Elena's Legacy. Texts written by Elena, excerpts from texts she liked, her artworks.

Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Desert God

A novel of ancient Egypt

By Wilbur Smith

On the following morning I rose before the sun and ate a hurried breakfast before I rode down the mountain to the Admiralty. I spent the entire day there arguing and negotiating with the vice admiral Herakal and his staff, all to very little avail. They offered me eight decrepit biremes which had clearly spent many years as trading ships and had now reached the limit of their useful life. With these they expected me to subdue the Hyksos hordes. I was learning that the Minoans in general were a sullen and difficult people, and extremely hostile toward strangers and foreigners. The only one I had met so far was an exception to this rule was Ambassador Toran. He was so affable and obliging that he could have been born an Egyptian.

That evening I rode back to my new home, spiritually exhausted and discouraged. I hardly tasted the meal of grilled lamb that the cook had prepared for me. However, a flagon of the delicious wine that Toran had laid down in my cellars gave me the strength to persevere and at dawn the next day I rode down the mountain to the Admiralty once more.

Desert God. Photo by Elena

It took all my bargaining skills, and some little assistance from Toran, but by the tenth day I had finally assembled a flotilla of six almost new three-deckers. The vice admiral had reluctantly given me experienced Minoan officers to sail them and hardened mercenaries drawn from among the savage tribes of northern Italia to crew them. These people called themselves Latins or Etruscans. Toran assured me that they were excellent sailors and fearsome warriors. With 120 of these savages aboard each of the triremes I was content that we could match any ship in the Hyksos fleet.

I ordered my new captains to sail around the island to the port of Krimad where Zaras and Hui were anchored with my Sumerian biremes ready for sea. From now onward this would be our main base of operations, from which we could strike at the enemy who were only six hundred leagues to the source: five days’ sailing with favorable winds.

The Media

Nowadays, the importance of media in our everyday life is greater than ever. Indeed with the rise of the Internet, the traditional forms of reaching audience – mostly newspapers, books, radio and television – have been joined by new media and devices.

Today, the world is interconnected, and our computers and phones allow us reach more people than ever before, spreading out information and making it more readily available than at any other point of history.

Traditional media don’t exist anymore, and the media world has changed drastically in recent years, with the introduction of social networks, blogs, citizen journalism and user interest websites.

“We have two ears, and one month so that we can listen twice as much as we speak”. (Epictetus, a Greek philosopher, circa A.D.100). Photo by Elena

Managing the media has become crucial in our lives. Imagine you have developed an innovative service that corresponds to the needs of the market. But you can’t reach your potential clients, you can’t expand your client network without developing an optimal promotion strategy. And that includes using wisely not only your skills and experiences, but also your iPhone and any other device.

Well, the traditionally “credible media” (doesn’t matter what these words really mean), – such as radio programs, TV, paper magazines or newspapers, – is still the place to be heard and seen.

But before connecting your phone and calling your potential client, you should ask yourself a few questions:

Do I know what my story is before I contact a person? (people are interested in listening to you if you have a story to tell them, so be clear, work out what you need to tell);
Am I speaking to the right person? (for instance, the person who answered might be an intern who has no power whatsoever apart from to try and stop you getting to the person you need to sell your story to, thus be nice and work out who you need to speak to);
Am I too shy? Communicating can be spookily unnerving but try to overcome yourself;
Try to give the impression that your vis-à-vis already knows, or should know, who you are – and if he (or she) doesn’t, he (she) is at fault and not you. But the only way to achieve this is through being polite, not by sounding arrogant;
Focus on your idea, stick to the story, don’t talk too much about different items and the needs your family have. Don’t confuse the person you are talking to with too much information;
Present yourself as someone who is worth putting in the other person contact book;
Never embellish your words too much (but what is “too much”, anyway?), as you will get caught out and your credibility will be blown.

Cellular Division

In ten years of independent work she has never achieved the level of metabolism for cellular division in a single sample.

Norma hurried to her data terminal and called up second by second analysis of the sample’s progress.

She watched in awe as the single cell duplicated itself. The thrill of possibility quickened her pulse Of course, she had to search for the potential cause, but it seemed it was relatively easy to find. An unusually high level of metallic hydrogen was present on the disc, which meant that he sample’s growth medium had been contaminated.

Cellular Division. Photo by Elena

She would have chided herself for her carelessness: clearly she had used one of the specimen containers meant for a forgotten and abandoned project. But this happy accident had shown her the path to what Norma was now convinced would lead to ultimate success. She imagined the life of a single flowering Generala Pazum – P, but it almost broke her heart to realize that she would likely never see it bloom.

Not because this creation was only meant to thrive in the most inhospitable of environments, but because she would be dead long before the specimen grew. A single tear slid down her face.

(From the number 1 SF novel The Rain, by Elena and George)

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Masaryktown in Toronto

Masaryktown neigborhood is located in Scarborough, Toronto. Founded by immigrants from Czheslovakia, it still has a strong presence of Canadians of Eastern European origene.

Monument to the victims of communism.

Monument to the victims of communism in Masarytown Park, Toronto.

Toronto's Graffiti

Toronto is an amazing city. While not the official capital of Canada, which is Ottawa, Toronto is the largest and most populous city in the country. Naturally, with big crowds come all kinds of art forms, including street art. But what is street art? Does a well done graffiti qualifies as street art? The answer depends on personal opinion. Art in general is subjective, and while some people would be willing to spend millions on an artwork, others may not consider said artwork art at all.

Therefore, below is a collection of photographs of the different depictions Toronto has to offer, including murals, professional artists’ work and amateur graffiti. We hope you enjoy our gallery, where you can judge for yourself whether the images portray genuine art or not.

Toronto is a beautiful and cosmopolitan city, with many tourist attractions and much more. However, aside from museums and historical sites, there are also less mainstream art in the form of graffiti or wall paintings. At times it is difficult to differentiate between the two, other times not. For example, in Montreal, in the area of Foufounes Electriques, a popular dance club downtown, there is a very special backyard where all the buildings are painted sophisticated graffiti style. Even though the style of the paintings is graffiti, they are often done by professionals during the day or in broad daylight. Thus, the following section is an extensive collection of street art, whether it be done by professional artists, marginalized artists or simply something in between. We hope you enjoy Toronto's colourful underground scenery.

Graffiti is a crime, unless made at the request, or at least the explicit consent of, the owner of the property being painted on. However, even that condition fails to be enough in jurisdictions where graffiti are banned altogether. Still, elsewhere, professional painters are sometimes hired to liven up urban areas. Nonetheless, alternatively, a large part of such wall drawings are clandestine, and associated with disadvantaged neighborhoods and large cities.