Language and its nuances can reveal many things about the language users and their characteristics.
The Germans are optimists or at least neutral, they say “halb voll” most of the time, and “halb leer” from time to time. Well, even its not true, they have the choice š
For Latvians, there is a word for “halb leer”=”pustukÅ”s”
but no word for “halb voll”, which literally would be “puspilns” – which could only be used if a person is almost drunk, but not quite yet.
The Russian “president” is going to visit Omsk. They had some posters in the city advertising a spectacle for kids named “We are waiting for you, merry dwarf”.
Government ordered to get rid of those, as it might offend the feelings of some small men (162 cm.)
Also ordered to cover the dirty snow in the city with a fresh one, that looks better.
That is so Soviet… miserable.
Yeah! Maybe because of the story on Haralds Silovs in the sports media, maybe randomly, Latvia made a first appearance (AFAIK) in The Simpsons, Season 21, Episode 12.
As I have seen all episodes, I admit that I’m an addict of the greatest comedy cartoon ever.
1. First of all, Merry Christmas and a successful year of 2010!
2. No updates in this site because of the winter mood or so. Hope to write more next year.
3. Avatar is one of the best sci-fi movie of the year for sure. I am just not too sure that it was needed to waste such a sum on it (500M$). The special effects and 3D is costly I guess.
A chat between Nico Bellic and some black gangstas:
“Are we gonna steal from the rich people and give it to the poor?
Yeah, we are like Robin Hood. Robbin’ the fucking Hood ;)”
Latvia is currently probably one of the well known countries in Europe because of the economic situation. Before a year, when I stated my country-of-origin is Latvia in the Benelux, a lot of the people thought it’s Lithuania, or didn’t know where/what it is. Now the knowledge of the public has improved, asked the same question the typical reply is “Latvia? Oh, that one. Its on the news all the time”. This is partly a good thing, because it’s said there is no bad publicity. It’s just publicity.
The bad thing is how ministries/other government structures of Latvia are doing the so-much-needed budget cuts. There should be a structural reform being made (that’s what’s being requested by the international loan-givers). What happens actually is quantitative modifications of the budget by releasing a proportional amount of people/lowering analysis without any/little analysis.
The first question a good government manager should ask facing a significant budget cut is – what functions in my responsibility are critical for the mission statement.Ā That would mean evaluating the need of the departments and getting rid of the ones which are not critical for the primary functions of the institution (vertical cuts). There is certainly a cut to make in that area for Latvia where entire departments were created without a real need, just for relatives/friends to have a good paid work. Or high-ranking staff people returning from foreign diplomatic missions and having no according rank position – ok, lets just create a department you can manage.
What most of the Latvian goverment institutions are doing is horizontal cuts. We need to lower our expenses by 30%? No problemo, lets cut all departments by 30% (well an oversimplification, but that’s happening).
I see this time of mandatory budget cuts as a good way for the ministries to get rid of the spider webs in their human resources. There are people/departments who don’t perform but stay in the ministry because of their impressive web. Now they have at least the formal reason to get rid of those elements, and its just about the will to clean. Lets see if that chance is used.
Good weekend everybody, and lets hear some more apologies from the goverment next week š
“BijuÅ”ais mÄrs ar sarÅ«gtinÄjumu atzina, ka LatvijÄ esot pieÅemts sodÄ«t cilvÄkus, kas pieÅem lÄmumus. “Tas ir populÄri. TÄpÄc daudzi tagad labÄk nedara neko un neuzÅemas atbildÄ«bu.” *
Å is citÄts man liekas ir kaut kas vienkÄrÅ”i &**((^. No vienas puses, valdoÅ”Ä banda (C Streips) apgalvo, ka algas padomÄs tiek maksÄtas par atbildÄ«bu. No otras puses, BojÄrs paziÅo, ka cilvÄkus, kas pieÅem lÄmumus, nedrÄ«kstÄtu sodÄ«t, jo tad jau neviens atbildÄ«bu neuzÅemÅ”oties.
ManuprÄt, cilvÄkiem tur augÅ”Ä vispÄr nav skaidrs, kas ir atbildÄ«ba.
* CitÄts no www.diena.lv ziÅÄm, materiÄliem: http://www.diena.lv/lat/politics/hot/bojars-dienvidu-tilts-ir-viens-no-vislabak-realizetajiem-projektiem-latvija
Lasot ziÅas no Latvijas, nez kÄpÄc gribas uzdungot sekojoÅ”Ä gabala piedziedÄjumu, staigÄjot pa Briseli. Jo, lai gan divu dÄlu vÄl nav un kaktusa arÄ« nÄ, bet “Ar pliku dibenu pa zaļu dÄli
tÄvu zeme iebrauc EiropÄ” gan izklausÄs kÄ naglai uz galvas.
MÅ«zika: A.Freidenfelds
VÄrdi: A.Freidenfelds
IzpildÄ«tÄjs: L.Tips
Mans BrÄlis ÄikÄgÄ
Es klaidu latvietis, es lÄni gÄju
Es lÄni gÄju un pie sevis pÄrdomÄju:
Kur mani raksiet, kad es nolikŔu
To karoti ar zelta maliÅÄm
Jau manÄ dzÄ«voklÄ« aug divi dÄli
Un milzÄ«gs kaktuss skaistÄ puÄ·podÄ
Ar pliku dibenu pa zaļu dÄli
TÄvu zeme iebrauc EiropÄ
Piedz. 2x
Mans brÄlis ÄikÄgÄ un pats es KanadÄ
Bet mÅ«su mÄsa ZiemeļanglijÄ
Un ļoti iespÄjams, ka esam laimÄ«gi,
Ka vairÄk nedzÄ«vojam LatvijÄ
Es klaidu latvietis, es Ätri gÄju
No savas dzimtÄs uz pavisam citu mÄju
KÄ mani sauksiet, kad es nomirÅ”u
Par klaidoni, vai par pravieti.
Es sveÅ”Ä zemÄ skumji stÄdu rozes
Un raudot plÅ«cu sÄrtas magones
Pirms gadiem piecdesmit izvilktas ir lozes:
Vai pieneÅvÄ«ns vai rÅ«gtas vÄrmeles.
Piedz. 2x
(pÄrkopÄts no LatvieÅ”u dziesmu servera http://www.dziesmas.lv/index.asp?page=lyrics&id=3995)
Šodien ieeju savÄ LMT rÄÄ·ina apskatÄ. Interesanti cipari š 
IegÄdÄjos produktu WII FIT, diezgan izklaidÄjoÅ”i Å”odien liekas. Cena 75Eur, kas nozÄ«mÄ ka LV bÅ«s 75LVL kad bÅ«s (droÅ”i jau ka ir tikai nevaru atrast). Var patrennÄties, bariÅÄ vai viens pats. ÄŖpaÅ”i forÅ”a balansÄÅ”ana pa virvi un bumbÅu ripinÄÅ”ana balansÄjot likÄs.
Mans BMI (Body mass index) 22.xx, sievai vispÄr 18.xx, (ideÄli skaitÄs zem 22) tÄ ka mazliet rÄku parÄva daži review par wii fit, kuros rakstÄ«ts, ka reviewerim ar visu Ä£imeni iedots novÄrtÄjums, ka overweight kÄrtÄ«gs š Un novÄrtÄjums uzreiz draÅÄ·Ä«gs.
Interesanti – LV kad pirku paÅ”u wii konsoli, lÄ«dzi nenÄca neviena uzlÄ«me ar kuru reÄ£istrÄties club-nintendo.com . KÄdi viltÄ«bnieki noteikti izrevidÄjuÅ”i kastes š Jo tÄdÄ veidÄ var tikt pie par brÄ«vu pÄris spÄlÄ«tÄm vecajÄm. LV jau gan vispÄr nav paredzÄts wii izplatÄ«Å”anai, valsti pat nevar izvÄlÄties uzstÄdÄ«jumos.