them, about their ups and downs, trials and tribulations, thrills and setbacks.
Teenage girls, as different individuals, may express their emotional states in incredibly diverse ways. There may be joyous shrieking, following exchanges of romantic messages on a mobile phone. There may be long tearful crying spells, after a brief romantic date in the park involving some ice cream turned into a nasty argument about the teenage boyfriend’s dog. She might be showing great levels of anxiety through rituals in the bedroom before the romantic date on Saturday. Sometimes, parents at home just want to help her relax, calm down, and let her know that they are there for her even if the teenage boyfriend turned into a massive disaster because his political views are far too extreme and he actually shows no regard for personal hygiene.
It can be quite unsettling to have a teenage girl at home who is going through upheaval and is trying to attain an emotionally, spiritually rewarding romantic relationship but struggles to get there depending on which boys she meets at school, at sports clubs, and in the wider community. Sometimes, parents want to be patient with the upset teenage girl- to show their nurturing side, share meals together, casually chat, have a reassuring presence, to have a sense of continuity with or without the teenage boyfriend. It can be a frustrating process, but, she is just gaining an understanding of herself, living her life; and sometimes, doing the best that she can, given what she is facing. To some extents, hopefully she is finding that the routines of her life offer consolation- maths classes, other science classes, sporting sessions, aunts and uncles visiting, short holidays with family members, hobbies clubs, news of her favorite bands, and any number of things that are rewarding to her and help her form her own identity. A teenage girl is probably going to go through times of anguish, sadness, devastation, despair, desperation, eager anticipation, romantic longing, and desire. Hopefully, family members feel fairly reassured that this is quite good preparation for the future and that sooner or later, she is going to solve it all!
Wasn’t that over about one month ago when I was in the city centre (Prague) walking from a wine bar to… which one was it… Burger King, when a trio of guys started chatting to me in a friendly way. !
I started complaining about Hong Kong, how obsessed people were with English words like ‘prestige’ and ‘elite’ , while they seem to have absolutely no idea what the word ‘elite’ even means, or, how to use it.
There’s a Latvian so I started blowing the trumpet about a Latvian bakery/ bread business in Hong Kong started by two Latvian engineers. There’s a Mexican speaking fluent English who also didn’t like snobbery drawing a distinction between ‘Prestige’ and stuff for the regular people of the general population. I started chatting about how harbour seals got raped by sea otters, biology is so fascinating. When was that? After about one hour of chatting. A dead duck got raped by a homosexual horny duck. And that’s a fact. The sea otter , of course, also raped a dead dog for seven days straight. It didn’t end after one or two rapes. It was going on, and on, and on.
And then I was chatting with the guys the following night too, Czech Latvian Mexican… … … a bit like meeting people from social networking, such as, Couchsurfing.
I am wondering, was the Mexican guy flirting with me? He was complimenting me, saying that I was wearing a nice jacket. Then, complimenting me, saying I had nice handwriting. I was handwriting a very short Czech poem, I think. Or something about systems of counting in the Czech language.
Is that what men do to flirt? Passing complimentary compliments like ‘your jacket is nice’ + ‘your hair is nice’ or whatever?
What can he do with that anyway? A visitor in Prague living in Italy / Croatia, if information he gave me is correct- I did not verify any of it.
It is perhaps taboo/ controversial/ too shocking, that the harbour seal got raped by the sea otter, so many times. But, as a matter of fact, that happened. And, if I’m out there, socialising, befriending people, once I do it long enough, I notice that people are not all that nice- they take advantage of me, they manipulate me, they intimidate me one way or another, they use me , one way or another. That happens sometimes. Commonly. It depends on who I am dealing with. Some people never manipulate, never use someone else for something. Some people have integrity. At first, it is hard for me to tell. It is too difficult for me, to discern. It’s all such a mix.
So, perhaps it is just nice, fun, and liberating, to intimidate (at least freak out) other people, before they go and intimidate me, undermine me. Like, I got used for resources. A strange Czech lady even asked me for whiskey+ vodka two nights ago. NO. I don’t see why she’s not going to just buy herself a bottle of whiskey herself. Plus, I don’t bother keeping that stuff at home because I just don’t drink any. So, don’t expect me to provide any of that stuff. And she gave really hilarious excuses to try to justify such a request – to ‘recover’ after doing excruciating yard work. So, she needed whiskey . So manipulative, ready to take stuff from me at my expense. Hilarious.
I am not happy about how I get treated by other people, sometimes. I wish people would just treat me with decency, common courtesy, respect, honor and common sense. Legally, not criminally. Some people did criminally undermine me in the past, yes. Perverts. There’s a bit of a fear.
The dudes.. . … Oh bread of Latvia… … … I had such a hilarious laugh, talking bullshit about sea otters – actually that’s not bullshit, it’s grim and gross but they did those really not very nice things to baby seals. It’s too madly boring to keep going on about things like ‘Hi, where are you from, … what’s your job, … … ‘
Yah, are you flirting? How do you flirt?
As we look around us, across our circles of friends, it may strike us that substance abuse is so common. We were almost naively hoping that our friend, who owns a restaurant, enjoys drinking alcohol; but as time goes on, it is too obvious that the clinical addiction to alcohol is making his life hell, and frequently embarrassing his family members who also work at the restaurant. We cringe so badly, when he is drunk and groping a woman indecently again, in front of his own teenage daughter. Likewise, we were hoping that our friend was playing computer games as a nice hobby, but, day after day, the shocking amounts of time spent gaming instead of working in a job indicates clinical addiction to the computer game, beyond reasonable doubt.
Oh, what a tragedy. For the addicted person, he or she is – more often than not, in denial. Friends around them find it astounding that they do not even identify addiction as a basic problem. It is ever so obvious to people around them that drunken misbehaviour often causes extraordinary problems, nearly warranting police attention, and that it is unrealistic to spend five to six waking hours of the day gaming instead of working, that is not even to mention the sleepless nights gaming away.
Friends who feel saddened by the addicted friend’s predicament start doing research about addiction, and quickly become very much more knowledgeable about the twelve steps to recovery, than even the addicted person himself or herself.
No matter how much surrounding friends care about the addicted person in anguish, it is the addicted person himself or herself who must take the first step upon professional treatment in order to make any progress towards recovery. It is fundamentally important for the addicted person to turn from denial, accept the addiction and move forward with the programme of treatment.
Encouraging a loved one to sign up to rehabilitation for alcohol abuse or computer gaming addiction may be much more difficult than you think it is, when that person is not willing to accept that the addiction is ruining their lives. If so many different people from different contexts- extended family members, colleagues, casual acquaintances, nasty neighbours, friends of friends from birthday parties all say the same thing about the addiction that they observe, and people remark upon the particular signs of addiction that they often see in the same person, perhaps the addicted person will finally start treatment one day, knowing that the collective opinion of so many people on that addiction can’t be so wrong. ‘How come everybody is saying that I am clinically addicted to alcohol? Maybe I actually am addicted to alcohol.’
It can be tricky to know how to persuade a family member or beloved friend go into the treatment facility to pursue rehabilitation. One may hope that talking to the addicted person clearly, face-to-face, with compassion, kindness and genuine concern, repeatedly, may one day result in successful recovery, even though completion of rehabilitation may be two long years ahead in the future.
It is a joy and a privilege to know people from different cultural backgrounds and different walks of life. There is much to gain through business networking, knowing more about the thoughts and opinions of other people, and socialising generally, getting to know one another while having great fun. Indeed, while different individuals may come from a diverse mix of cultural backgrounds with involvement of very different cultural customs according to their own upbringing, there is also great diversity in terms of religious beliefs in this world. It is an active world with dialogues, exchanges of viewpoints, and engagement of minds.
In the Western world, there is such a large population of Christians, and much of the history of Western Europe is rooted in Christian faith and Christian traditions – it is as though Christians are everywhere, any way that you turn on a high street in town. Perceptions of Christian people can be very mixed. People have had very positive experiences of Christian people, and some have reported particularly unpleasant encounters with Christian people. Christians seem to vary greatly in terms of popularity: high-profile businessmen, celebrities, scientists, the bank clerk you may have seen yesterday, the shop assistant who took your card payment last week, a local bus driver. According to people’s perceptions of Christians, there might be a few existing stereotypes of Christian people: they are old, boring, hanging on to customs of singing hymns from a past age. Christians are sometimes thought of as strict people who do not know how to have fun.
While stereotypes are not entirely helpful, there is much joy and intrigue that seems to be coming from circles of Christian friends, who progress through their work in adult life following various stages of education.
People who live in this day and age generally believe in honest, dynamic communication, rather than didactic instructions, perhaps the bigotry that people were used to about seven or eight generations ago, at least in much of the Western world. The Christian man from today whose thoughts are full of ideas of ‘praise the Lord’, whose tongue is full of the phrases ‘praise the Lord’, is nevertheless realistic about his own vulgarity, his own tendency or inclination to curse and apply crude language, quoting the example of walking around at night to go to the toilet. Upon stepping on an odd object such as a drawing pin with a sharp point, he is blurting out some not so nice English words. Friends who are around are amused at the thought that a Christian man gets injured by a sharp point in the middle of the night and still calls out ‘praise the Lord’. The reality fell short of this heavenly ideal, and they can also identify with their own weaknesses, vulnerability to physical pain, and the ungodly tendency to curse, sometimes.
The sales manager’s teenage days were also sources of entertainment to her friends. Being a Christian teenage girl, she disliked chemistry as an academic subject and appeared to be uncommitted to her studies. There is the tale that the chemistry teacher sighed in despair and remarked: ‘Dear girl, where are you going to go in life?’, displeased with the lack of focus, to which the pupil immediately responded: ‘Chemistry homework does not matter. Jesus loves me, and I am going to heaven!’ This true story of such a proclamation to the teacher has amused Christians, atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and Taoists alike.
The girl was expected to be submissive to the teacher at school, to listen to the explanation of the importance of chemistry. From this world, there are indeed many indications that chemistry does indeed matter. This is not what the Christian teenage girl accepted at that moment on that day. Instead of being submissive, she demonstrated firm Christian faith, her belief in Jesus, and heaven from Christian doctrine. Whether people feel that she, as the Christian teenage girl, was right or wrong about chemistry on that day, many people feel intrigued and amused that the discussion between the teacher and pupil took a dramatic turn and was elevated heavenward.
Upon knowing other people as people, we may find that Christian people, while greatly varying in their good deeds and bad deeds, often do not think that they live on some kind of ivory tower or moral high ground, as the stereotype goes. Often, Christians do not think of themselves as high priests ready to judge us, ready to condemn the world, to impose doctrine upon other people. Many such individuals seem to want to share their beliefs and thoughts openly, honestly, and plainly in their own language. Many Christians simply want to tell you how it is, in ways that are easy to understand. Commonly, they have track-records of friendships with persons from other faiths: atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and so on. While issues of heaven, hell, and damnation may potentially be overwhelmingly serious, many Christian people are openly communicative, listeners to other people’s thoughts, and having great fun, cracking jokes and getting on with life just like anybody else. Perhaps, it pays to know a Christian colleague, supplier, business partner, or friend from a birthday party.
Welcome to the online journal of Dilys Koroncziova 