Jelka Jankovic: 1906 to 2007

My Baba Jelka died today at eleven AM, one month shy of her hundred and first birthday. Baba Jelka raised me. She drove me to school when I was young and gave me my first car: her 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlas Supreme.



We don't have an exact time for the viewing and the funeral. Initial plans are for the viewing on Monday and the funeral on Tuesday. But I'll post more when I know more.

5:35 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

The 12 Fuckoffs of Myspace

Courtesy of Risk & Drave:

Fuck you 1

OK PEOPLE STOP POSTING GOODNIGHT BULLETINS ON MYSPACE. ITS NOT LIKE MYSPACE IS UR FUCKING HUSBAND OR WIFE, DUMBASS.



Fuck You 2


There is NO SUCH THING as a MySpace Tracker.
It does NOT exist. So quit opening stupid bulletins like
"OH-MY-GOD this WORKS!!!"
No, it doesnt.


Fuck You 3


To the people who have like 25,000 friends;
Are you fucking serious?
You're stupid.
Go play in traffic.


Fuck you 4

Don't ever post pictures and say:
"OMG, I'm so ugly"
because if you felt the pictures were ugly, you wouldn't post them.
If you do you're a fucking moron.


Fuck you 5

NOBODY cares about threats over the internet,
so don't try to act hardcore with the keyboard.
Fighting online is like racing in the Special Olympics;
Even if you win, you're still retarded.


Fuck you 6

Quit crying because you're not on someones 'Top Friends'.
Who cares?!?
ITS MYSPACE!!!
Not YOURSPACE!!


Fuck you 7

Who really cares if I don't accept you as a friend?
MOVE ON!!!
Don't send me another request or message asking
"What's up with you not adding me?"
I don't want you as a friend, that's what's up,
Asshole....


Fuck you 8

6th graders who have MySpace and look like sluts,
and act like whores;
Go somewhere else because nobody wants you here.
And Parents -
Quit blaming MySpace for your kid being a hooker,
she was a whore before MySpace,
and she'd be a whore without it!
What does that say about your parenting skills?
Think about it!


Fuck you 9

If you have decided to read this, you are a true MySpace Friend.
Real friends read their bulletins,
except for the ones about those fucking ringtones....


Fuck you 10

I say you go and pass this on and maybe it will finally get through people's brains


Fuck you 11

If you open a bulletin and it says something like repost this in 100 seconds or a ghost will rape you tonight, or some dead bitch is going to rape your mom- IT'S NOT REAL!!!!!!- quit being dumb!


Fuck you 12

Myspace was created to keep up with friends.
Quit trying to check up on your ex!!
Come on now people, its called stalking...you might as well be sitting in front of their house with binoculars.

2:59 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Update on Baba Jelka

I don't have much time to write - we're heading back today and the airport awaits. But, she's OK. She went into surgery yesterday and, at last check, is OK, in recovery.

7:43 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

An Open Letter to Everyone

[Originally Sent as an Email to Friends. Cross-posted on Livejournal]



Yesterday, I learned that my great aunt, Baba Jelka, fell and broke her hip on the evening of the 30th. She was rushed to the hospital for care. A few months ago, she celebrated her 100th birthday and, while strong for a century old, she still has heart issues and is vulnerable to illness.

The doctors have been monitoring her for the last day. She's bedridden and has to have someone with her constantly to keep he from injuring herself trying to get ut and move around. There are two options - the first is to take her into surgery to repair the hip. Because of her age and condition, there is a chance she might not survive this.

But, the alternative is to let the hip repair itself, which puts her into a month worth of agony and she'll be bed-ridden for most of her days afterwards. The chances of her getting bed sores, pnumonia and other fatal complications is high.

The doctors and the family - the good and bad parts of my family - went for quality of life. She's been given an initial Ok for surgery; but the cardiologist will give final clearance today. In either case, things are rough right now.

I've been promised regular updates, but it's hard to wait and listen some days.

So, please let me apologize beforehand for any distracted moments. I'm not going to stop living my life - Baba Jelka would hate it if I did that - but I may rush around and just drop things at the last minute. Please forgive me for any inconvenience.

And if you can, send some positive thoughts to my Baba Jelka

Andrija

9:08 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Some Mornings...

... You just have to stand outside, smell the rain still dotting the deck and the grass, and appreciate the site of two brown rabbits sitting in the neighbor's yard as if its any other field in the world.

4:56 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

From Risk -

Tagged

So the point of this game is you post a blog about 10 weird habits/random facts about yourself, and then "tag" ten people who then have to post a blog about ten weird/random facts.

1. I'm the first generation of both sides of my family to be born in the US

2. I have more scars than anyone my age, in my day and age, should. And I mean real scars.

3. [This answer blocked by the writer's 5th amendment right against self incrimination]

4. I wish I read a lot. I used to read voraciously, but now I can barely trickle thru my books.

5. Don't play with my hair unless you're interested in me on some level. Toying with my hair is touching an erogenous zone for me.

6. For a while, I was on seven different kinds of medication for an arthritic condition, a skin condition, and vitamin deficiencies.

7. You can ask me pretty much anything. If I like you, I'll actually tell you the answers. Otherwise, I get Vorlon on you.

8. I don't joke fight, or friendly fight. If I've gotten angry enough that I'm committing a violent act, don't expect me to restrain myself. I keep myself under chains every day for the sake of the people who care about me.

9. I'm a better writer than I'll admit, but I'm not as good as others suspect.

10. I think just because I want companionship in life, but without children, I shouldn't be punished.

2:55 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Merry Christmas

Merry Orthodox Christmas everyone

7:53 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

On Weight Loss and Photography
Category: Art and Photography

ne of my roommates recently faced a scary medical crisis which, at the time, doctors believed was tied to his weight. (For discretion's sake, I won't say how much he weighs. And, as a footnote, later the doctors discovered his condition was caused by infected and ingrown hair folacles on his legs of all things).

My roommate had to loose weight, period, end of story. But, his downfall was always a lack of motivation and even the prospect of 'I'll be dead by 35 if I don't do this' can't stand against life in the fast food nation, where convenience preys on exhaustion to create clogged arteries. So, as he discussed this problem with one of his ladyfriends, an idea came up. "Look, how about this. If I loose 20 pounds, will you agree to flash me? That would motivate me."

Weightloss benchmarks took on a whole new maning here. One of my friends got into the act, suggesting a sliding scale - the amount lost being proportional to the amount of clothing removed, etc. By the time it was said and done a large number of my roommate's female friends agreed to participate in the 'motivate to lose weight' program. In some ways, it reminded me of the PBS gift system except, after loosing 150 lb you didn't a tote bag, you got full frontal nudity.

I mentioned this to my friend Jenn. She laughed, we had a nice chat about it and she said that I'd benefit from a similar program for losing weight. Anyone who's read this journal knows I've been struggling with both motivation and methodology for losing weight. Last I checked I was still hovering around the 210lb area and I needed to be at least 75lb lighter. But the motivation wouldn't quite work for me. Just nudity for nudity's sake is, well, kinda crass. After all, isn't the Internet here to sate the human male desire to see large numbers of naked bottoms?

So I countered that if anything would act as a good motivator, it's the promise of being a model for my photographs. Landscapes and still life photos are my forte. People, on the other hand, require practice. Especially when human skin tones are involved. (Inhuman skin tones have different challenges, but that's neither here nor there)

Still, she kept encouraging me with the idea. It'd support my weightloss initiative and my desire to improve my photography. Of course there would be the usual agreements about not using/revealing these photos without the models consent, in writing. And I'd have to neaten up my portfolio a bit, but I think it's in pretty good shape now. So, I developed this sliding scale of weight loss and tied it to an increasing level of model participation in my shoots. In other words:

  * -15 lbs = Photo shoot, simple portraits
  * -35 lbs = Photo shoot, complicated portrait (props, costumes such as Faire clothes, etc.)
  * -55 lbs = Photo shoot, topless photograph (also possible combination with costume elements, etc.)
  * -75 lbs = Photo shoot, nudity or implied full nudity (also possible combination with costume elements, etc.)

Now, the central: Who would agree to this? That's a pretty big trust issue, so throwing this out would be, in essence, saying, "Do you believe me about my photography? Will you help me?  Would you be interested in participating, even in the most basic levels? Do you trust me?"

Thus, why it's here, and visible to my friends. My email is in my profile, as is my IM info and, of course, if you know me thru forums you can PM me. If you're interested in seeing my photographs, my site is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrian6/ They say curiosity killed that cat but, if it's either that or my weight and a general sense of ennui, I'd try for curiosity.

5:55 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

One Has to Begin Somewhere
Category: Travel and Places

One has to begin somewhere. Or, as one of my clients put it during Customer Day on Friday, "Just having a Myspace page isn't enough - you need content to keep people interested."

So, I begin with the small note that I do have a livejournal (http://andrian6.livejournal.com) and you can read more about my quasi-life there.

This weekend I had a lovely trip into the hills of Pennsylvania to visit Hannah and Jared, two friends of mine who have a lovely (and vast!) horse farm. I got some lovely photos there and hope to have them live soon.  Unfortunately, the cold and thin air, as well as a lot of ill-advised hiking on my part, seems to have re-aggrivated my cold, moving it from my head to my chest. Yay. I'm glad the holidays are hitting soon.

But, I shall survive. I'm rather good at that.

10:09 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment