Tag: random

Discover Challenge, Miscellaneous

Numbers

Linda Gukicova

Let me tell you about number Four.

4

Why do I think number 4 is significant?

Firstly, it’s nicely symmetrical. 2+2 and 2×2 and 2^2. Human beings like symmetry. Symmetrical objects are usually considered beautiful and symmetrical features attractive.

Now let’s have a look at how many things there are four of:

Four seasons

| spring | summer | autumn | winter |

4seasons

Four cardinal directions

| north | south | east | west |

Four elements

| air | water | earth | fire |

Four states of matter

| solid | liquid | gas | plasma |

Four arithmetic operators

| addition | subtraction | multiplication | division |

Four card suits

| hearts | spades | diamonds | clubs |
4_playing_cards

And corresponding tarot versions

| cups | swords | pentacles | wands |

Four basic tastes

| bitter | sour | salty | sweet |

Google always uses the same four colours in their logo – red, blue, yellow and green

4colours

Four Renaissance artists (or Ninja turtles if you wish)

| Leonardo | Michelangelo | Donatello | Raphael |

Examples from pop culture include Fantastic Four, the four hobbits from Lord of the Rings, four members of Beatles, four women on Sex and the City and four Hogwarts houses.

Examples from sports are the four tennis grand slams and the big four sports in America.

Also, every four years we get an extra day. The leap year, such as this year for example, is dividable by four.

Every four years, on a leap year, we get Olympic Games.

And every four years, also in the same year, a US Presidential election takes place. Better not talk about the current one… anyway, I only realised about two weeks ago that not only was I born in the leap year, my brother was too and so were my two nephews by marriage, whom I love very much.

So that’s it.

And here are four red tealights.

 

img_0112copy

Bonus: the main male character in the Divergent series, Tobias Eaton, is nicknamed Four, because he only has four fears (whereas average is between ten and fifteen).  Played by Theo James in the movies.

4tobias

Numbers

Random and Weird Phone Shots

Random and Weird Phone Shots – Speak Austrian?

Linda Gukicova

austrianjob

So last week I started this series that I named Random and Weird Phone Shots, or RAWPS for short and I decided that I will only post these on Thursdays, one because it happened to be a Thursday and two, so that I could make it a Throwback Thursday. And throwback this is, as it’s from 2011. I still remember how I was walking down the street past this recruitment agency, when I saw this job advert in the window. I had to stop and take my phone out.

I have posted this pic on several sites at that time, I even wonder if the agency found out about it. I’m sure they’d probably think it’s tired by now, that I’m laughing at an old joke that has not been funny for five years but–come on. All of us that had to deal with recruitment agencies in our search for employment have had out fair share of frustration and if they expect us to have immaculate CV with qualifications and experience for a basic admin job, I don’t think it’s unreasonable of me to mock them for advertising a position for a fluent speaker of a language that doesn’t exist. The applicants are supposed to be experienced even though for experience you need to have been in a job before, which you aren’t because you’re looking for one (was it the chicken or the egg that came first? I never know) but they are incapable of doing a ten-second Google search for what the language spoken in Austria is (it’s German, of course). And then, it’s close to my heart, as I’m from Bratislava, the city that borders Austria (also Hungary; it used to be trilingual but that is another topic).

I am remembering another occasion when I was asked whether I spoke Libyan. (“You mean Arabic?”) When I told my brother this, he said “Even Gaddafi couldn’t speak Libyan”. Well…

Maybe I should take up Mexican lessons. I like the food.