DEAR SANTA,

Dear Santa,… or God or whatever higher force :),

Here are my secret wishes to you. For the coming year and even longer :), I would like to share my wishes, hope it’s not too childish, taking into consideration my age. And are they secret if I post them online anyway?... So, here I go. Most of all I wish to myself and my close people: love ♥. I want them to feel loved to have somebody in their lifes to love, to be in love always and forever. I want love to be my path and everyone’s path, not fear, not anger, no regret... I hope that me and everybody in my life will find a great lover/ partner to share everything with and be verry, very happy. I want to live and cherish the present, stop thinking about the future or past so much…and fear them. I want to enjoy my life, I want to spend my time being and feeling happy with a great partner and wonderful friends. Also I hope to stop feeling this emptiness inside my stomach, this inferior, sadness and unfulfilment :( I want to solve my issues and feel mentally and physically good and in peace. I want to stop crying on a daily basis, I want to become a stronger person, I want to be confident, I want to forget and forgive…myself and other people. I want to stop feeling the need to attend a shrink. I want those damn thoughts for finding no particular sense in life to get out of my head.

For the coming year I want to be able to move out, this is my second greatest wish. I want to move legally :) to a better place than my country and settle down else where. I want to have a nice, cute and cozy home- small house and garden upfront. I want to feel my home, to feel at home and be comfortable. I want to have a terrace and magnolia tree upfront. I want to live by the sea or by the ocean.

I wish to be healthy same as my family and close people. Hope my health improves and all those conditions I have go away :(

I wish to have a pet and have even few great pets. I want to have a dog so much. I would love it with all of my heart. I hope I can afford it.

I wish to become a mother to a puppy, but also to a beautiful human baby girl or boy. I hope that I will not fail as a mom. Please give me strength to be the rock whenever my family needs one. I cannot say I had that in return :( As far as my countless issues and sad childhood, I wish to prevent my possible family from that. I feel like I can’t wait to create the family I never had in a way. 

I want to renew my passion and discover I am still a passionate person and woman inside. I want to feel positive shiver in my stomach, excitement and physical relaxation or just feeling on the top, which didn’t happen to me in quite a long time.

I want to have a great and interesting life. I want love to never ever end, and always to be shared and exciting and true :), I want to communicate and feel free to correspond with my closest ones and generally my partner. I so want to be happy and live a joyful life…

 

I want to travel, to be able to see places. I want to expand my collection of rocks from different countries and sides in the world, by travelling and sightseeing personally :)

I want to learn how to dance salsa well and impressive :)

I want to be able to help my family and loved ones anyway I can.

 

I want to be surrounded by friends and nice people with good intentions.

I want to have a job that I am passionate about and work with excitement. I wish that I am appreciated more and see that people value my contribution. I wish I have a better paid job, more respectful and perspective.

I guess I can write so much more, but I will stop in here. Those are my current wishes for the coming year and even a maybe bit longer:)

Kindest regards,

V.

FUTURAMA

Originally I was sceptical about this animated TV show, when a friend of mine suggested it to me, but I must say now I am quite impressed and decided to share that in here. It's a no way something watchable for kids in my oppinion, especially taking into consideration what the robot (one of my favourite characters:) usually say he likes: hook*rs and black jack....?!:) Ok, the show is futuristic, sci-fi humorous, very entertaining and unusual stuff to watch. I started to like it from the moment I saw how in the year 3000 people already have made up all kinds of things to ease their lifes...or just finish them:) In 1st episod you will see how Philip J. Fry meets Bender, waiting on a line for suicide booth... Funny as it is the boy from 20th century, who unwillingly and strangely woke up in 30th century thought that was a phone call booth. Sadly it turned out to be a suicide booth, which at the same time was hilarious. I guess the message was that if you have a bad day in the year 3000, you can always pay 25 cents and just finish the pain whatsoever. I just like the humour in Futurama, it's so cool. Currently my favourite characters are: Bender & Nibbler. I checked online for better describtion of them creatures and here it is what I found in wiki:)

Bender: Bender is a foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking, cigar-smoking, kleptomaniacal, misanthropic, egocentric, ill-tempered robot manufactured by Mom's Friendly Robot Company. He was originally programmed to bend girders for suicide booths, and is later designated as assistant sales manager and cook, despite lacking a sense of taste. He is described by Leela as an "alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler":):):)
 

 

Nibbler: Nibbler is Leela's pet Nibblonian, whom she rescued from an imploding planet and adopted early in the series. He is a fictional character from the animated television series Futurama. He is voiced by Frank Welker, who provides not only his speaking lines but also the various noises he makes when not speaking English.

During most of the series Nibbler masquerades as an innocent, cute and unintelligent pet. In very rare circumstances he may break his undercover identity and suddenly be discovered to be super-intelligent, equipped with unique technology and strange natural abilities, which he uses as part of his secret mission to preserve the existence of the entire universe. In most instances everyone else's memories of his true nature are erased but, as of Futurama: Bender's Big Score, the entire Planet Express crew is aware of his sapience, and he shifts between identities more frequently and casually. In "That Darn Katz!", he becomes a fellow crew member.

Nibbler is highly intelligent and capable of communication, but uses telepathic manipulation to simulate human speech because his natural speech is incomprehensible jabber. For most of the series he masquerades as a rather unintelligent animal in order to avoid suspicion while he goes about his mission of protecting the Earth in general and Fry in particular from the evil Brainspawn. He reveals his mission to anyone else only when expecting to wipe their memory of it afterwards.

Miss Universe 2011

I personally like the new Miss Universe alot. I heard all kinds of critique about this girl, but I just wanted to say that to me, she deserves the crown. Ok, not only she was one of the most beautiful contestants, but she also seems really nice if it comes to personality (which is considered important in Beauty pageants...and that is a little strange and untrue, according to me- it is a public lie that everyone accepts). I liked 2 others contestants as well, however she was the black pearl that stood out from the crowd.


This is what she answered in the Q & A section of the pageant:

Question: “If you could change one of your physical characteristics, which one would it be and why?”
Lopes answered: “Thank God, I’m very well satisfied with the way God created me and I would not change a thing. I consider myself a woman with inner beauty. I have my principles. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I plan to follow this through the rest of my life.”



It is probably well created and learned answer, but anyway it was right.

I am unsure if the people behind miss universe should implement an "English Only Policy" in the Q.A. part. it's maybe a bit unfair to some as the title is Miss Universe... And for the mass, Miss Universe should know how to speak the international language- the main thing the was criticized for! However, according to me people should not forget afterall it is a beauty pageant! So she won due to obvious reasons:) Get over it.

FEELING TRAPPED & STUCKED

Here is another article, I find quite brilliant, so I will repost in here since this is exactly how I feel lately. Please note, the original link is down below either.

http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2011/03/unless_youve_be.shtml 
 The Six Sides of the So-Called Box

Unless you've been in a coma for the past 20 years, I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase "get out of the box." It's everywhere. Whole industries have sprung up around it, including mine.
No one can deny that getting out of the box is a good thing to do. Seems like a no-brainer, eh? Kind of like helping little old ladies cross the street. Or tearing down the Berlin Wall.
But before you start planning your heroic escape, answer me this:
What the heck is the box, anyway?
What is this so-called thing that keeps us so contained, confined, caged, trapped, claustrophobic, and otherwise unable to succeed?
Let's start with the basics. A box has six sides, including the top and the bottom.
If we can understand what these six sides are, we'll know what we're dealing with -- and this knowledge will improve our chances of getting out. Or, as Fritz Perls once said, "Awareness cures."
Let us proceed...

1. FEAR:

If you want to raise the odds of being trapped in a box for the rest of your life, all you need to do is increase the amount of fear you feel.

Fear inhibits. Fear paralyzes. Fear subverts action. Indeed, when fear rules the day, even reacting is difficult. Fear not only puts us in the box, it makes it almost impossible to get out the box.
Fear of what?
Fear of judgment. Fear of failure. Fear of change. Fear of the unknown. Fear of being revealed to be an impostor. Fear of this. Fear of that. And fear of the other thing, too.
Do you think it's an accident that Peter Drucker devoted his entire life to driving fear out of the workplace? Or course not.
Fear sucks. And precisely what it sucks is the life right out of you. There is no box without fear. Get rid of fear and you get rid of the box.

2. POWERLESSNESS:

Powerlessness is the state of mind in which people think they have no choice -- that they are victims of circumstance, that the act of attempting anything new is futile.
It's why Dilbert has become the patron saint of most cubicle dwellers.

Some in-the-box people have dwelled in the state of powerlessness for their entire life, going all the way back to childhood, overpowered (or disempowered) by parents, schools, and who knows what else.
If you work in a corporation, you've seen this powerlessness paradigm in spades -- as the "powers-that-be" don't always take kindly to the ideas, input, and grumblings of the "rank and file."
If you're feeling powerless, not only are you in the box, it's highly unlikely that you'll be able to muster the energy, intention, or urgency to get out of it.

3. ISOLATION:

Boxes are usually small and confining. Rarely is there room for more than one person. Isolation is the result. There's no one to talk to, no one to bounce ideas off of, no one to collaborate with.
Curiously, solitary confinement is the biggest punishment our society doles out -- second only to the death sentence. Being cut off from the tribe has been a very effective "behavior modification" technique for centuries.
When you're in the box, that's exactly what's happening.
And while your isolation may give you a momentary feeling of much-needed privacy, safety, and relief from the judgment of others, it's fool's gold. Sitting in the dark, being completely on your own, vision obscured -- all reduce your chances of getting out.

4. ASSUMPTIONS:

Assumptions are the guesses we make based on our subjective interpretation of reality. They are short cuts. Lines drawn in the sand.
We end up taking things for granted because we are either too lazy to get down to the root of things or too entranced by our own beliefs to consider an alternative.
Ultimately, it is our assumptions that shape our world. The world is the screen and we are the projector, seeing only what we project -- which is all too often merely a function of the assumptions we've made.
As one wise pundit once put it, "When a pickpocket meets a saint, all he sees our pockets."
Bottom line, we see what we are primed to see. Change your assumptions and you change the world -- starting with your own.

5. MENTAL CLUTTER:

If you find yourself in the box, it would be fair to say that the box contains you. But what do you contain?




If you are like most people in today's over-caffeinated, twitterfied, fast food, information overloaded world the answer is: too much.
With the amount of information doubling every few years, most of us have way too much on our minds. Too much to do and not enough time.
We have no time for musing. No time for pondering. No time for reflecting. No time for contemplating, incubating, or making new connections -- behaviors that are essential to true out-of-the-box thinking.
The result? Not a good one.
We glom onto the first seemingly "right idea" that comes our way -- or else desperately try to declutter our minds with an endless series of mindless distractions that only increase the amount of clutter we need to process. Ouch.

6. NARROW MINDEDNESS: 

When you're in a box, it's hard to see. Sight lines are limited. Vision is obscured. We become shortsighted. Our vision conforms to that which confines it. We become, soon enough, narrow-minded.
I'm sure you know a few people like this. Their ability to see beyond their immediate surroundings has become disabled.
When this kind of phenomenon becomes institutionalized, we end up with a bad case of "next quarter syndrome" -- especially in organizations ruled by the need to constantly please profit-seeking shareholders.



Few people are thinking six months out. Few are thinking 12 months out. And almost no one is thinking five years out. Everyone is trapped by the short-term.
What we call "focus" becomes a euphemism for tunnel vision -- just another form of narrow-mindedness that makes getting out of the box about as likely as my credit card company rescinding their usurious late payment fees.
OK. I hope I've not depressed you. That's not my purpose. Neither is it my purpose to obsess about the "problem." But until we know what we're really dealing with, all this hot talk about "getting out of the box" is just hype and a complete waste of time.
NEXT WEEK: Tips and techniques for getting out of the box. Until then, reflect on these questions:
1. What are you afraid of?
2. If you are business leader, how can you reduce fear in the workplace?
3. How can you get reclaim your own God-given power?
4. If you are a business leader, how can you start letting go of control?
5. How can you connect with a more diverse group of collaborators?
6. If you are a business leader, what can you do this week to foster more cross-functional collaboration?
7. How can you identify your three biggest limiting assumptions?
8. If you are a business leader, how can you identify your direct reports' three biggest limiting assumptions?
9. What's the simplest thing you can do this week to decrease the amount of mental clutter in your life?
10. If you are a business leader, how can give people more time think creatively?
11. What can you do this week to dream bigger than you usually do?
12. If you are a business leader, what can you do help your organization conceive a more compelling vision of its future?

Her spirituality ends up at the moment, when she sees a Coach bag hanging on a shop window!

Funny title, I know. But actually true. I know many people like this, women and men in particular. I don't know what it is,...however beyond my understandings. Yesterday I heard a conversation between two of my colleagues with no intention, as they were behind my desk. Trying not to judge people is hard to me. I have no right to do it, but actually I am not judging individuals, I judge actions. My anger at the world today is something hard to explain, it has no explanation. It is what it is- a material world, with almost no spirituality, with lack of values. So back to my female colleagues... I hardly know one of them as she is form Sofia, but I work closely with the other one. She is a riddle to me. Once she is super kind, another time not as kind at all. Once she is extremely good, another time- evil. Once she pretends to have values and spirituality, another time her spirituality ends up at the moment, when she sees a Coach bag hanging on a shop window!:)...They had this stupid conversation about expensive purchases that they don't even need, from what I understood. Comming from a poor family, now when I am in position to allow myself bying an expensive accessory (not exactly a Coach brand), I wouldn't do it. I had to check-up online, I was so curious why were they so impressed, what do they see so special about those bags, so I had to check:) I saw nothing, I saw brownish borring leather bags (most of them were that way and borring colors, no matter of the pictures I chose for that post), which would be perfect for grannies. It is a personal opinion, probably I am wrong, who knows. But I was just wondering if I have a bag for a price range between 200 $ and 1,000 $, how this will make me feel? Will I feel good, satisfied, pretty or what? Will I feel happy? Will I have my women pride increased, my self esteem raised? I don't think so. I will feel exactly the same if I wear a 5 $ bag. Basically I don't care, I never did, I never will. If I have another feeling left in me, if I ever wear such thing/ bag (which will not be my purchase, but I consider the possibility to receive an expensive gift, who knows it might happen...), I will probably feel a little bit of a guilt and a stomach pain, comming from the reality that many people suffer on this planet, having no acces to medical treatment, food and water and I am showing no empathy to that whatsoever. Thank God, for not letting me down on this road, for letting me understand both sides of the coin and letting me use my brain and heart to work in a combinative way...well, sometimes.

How to get out of a box?

 

I read this amazing article today that made me think for a while… I will copy this here, so I will not lose those special words to me. They are really special and really well put. Here is the original link for the article too:

http://www.contrarianism.net/2010/12/09/how-to-get-out-of-a-box/

In Africa and parts of India the natives use a unique technique to catch monkeys.
They hollow out one end of a coconut and tie a long line to it. Then they put peanuts inside the coconut and hide it in the bush.  When a monkey discovers the coconut filled with nuts, he works his hand through the small hole in one end of coconut to grab a fist full of nuts, but finds when he makes a fist to grab the peanuts he is unable to pull his hand out through the hole. The monkey is persistent but he is confounded by the coconut and is unable to retrieve the item of his desire. Once the monkey has his hand inside the coconut, the natives slowly pull in the line attached to the coconut. No matter how loud the monkey squeals, cries, and complains, or pulls, tugs, and fights, he remains trapped as long as his fist is clenched, and the only way he can save himself is to let go of the peanuts!
The monkey could easily escape if he he’d just let go, but all too often he doesn’t and ends up getting captured and looses his freedom. Of course the monkey was only caught because of his limited thinking, for if he had let go of the peanuts he would be free!
At this point in the story, all of us enlightened human readers might blame the chimpanzees primitive brain, small cerebral cortex, and limited cognitive ability for getting trapped, while chastising the primate for not having the mental faculties to recognize the cause-effect relationship between clinging so tightly to something of little value that it causes the loss of something of far greater value – to which I would inquire, “are we all that different from the chimp?”
Many people complain that personal freedom isn’t possible or realistic in the real world. They lament the restrictions upon their life that make it seem impossible to be free. They are in trapped a box.

What is a Box

A box (like the coconut) is metaphor for any uncomfortable situation that restricts your freedom. The trap is set when limited thinking leads to the errant assumption that the cost of getting out of a bad situation is too great to consider. The box becomes prison when you believe there is no way out of the box.
Life presents us with an almost infinite number of boxes, some big, while others are relatively small, but they all cause some level of discomfort, and always cause you to forgo other alternatives that are far more appealing to you.
Here are a few common boxes…
You find yourself in a bad marriage or crummy relationship, but remain in this box because you fear the consequences of getting out. You’re scared of being alone, you’re worried about the financial repercussions, you’re anxious about what “they” will think if you leave, in short, you’re frightened about the unknown, so you stay in the box believing the devil you know, is better than the devil you don’t.
You are a successful professional with a reputation to maintain. You’re entrenched in a career that is killing you, but you choose to stay in the box because you fear the unknowns that lie outside the box. You worry about rocking the boat with your colleagues, or what your family will think if you where to quit. You stay in your unfulfilling job, even though the long hours keep you from your kids, the stress keeps you from good health, and the money keeps you from pursuing  your passion.  You’re unwilling to acknowledge that maybe you’ve chosen the wrong profession, but can’t imagine “throwing away” the ten years you’ve put into it, so you remain in the box.
You’ve acquired a debt for something you bought that no longer is of value to you, yet every month you write the check for money you’d much rather spend on something else. You believe you have pay for your previous mistake until the outstanding debt is paid off, so you are stuck in a box, willingly suffering the torment and emotional distress of writing those checks every month.

All boxes are difficult to see but easy to fall into. Once inside, they are easy to see and difficult to get out of.

The difficulty in escaping from a box comes from our inability to “think outside of it”. We fail to recognize that there is a always a way out of every box we find ourselves in, we simply need to be willing to pay the price. The price might be emotional upheaval, a financial hit, hurting someone’s feelings, or perhaps time lost trying to make things right, whatever it is, there is a price you can pay to get out.
Here are steps to get out of the box …

 

Realize you are in a box

A box is defined by any situation that restrains your freedom and prevents you from enjoying a more attractive alternative. It could be a small box that is an ongoing low-level irritant you begrudgingly tolerate, or a big box that wreaks havoc in your life by damaging your health, hurting your relationships, or wrecking your finances. Whatever the case, you suffer discomfort, don’t like the situation, and on some level you feel trapped.

Know that you pay a price to remain in the box

Anytime you remain in a box you pay a price. You are foregoing more attractive alternatives and passing up better options by choosing to remain in the box. Even small boxes that represent only minor aggravations force you to endure something you’d rather not, as a result it costs you something. Small things become big things when left unattended. Problems compound and grow over time when not confronted and dealt with. Small boxes can grow into big boxes, and multiple small boxes have a negative cumulative effect. You pay a price to remain in the box no matter the size. Make no mistake, as long as you do nothing, you are paying an emotional, psychological, physical, or financial price to remain trapped in the box.

Recognize there is a way out of the box

To get out, you will have to pay a price. There is a price to be paid to remain in the box, and there is a price to be paid to get out of the box. Nothing in life is free. Your personal freedom hinges on your recognition that you can get out, you just have to be willing to pay the price. Know this, whatever it is; there is a price you can pay to get out.
Suppose you bought something on time and have acquired a debt that you no longer want to pay. You do have choices. You could sell the item. Maybe you have twenty-five payments left and feel you have to endure the pain of writing those checks for twenty-five more months? Why endure that stress? You can get out! Life’s short, so why not sell the item and end the pain? If the outstanding debt is more than the amount you can sell it for, why not pay the difference in cash, or sell something else to make up the difference, and end the problem right now? Hanging on to the item and waiting twenty-five months because you worry about taking a loss on the item only increases your losses – both emotionally and financially. The point is you are not stuck in the box unless you think you are. You have the power to choose. Pay me now or pay me later – the choice is yours.

Pay the price and get out of the box

Awareness can be curative. Cultivate the art of paying attention. Identify all the boxes in your life. The big ones are easy to see, but don’t look past the small boxes that create petty annoyances, small inconveniences, and seemingly insignificant irritants that bring slow chronic discomfort. Even small boxes if left unresolved manifest only negative feelings the produce unhappy implications. A pebble in your shoe is easy to ignore and dismiss as no big deal, but over time that innocuous little rock can eat a hole in your foot causing you to bleed to death. Pay the price to get out of the small boxes while the price is easy to afford.

I’ve never found an exception to the rule that the sooner you pay the price, the less it costs you.  The sooner you handle it, the easier it is.

Identify the anticipated price and resolve to pay it. If the price is confronting someone, then confront them – tell your spouse whom you’ve been unhappily married to for years that you no longer wish to remain married, tell your boss that you desire a raise or will be seeking another job, or tell your friend or relative who only brings you grief, that you are breaking off the relationship.
The price of getting out of a box might seem unbearable when looking at it from afar, but rarely is the price half of what we imagined it might be, and in most cases the price is only a small fraction of what we feared. In the rare case where the price is greater than what you anticipated, the essential fact remains, you are still in a box and need to rid yourself of whatever trouble the box has caused you. Never forget that you are paying a price regardless – there’s a price to pay to get out of the box, and there’s a price to pay to remain in the box, and in my experience the price you pay for inaction and doing nothing is far greater in the long haul, than the price paid for taking action to resolve the problem.

Freedom = Happiness

So many people cry out for freedom, but waste their energy complaining about government politics, griping about company policies, or cursing about the people who won’t let them be free. Grow up! Getting out of a box has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone else but you. You don’t need to persuade or convince others to let you out of the box, and you don’t require anyone’s permission to be free – in fact, you have exactly a zero chance of ever being free if you are planning for others to change, or hoping they will give you permission to live your own life. Depending on others for your happiness and freedom is a losers limp. Freedom is your birthright, and your happiness is your responsibility. The decision is entirely yours!

Fiat justitia — ruat caelum. “Do justice, and let the skies fall.” ~ Saying from Roman antiquity

The reward for escaping the box is personal freedom! Why is freedom so important? Because your happiness in large part is dependent on your ability to decide the kind of life that is best for you, therefore, happiness, and a sense of control over your life are inexorably linked. When you remain trapped by fictitious obligations and illusory liabilities you loose your power to live the life that you decide is best for you.
Escaping the box means you earn a life lived on your own terms. As long as you remain in a box by refusing to pay the price to get out, you lower your consciousness, lessen your happiness, and cheapen your one and only life here on planet earth. Remaining in a box is a burden you carry around with you wherever you go, so why not resolve to pay the price to get rid of the box, so you can enjoy the peace and happiness that comes with personal freedom?
Every dollar you spend or hour you waste preserving, explaining, justifying, or hanging onto the box (remember the coconut and monkey?), is one less hour or dollar you could be using for better things –like winning your freedom.
Never assume there is no way out of the box. Your past errors or mistakes, the ones that put you in the box to begin with, do not warrant a life of incarceration. None of your foibles, mistakes, and shortcomings; failures, frustrations, or faux pas, warrant a life sentence paid in misery and pain. You are an imperfect human being, not a perfect deity, so quit with the guilt, don’t be a martyr, give yourself a break and get on with your life.
There’s always a way and always a price you can pay to get rid of the box. Take a look at your own life and what is the one thing can you do today that would give you more freedom tomorrow? Find it and pay it. One day you might wake up and realize the shackles are gone –there is nothing hanging over your head, no burden to drag around, and the chronic discomforts that ate away at your happiness are no more! You’re free! Free to live your life, as you want to live it.