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bogdan » mercenarily

02:37 am on Feb 8, 2013 | read the article | tags: life lessons

Mercenary and auxiliary arms are useless and dangerous; and if one keeps his state founded on mercenary arms, one will never be firm or secure, for they are disunited, ambitious, without discipline, unfaithful; bold among friends, among enemies cowardly; no fear of God, no faith with men; ruin is postponed only as long as attack is postponed; and in peace you are despoiled by them, in war by the enemy. The cause f this is that they have no love nor cause to keep them in the field other than a small stipend, which is not sufficient to make them want to die for you.

the prince, niccolo machiavelli, 1513

bogdan » life lessons #2: ce e preludiul?

08:38 pm on Dec 8, 2012 | read the article | tags: life lessons

Silviu Prigoană, pentru Playboy România (nr. 1(111), ianuarie 2009, pg. 43):

Preludiul nu-i o chestiune care se întâmplă în momentul în care te-ai aruncat în pat. Nu, femeia trebuie să aibă cinci orgasme până ajunge în pat, iar penetrarea să fie bonus. Femeia trebuie făcută în timpul zilei să-și dorească penetrarea. Dacă te duci acasă cu flori, deja femeia a avut un orgasm; dacă îi vorbești frumos și n-o jignești, îi mai oferi un orgasm; dacă îi lauzi mâncarea, alt orgasm.

sursă foto: Nașul.tv

bogdan » life lessons #1: context matters

08:59 pm on Dec 5, 2012 | read the article | tags: life lessons

Joshua Bell, after playing his $3.5 million Strad, at l’Enfant subway station in Whashington DC:

When you play for ticket-holders,” Bell explains, “you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I’m already accepted. Here, there was this thought: What if they don’t like me? What if they resent my presence …

In the same WP article, Mark Leithauser, a senior curator at the National Gallery explained:

Let’s say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Kelly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that people walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and brought it into a restaurant. It’s a $5 million painting. And it’s one of those restaurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industrious kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a price tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look up and say: ‘Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass the salt.’

(source: The Washington Post, April 8th, 2007)