Zerebria

After two years of intense blogging, I am proud to announce the first compilation of blog articles into the ebook format. Ladies and gentlemen, here it is ‘The Nerve Of Zerebria’. (more…)

“One man must be willing to see the thing he loves disappear, and yet keep loving it”; how many times I have held to this sentence, facing (more…)

One of the drawbacks of writing about personal development is that one writes out of what one lives, so some things become unavoidably (more…)

Julio Camba is a famous Spanish polymath article writer, whose works have perhaps been saved for posterity due to (more…)

1

This humble blog of mine has just been awarded for the second time in its existence, this time with the ‘Versatile Blogger’ Award, conceded to blogs that are focused on multiple issues. Receiving a prize like this a double pleasure for me, because I think extreme specialization is very unhealthy, and I combat it with all my strength.

The ‘guilt’ for the concession of this award goes, like with the ‘Cherry on Top’, to Raul Ojeda, from Alien Ghost. Now, what can I say. There is a theory according to which all you need to achieve success in any field is having, I don’t remember the number, I think it was 9 faithful and loyal followers (the idea is they open the path for others and then the snowball goes on by its own). Well, I certainly have one part of that formula in Raul, but successes apart, what feels really good in this weird world of us is knowing that something you do really makes a difference for someone (I would even say that is my definition of personal realization). So thank you one more time in a long long list, Raul, I’m glad you’re there.

(And btw thanks also to anybody else who takes the time to read this, I know you’re there even if you’re a bit more invisible )

Now for the rules of the award. This time there are only two:

1-Telling 7 things about lil’ ol’ me so the audience gets to know me better.

2-Passing the award to another versatile blogger.

So let’s start. My real name is Loretta. Hahaha. Um, no, seriously:

1-I once got almost killed by a bull

I had gone to the country for a nice day of nature all by myself. After some time walking along a road, I got tired of it, so I jumped over a fence to explore the wonderful green fields on the other side. After some time, I found a rocky formation, and spent a good part of the evening there, reading and thinking. Then I got prepared to return to the city.

I was crossing the field again, approaching back to the road, when I noticed in the distance a cow that seemed vaguely watching me. Peculiar, I thought, and kept walking. I looked at the spot again, and I saw the cow was in fact really interested in me; forgotten the grass, it had risen its head and seemed kind of alert. I kept walking. When I looked there again, it became evident that it was not a cow. Impossible to forget that 400 kilos bulk as it bumped with its four legs in the air, running directly towards me in the distance. A swiftly decreasing distance.

I never knew I could run so much. It was a very animal, very primal moment. I had not thoughts, no expectations, I was only my own running. I reached the fence safe and sound, and made the rest of the way home gasping like a moribund. The thing is, considering our respective speeds, in fact I should not be here writing these lines right now. Why I got saved? My guess is: as there was a small valley between me and the bull, perhaps, when it reached the bottom of the valley, it lost the sight of me and forgot about the whole thing (not a very informed interpretation, I’ll admit it, from a city guy who mistakes cows and bulls ).

2-I once got a cake thrown in my face

It was my friend Gabriel’s birthday party. We were having the typical snacks, and someone proposed we played ‘making laugh’. It was my turn, Gabriel had to do things to make me laugh, and I had to keep myself serious as a gravedigger. Gabriel was trying very hard; at a certain moment, he took the birthday cake from the table and made some movements as if he was going to throw it in my face. Then I said: ‘You don’t have the guts’. Then Gabriel took the candles out of the cake, and that is the last thing I remember.

Saying that in front of all the guys, what was I thinking?. I guess there is a takeaway for those with teenager children: don’t you tell them something like that. Ever.

3-I was going to be a geek, but something went wrong along the way

I was on the verge of studying IT, but then I headed for psychology in the last moment. I have spent a good bunch of years stuck to a computer screen, but then one day all of a sudden I lost all interest for the issue for fifteen years.

Now I’ve returned a bit to the old habits (because Linux rules!), but it’s like when a broken bone welds, and you know you can use it again, but you know it’s not the same as before. This semi-metamorphosis of mine has some advantages, and problems too: real geeks get kind of disappointed when I fall off the wagon in the middle of their explanations, while non-geeks find me sometimes too abstruse (I must say I have this kind of ‘middle way’ situation in many areas of my life).

4-I shave my head periodically

My hair has always been a pain in the ass, because each area grows in a different direction and I don’t really have the time to focus on that. To my own relief (and the hairdressers’), I’ve found a perfect solution in periodic 2′ shavings. The truth is there is one additional, more ominous reason for this: I belong to a long dynasty of bald men. Shaving one’s head periodically is the less painful way I know of entering baldness. Oh, and there is yet one more reason, more recent: as a symbolic gesture of admiration towards Buddhist monks. There is definitely a monk side inside of me.

5-I’m a fanatic of literature

I’d dare say I’ve read all the important authors from all the important literary traditions (i.e. English, Spanish, French, German and Russian), besides, of course, many others. As a very auditive person, the right book at the right moment has the capability of sometimes taking me to states that I would dare call ‘possession’. You’re not the same when you return from one of those moments. Gee, I love stories. I love poetry.

Sadly, this area seems to be in a ‘fallow’ period now -maybe because of yesterday’s excesses-; I don’t feel compelled to read fiction as much as I used to, and I don’t want to force it because it MUST be a pleasure. It’ll come back when it will. In any case, I still live with all those books I’ve read, I carry them around, there are sentences that accompany me wherever I go like tattoos.

6-Being angry or being sad?

Sad, no doubt. Sometimes there is even a certain voluptuousness in being sad. And anger is usually caused by fear, so in a way it is sadness in disguise, so plain sadness is at least more sincere. (Of course this kind of generalizations are always dangerous; sometimes, a good punch on the table, at the right moment…)

7-How would you like to be remembered?

I wouldn’t. I wish to be forgotten quickly. I mean, what’s the use? Maybe it is because I always feel I’m the weird one in the party. No matter what I do, it seems people notice me. I try to be like the others, a portion of the mob, but it just don’t come out easily. Sometimes I don’t mind, but sometimes it becomes very tiring.

BUT, notwithstanding that, I do wish to leave behind me a solid work of some kind, something helpful and simple, that improves the life of other fellow humans in my planet. Something that, when they look at it, people can think ‘a human did this’, with a feeling of pride.

Wow, what a fortissimo ending. This is what happens when you oblige someone to write that much. Couldn’t it have been only 3 or 4 things? And I still have to choose my versatile blogger…

I have the same problem as the previous awarded; most of the blogs I enjoy share this versatility (like I said before, I find specialization is very good for screws, but not for humans). I’ll choose Susan Deborah’s Meandering and Reflections, because the name of the blog itself is a declaration of intentions in favor of variety, some of her interests are very close to mine, and I like the brave way in which she faces uncomfortable or politically incorrect issues when she feels she must, without trying to disguise or embellish things.

That’s all, my friends, thank you to those of you who have reached this far in this long long post, and we’ll see each other along the way

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