paveltashkinov's thread

Discuss any questions in English. Practise your writing skills.

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paveltashkinov
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#1

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

The elderly pass away. It seems logical. We are used to their deaths, and they rarely evoke a deep emotional response. We perceive their deaths as something natural, despite all the vagaries and hardship of life the elderly have endured, despite all their achievements. Our attitude speaks volumes about the real price of a human life.
When we mourn their passing, we pine away for ourselves. For ourselves, whose hour of death is yet to come. It is only the egotistical side of our soul that evokes some emotional response to the elderly’s deaths. You may as well think otherwise, but such is the way of things.
The elderly hope that at the boundary between day and night their last sunset will set the sky ablaze. This metaphysical faith vaguely reminds us of the world beyond death, awaiting us.
It is difficult to believe, but the elderly cling on to their lives more than do we, the youth. They know what they are about to lose. Even though Death’s dogging footsteps are about to overtake them, even though their vitality has petered out, they ferociously grapple with eternal oblivion until their last breath.
One day we will grow old. One day we will give up our struggle against death. One day we will become cursed and forgotten. But even then we will be marching into the battle against the corrosion of body and soul.
Последний раз редактировалось paveltashkinov 30 апр 2019, 10:31, всего редактировалось 1 раз.
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#2

Сообщение Easy-Breezy English »

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#3

Сообщение Johnwesleyhardin »

paveltashkinov, Why didn't you take part in this challenge? 100 дней языка
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#4

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

Johnwesleyhardin,
Thanks for your suggestion, but it doesn't really tickle my fancy.
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#5

Сообщение acapnotic »

paveltashkinov пишет: 30 апр 2019, 09:42 They know what they are about to lose.
What exactly? They have already lost almost everything that made life worth living.
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#6

Сообщение acapnotic »

Easy-Breezy English пишет: 30 апр 2019, 10:09 Love that poem.
It's rather hard for me to imagine an old and ill person raging against the dying of the light. They just won't have enough energy for that.
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#7

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

acapnotic,
You seem to have made a valid point. However, there are some things those people haven't lost yet.
What they still have is their memories and reminiscences of those fond old days when they were young.
They have the reminiscences of their vanished youth to ponder over and cast their mind back to.
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#8

Сообщение VictorB »

Easy-Breezy English пишет: 30 апр 2019, 10:09 Love that poem.
By the way, the author of this poem didn't live to be forty
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Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Thomas, 1914-1953
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#9

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

It is never enough to simply learn something. We need to arrange, to keep track of, and to compartmentalize everything we have come across.
We should create some sort of profile for every person belonging to our social circles. Their pros, their cons, their instances of misbehavior, their highlights, their attitudes to you. The adjacent compartments may contain the occurrences that speak volumes about the essence of those people and determine their place in the social framework.
Plan far ahead. Tick off your aims, analyze and re-frame your objectives. Compile a to-do list of the experiences you would like to have been through before you die. A sex trip on Nibiru, a sprint against a cheetah, a tasting of a superhot sauce, teemed with risks of having a stroke. Tastes differ. You shouldn’t try everything, but if you are crazy about something - go for it. Not for nothing are the European elderly trying to see as many famous landmarks as they can. In so doing, they find a good way to reconcile with themselves after their forty years’ compromise with the necessity of work. Likewise, the Japanese as well as the affluent Chinese are taking a sojourn to Europe, trying to see as many cities as possible and make a few millions of pictures (literally without detaching their cameras off their faces) before they pass away.
A meaningful and fulfilling life cannot happen to you in Chelyabinsk or Novosibirsk, amongst dilapidated blocks of flats and frantic debaucheries. Nor does it even start there. It starts only after you are able to sustain yourself and garner the wherewithal to get the things in your life’s to-do list done. It is the simplest rational way to organize your long-term goals.
Undoubtedly, it is always advisable to strive to aim for the highest peak. For those of us knowing the meaning of the world ‘self-fulfillment’, it is of paramount importance. Often, the road to our aim leads to death, or the treacherous path takes so much time to cross that we end up enfeebled. And, acutely aware of the inevitable ahead, we need to get all the other things done to meet the maker with a due sense of fulfillment.
So what? Do you want to die without having seen the Paradise?
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#10

Сообщение acapnotic »

paveltashkinov пишет: 01 май 2019, 12:57 and make a few millions of pictures (literally without detaching their cameras off their faces) before they pass away.
Which is silly, by the way. They can find tons of pictures of every famous place on the internet. But they can't find there their personal experience, their feel of that place. They are unlikely to get it, being so busy taking pictures. This has nothing to do with real fulfilment. Just mindless greed.
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#11

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

acapnotic,
Yes, that's what I was referring to.
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#12

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

Everyone would like to travel, wouldn’t they? You must know a certain wannabe traveller who waxes poetic about their plans to conquer the Mount Everest and to surmount the insurmountable. And you must know a few others who blithely daydream of the life of a wanderer, unconcerned about the trouble of the earthly matters. Fresh air, places to go, people to see, without that tedium of commute and workplace stress. Why, then, are there too few of those audacious who eventually do embark upon that sinuous path?

Pseudo-wayfarers shy away from the peril and haphazardness associated with the road. In the face of those dangers, one shall be able to emotionally disentangle of possessions and people alike. One shall be comfortable with eternal solitude, and one shall be accustomed to sleeping on an empty stomach. Hitchhiking is dangerous, wayfaring is hard, road trips are expensive.

And there are fewer and fewer good Samaritans wishing to share their humble loaf of bread with a tired wayfarer. This tradition is petering out, being no longer acceptable in an era of total mistrust. The wanderer may turn out to be a thief or a thug; would some of you let him in your house and give him shelter therein?

That is why there are only a few wayfarers left. They are as close to the saints as mere mortals can be. They pay for their stay with their stories, and walk away with the sunrise, only to perish amid the wild jungle or the far-off Arab cities. To become a wanderer is a great virtue, yet a great curse. By the end of their lives, they will have become someone’s source of inspiration for a book, or will have perished, having lit this world with an invisible spark which will be kindling the hearts of those whom they have met during their pilgrimages.

The wanderer is the spirit of solitude, the spirit of rambling, the civilized nomad who devours other cultures as voraciously as a beggar who wolfs down his crust of bread. If you happen to meet him, show him respect, feed him, and help him. In his turn, he will pay hundredfold with the wisdom of the road. At the end of the day, you may not get any wiser, but you may give his life, the life of the man who traded the comfort of his home for his unpredictable and perilous adventure, a higher meaning.
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#13

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

On a Saturday night
At 2 AM
Their hearts pounding
And the banks of bloodstreams embellished
She is a polka dot fairy
Slithering down
His glowing charcoals
Across the mead of meadows
With fierce excitement
And staccato of glowing impatience
Stammering away right onto his ears
Whenever he comes around
(50 words, three minutes of spare time)
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#14

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

Another woman embarked on a malicious quest in metaphors, drenched in innuendo.
Her rival heard her out with equanimity.
The bizarre triangle collapsed back into the line it used to be. To his relief, he outwitted them both.
How to become an adult? Commit adultery and get away with it.
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#15

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

Men’s and women’s magazines are read, their nonsense notwithstanding. There, Ten Ways To Seduce A Woman That Actually Work, What You Need To Know About Men, and other revelations of the same kind coexist with the weekly horoscope, which has been cobbled together by some geniuses of obfuscation and verbosity. It is well-understood that magazines should be selling like hot cakes. That is why their content is tailored to accommodate the needs of the widest audience possible, ranging from those who would take such pieces of frivolous advice prima facie to the more curious ones wishing to have a good laugh at the silliness of it.
Of course, such kind of content can be delved into, but - what for? Any decent man with a grain of common sense and an established worldview would be immune to all those ‘rules of life’ regurgitated by hack writers for a few dollars more.
What is important, though, is that such magazines, if nothing else, mould the customer. Here, I am not talking about native advertising or sponsored content, but rather about the bigger picture. Those magazines weave the cloth of what we refer to as ‘lifestyle’, a paradigm. In other words, even though you may be unwilling to buy any of the advertised items, you nonetheless imbibe the habits and mindset of the people these magazines talk about. The idea of keeping up a certain level in our preferences for clothing, leisure time, and interior design is not tantamount to advertising. After all, this idea itself does not explicitly lead to our choice of certain brands and manufacturers.
Nevertheless, in magazines and TV ads alike, time and again, we see some nice sharp-dressed guys peddling some cookies. Those nice guys have broad grins and unnaturally white teeth. They stand in a well-decorated kitchen full of expensive furniture, beside the table with a veritable smorgasbord of food. The funny thing is, none of those attributes has anything to do with the advertised product.
This trend doesn’t seem to have seeped into Russian television commercials thus far and is more characteristic of magazines’ spreads. That said, it is ubiquitous in the Western media. From the marketing viewpoint, it may sound paradoxical. Whenever an advertisement is tailored, the buying power of the target audience should be borne in mind. So, there seems to be a discrepancy to be accounted for: why the rich people advertise the goods that they would not buy themselves?
In so doing, advertisers nudge you towards consumerism, even though you take no notice of advertisements themselves. That is why it is important to exercise caution and be a wise consumer: even though you may be insensible to advertisements, do not let them affect your chosen lifestyle.
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#16

Сообщение Easy-Breezy English »

paveltashkinov, I'm kind of struggling with your message here... So, are you anti-magazines? Anti-cookies? Anti-seducing women?
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#17

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

Easy-Breezy English,
I was trying to raise the issue of the vacuity inherent to those magazines and how it forms our habits as consumers.
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#18

Сообщение Easy-Breezy English »

paveltashkinov пишет: 21 май 2019, 09:44 I was trying to raise the issue of the vacuity inherent to those magazines and how it forms our habits as consumers.
You need to lighten up, dude. :-) I, for one, would like to know what I need to know about men. How about an essay on that? A totally useful topic.
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#19

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

He brushed the unruly strand of hair from his wrinkled brow, opened a thin copybook, and started jotting down the thoughts that had been brewing in his mind for quite a while.

"Be responsible and deliver on the promise that people think you have. Life is going to be easier insofar as you do that. Uphold your integrity.
Mutter, ich bin dumm. Nietzsche was one of the greatest minds that have ever walked on the face of this Earth. I pity him. It is tempting to say I pity him because his sudden descent into madness is relatable. I would sooner have an average intelligence and be happier and more content with my life than be intelligent.
I can do better. Shine. Be someone’s guiding light and never ask for anything. Sacrifice.
Where were you two years ago?"

He stood up, went to the adjacent room and flicked through the diary notes he made two years ago. Not that he couldn’t hark back to these times without that aid; he just felt like it. No sooner had he put the diary back on the shelf than he, to his own surprise, yelled: “I was fucking miserable. I was fucking miserable!”
He had been fucking miserable.
Soon thereafter, he promised himself he would never be that miserable ever again. Now, it looked like he had stuck to that promise.
Still, he couldn’t imagine how he would bring himself to talk about his baggage, his trespasses and indiscretions and all the consequences. If it was to be done, well, he would, there was no way out. Come what may.
His train might have been derailed a couple of times, but it still seemed to be making steam.

"We always have choice. We can change something. If we cannot change it, we may try to change our perception of the things." Perhaps, it was totally okay to be thinking through such matters at 26. He didn’t know. He hadn’t expected it to be that confusing, though. Where would he be in three years’ time?
"Create value for others. If I do, people will come", thought he.
Mindfulness is a quality seldom found in young men.
Maturity, here we are.
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#20

Сообщение tourist »

paveltashkinov,
Your EFL account has been compromised !
I'm in real shock!
DAFAQ ?!

Some despicable evil bastard has totally destroyed your unique, easily recognisable,
unmistakeably Pavel-esque writing style
and replaced it with this ugly,disgusting,in-your-face parody.

I was going to say this new and improved piece of writing is appalling or abysmal but it's not even that good!

This is a terrifying example of how low some people can sink.
There should be no forgiveness for this crime.
Life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Well, I think my modest efforts at al.
helped you in your transitioning transformation.
At least I sincerely hope so...)

PS
I also liked:
Mindfulness is a quality seldom found in young men.
Maturity, here we are.
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#21

Сообщение paveltashkinov »

tourist,
I seem to have finally cobbled together something bearing resemblance to a piece of good writing, don't I?
Thank you for your nudging me towards working on my writing, anyway.)
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#22

Сообщение acapnotic »

paveltashkinov пишет: 23 май 2019, 00:04 Be responsible and deliver on the promise that people think you have.
I'd rather call it 'responsive'. Because how can I be responsible for what others think?
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#23

Сообщение tourist »

acapnotic,
Because how can I be responsible for what others think?
his idea is to be responsible and deliver on promise

people think what people think
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#24

Сообщение Easy-Breezy English »

acapnotic пишет: 23 май 2019, 10:47
paveltashkinov пишет: 23 май 2019, 00:04 Be responsible and deliver on the promise that people think you have.
I'd rather call it 'responsive'. Because how can I be responsible for what others think?
It would probably read better with "made".
Be responsible and deliver on the promise that people think you made.
But I'm not sure that sticking people in there is justified at all. So, they think you made a promise but really you didn't?
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#25

Сообщение tourist »

one more option:
Be responsible and deliver on the potential people think you have.
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